United has opened the second rotation of its United Polaris Chef’s Table menus, and this time the menus span four continents. From 1 November to 31 December 2026, Polaris international business class customers can pre-order 30 new dishes — appetizers, salads and entrées — from 11 chefs in 10 cities, from Nancy Silverton of Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles to Tomos Parry of Brat in London and Tashi Gyamtso of Jimgu in Tokyo. Each chef’s menu is served on Polaris flights that serve lunch or dinner departing that chef’s home city, and the menus will keep rotating seasonally into 2027.
The partnership with Chef’s Table, the team behind the Netflix series, began on 1 August 2026, and United says more than 60,000 customers ordered those first meals, with satisfaction scores nearly 20 points higher than its other pre-ordered meals. That number explains this announcement: few airlines can show a measurable return on a named-chef program before committing to another season. Here is who is cooking, how ordering works, where the catches are, and how it compares with Delta, Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways.
United Polaris Chef’s Table: Key Facts
- Announced: 29 October 2026, United newsroom release, Chicago
- Partner: Chef’s Table, the team behind the Netflix series; Justin Connor is President of Chef’s Table Projects
- What is new: the second rotation of Chef’s Table menus — 30 new dishes (appetizers, salads and entrées) from 11 chefs in 10 cities
- Dates: served 1 November to 31 December 2026, rotating seasonally into 2027
- Which flights: United Polaris international business class only, on flights that serve lunch or dinner departing each chef’s home city
- How to order: pre-order only, on united.com or the United app; the window opens five days before departure and closes 24 hours before
- First rotation: launched 1 August 2026; more than 60,000 customers ordered the meals; satisfaction scores nearly 20 points higher than other pre-ordered meals
- Wider investment: more than US$150 million in food and beverage in 2025; since January 2026 United has expanded economy meal pre-order, introduced four new or refreshed snack boxes, upgraded its wine program and tested new Club dining
- Onboard extras: an original Chef’s Table video collection on seatback screens and select episodes of the Chef’s Table: Talks podcast hosted by David Gelb
- United says: “The strong response to Chef’s Table reinforces the value of bringing perspectives of world-class chefs onboard” — Aaron McMillan, Managing Director of Hospitality Programs, United
- Chef’s Table says: “storytelling has always been at the heart of what we do” — Justin Connor, President of Chef’s Table Projects
- Fares: none published with the announcement; see below
Ten Cities, Eleven Chefs: Who Is Cooking and What
Seven of the ten cities are United’s US hubs; the other three are São Paulo, London and Tokyo. That trio matters: the program also works on flights into the United States, so some long-haul routes have a different chef at each end. Washington, D.C. has two names on the menu, the duo of Isabel Coss and Matt Conroy, which is how ten cities become eleven chefs.
| City | Chef | Restaurant | Entrée |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | Nancy Silverton | Osteria Mozza | Meat lasagna |
| Newark | Fariyal Abdullahi | Hav & Mar | Spiced chicken breast with carrots and couscous |
| Chicago | Jenner Tomaska | Esmé, Petite Edith, The Alston | Stuffed chicken breast with morels |
| Houston | Justin Yu | Theodore Rex | Poached chicken with curry |
| Denver | Penelope Wong | Yuan Wonton | Char siu pork |
| San Francisco | David Barzelay | Lazy Bear, JouJou, True Laurel | Grilled lamb rack |
| Washington, D.C. | Isabel Coss and Matt Conroy | Lutèce, Pascual, Maison Bar À Vins | Duck enchilada |
| São Paulo | Manu Buffara | Manu (Curitiba) | Roasted beef |
| London | Tomos Parry | Mountain, Brat, Brat x Climpson’s Arch | Grilled halibut |
| Tokyo | Tashi Gyamtso | Jimgu, Enowa Yufuin | Ginger soy chicken |
The cooking is approachable rather than theatrical, the right call at altitude. Silverton’s burrata caprese-style appetizer, chopped salad with salami and chickpeas and meat lasagna is exactly the food that survives a galley oven, as is Justin Yu’s poached chicken with curry after a crab spring roll and charred green beans with pickled grapes. Penelope Wong’s Denver menu is the most distinctive on paper: sweet potato in tea syrup, radicchio salad with apple, char siu pork. Tashi Gyamtso pairs red crab with yuzu aioli and a chilled soba salad with ginger soy chicken; Manu Buffara offers poached shrimp with avocado, a roasted pumpkin salad and roasted beef.
