Starting on Sunday, China Airlines is bringing one of Japan's most famous restaurants to its premium business and business class passengers on flagship routes between Taiwan and Japan.

The Taipei-based carrier has partnered with Tokyo's TOUTOUAN, a premium banquet restaurant in the same family's hands for three generations. TOUTOUAN is part of Japan's Kurochaya Restaurant Group, founded more than fifty years ago.

Premium passengers on the following China Airlines routes can sample TOUTOUAN's gastronomic delights:

• Taipei Taoyuan (TPE) to Tokyo Narita (NRT), Osaka Fukuoka (FUK) and Nagoya (NGO)
• Taipei Songshan (TSA) to Tokyo Haneda (HND)
• Kaohsiung (KHH) to Tokyo Narita and Osaka

The master chefs of China Airlines

Photo: China Airlines

The banquet meals will be prepared by Araki Hironaka, the Japanese head chef of the original TOUTOUAN in Tokyo and Wei-Ting Chen, the head chef of TOUTOUAN in Taipei, the latter being the only TOUTOUAN restaurant outside of Japan. The initial offering is the 'Imperial Cusine of Early Spring,' featuring Wagyu beef served with wasabi and teriyaki sauce and Hokkaido Yumepirika rice. The menus will focus on using local in-season ingredients and will change to reflect the four seasons.

The Imperial Cuisine of Early Spring is made from local Taiwanese ingredients, from entrees to desserts. In addition to the prime elements, the chefs' skills are on display, particularly in the entree from the 'eight-inch' kaiseki cuisine. This involves the chef cutting ingredients, including enoki mushrooms, amaranth and smoked aigamo duck, into one-inch-long pieces, which are arranged into eight portions that blend the cuisines of Taiwan and Japan. The simmered dish is made from carrots, chestnut pumpkin, shiitake mushrooms and winter bamboo shoots, while the fried dish consists of fried karage burdock, and the pickles include persimmon and cucumber.

Photo: China Airlines

Without going through every elaborate dish featured in the Chian Airlines release, one that catches the eye is 'Browned Sugar Steamed Bun,' which the airline says is a signature dish of the original TOUTOUAN restaurant in Tokyo. This has an outer skin infused with the fragrance of brown sugar and a creamy filling of Taiwanese purple sweet potato. According to the airline, the steaming and frying require "the precision of a master to produce a signature dessert that is crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and with a texture that is everything in between."

Photo: China Airlines

What are they eating down the back?

In today's world of low-cost carriers where everything is pared back and charged for, it is a tantalizing thought that food served at 30,000 feet can really live up to the promises made of these banquets. Is it possible that gourmets will take a flight between Taiwan and Japan just to sample the TOUTOUAN banquets, and will it be the food writers sent to do a flight review?

Photo: Airbus

Not content with the food, China Airlines is also introducing specially commissioned tableware featuring traditional lacquerware and gold lacquer crafts of Japan. The tableware will feature cherry blossoms in spring, fireworks in summer, red leaves in autumn and fun in the snows of winter. One can only feel for the economy passengers on the Airbus A350, A330 and Boeing 777 China Airlines flights between Taiwan and Japan.

I would greatly appreciate hearing from any China Airlines passengers who experience the TOUTOUAN banquet, so please let us know if it lives up to the hype.