The real tests are harder. David Barzelay opens with Dungeness crab Louis, then roasted beets with citrus and a grilled lamb rack; Tomos Parry runs from smoked trout with beets and roasted pumpkin with stracciatella to grilled halibut. Pink lamb and moist white fish are where reheated airline food usually fails, so those two entrées will say more about United’s catering than any lasagna. Fariyal Abdullahi’s Newark menu — hummus with crudités, kale salad with walnuts, dates and figs, spiced chicken with couscous — looks the lightest of the ten.
This sits inside a sustained spend — more than US$150 million on food and beverage in 2025 — and the first-rotation satisfaction score gives United a reason to keep it funded. The brand also brings what most airline chef partnerships lack: a story you can watch. The seatback video collection and the Chef’s Table: Talks episodes hosted by David Gelb put the chefs in front of you before the food arrives — the point Justin Connor makes when he says “storytelling has always been at the heart of what we do”.
The Fine Print: A 24-Hour Cutoff and One-Way Menus
The first catch is that the menus are pre-order only, between five days and 24 hours before departure. Miss the cutoff and you get the standard Polaris menu; nothing in the release suggests the dishes can be requested onboard, so a booking made the day before you fly, or a late rebooking onto another flight, can leave you without one.
The second is direction. Each chef’s menu flies only out of that chef’s home city, so the return leg gets a different chef or the standard menu. Between two of the ten cities that works in your favor — Newark to London gets Abdullahi outbound and Parry home — but fly from Chicago to a city not on the list and the return is the standard menu. The program is also tied to flights serving lunch or dinner, so check which meal your departure is timed for.
The third is the glass. United has upgraded its wine program this year, but no wine pairing has been announced for these menus. For a program built on a chef’s point of view, leaving the wine to the standard list is a missed opportunity.
Tip: set a phone reminder for five days before departure, when the pre-order window opens, and choose the menu for the city you are departing from — that is the chef whose dishes are on your flight. Repeat for the return leg, which has its own window.
How It Compares With the Competition
In October, Delta rebuilt Delta One dining around a Michelin-trained chef and a Master Sommelier — one culinary voice plus a wine expert. Singapore Airlines added more than 100 dishes served on Christofle, a statement of scale and tableware, and Qatar Airways brought in chef Ross Lusted’s menus on its Australia flights. I also have pieces coming shortly on Air India’s plated Business Class dining with its Martaban cruet set and on the Alaska and Hawaiian chef menus.
United’s approach differs from all of them: it borrows the Chef’s Table brand, spreads it across ten cities with local identities and changes the cast seasonally. The strength is that the dish reflects where you are leaving from, and on London, Tokyo and São Paulo routes you can get two chefs in one round trip. The weaknesses: it depends on passengers remembering to pre-order, it is one-directional by design, and on wine it trails Delta.
It also fills a gap for United, which has been busy with hardware — the Polaris Studio suite and the Elevated 787-9 — and a soft product people actually seek out is what turns a new seat into a reason to choose the airline.
United Polaris, First-Hand Context
I have not eaten the United Polaris Chef’s Table menus, and this is a preview of an announcement rather than a review. What I can judge is how much dining moves a business class verdict. When I reviewed Etihad’s 787-9 business class, I rated it 3.5 out of 5 and marked it down for the wine — a reminder that a good main course does not rescue a disappointing glass. On my Emirates 777 business class flight from Malé, it worked the other way round: good food and good kit carried a dated cabin.
Emirates is the case for United’s approach: food is what you remember. Etihad is the warning: if the wine does not match the ambition of the plate, the program will feel half-finished. On paper I would start with Gyamtso’s Tokyo menu or Parry’s London one, and judge United’s kitchens on the halibut.
How Much Does It Cost?
United has not published fares with this announcement, and the release mentions no surcharge for the Chef’s Table meals. Polaris international business class fares are dynamic by route and date.
Flight prices do move between platforms. The same business class seat on the same date is not always the same price on the airline’s own site, Trip.com and Expedia: point-of-sale currency, consolidator fares and what is bundled into the ticket can shift the fare by a few percent — and occasionally by much more on premium cabins. So before I pay I run the same dates through Aviasales, which scans dozens of booking sites at once, then check Trip.com (often the sharpest on long-haul fares) and Expedia (strongest when you add a hotel to the same booking). One caveat: a ticket bought through a booking site is changed or refunded through that site, not the airline, so read the fare rules before you buy.
Thirty dishes, eleven chefs and a proven appetite from the first rotation make this United’s most convincing premium dining move in years — as long as you remember to order five days out and the wine eventually catches up.
Photos © United Airlines
This preview is based on official announcements — I haven’t flown United Polaris with the Chef’s Table menus yet. Read more about how I review or visit my Work With Me page.
This article contains affiliate links. If you book through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read my full disclosure policy.
