Food on board trains isn’t renowned for its quality, but the Eurostar service between Britain and mainland Europe is aiming to change that perception.
In a bid to improve the in-car dining experience for its Business Premier passengers, Eurostar appointed French Michelin-starred chef Raymond Blanc as its culinary director in 2012. His appointment is far more than just a branding exercise.
“Raymond and I sit down every six months and write a catering supplier brief,” says Yann Bayeul, Eurostar’s catering manager.
“Then we write a menu together with the catering suppliers. The next step is Raymond and myself visiting our three main catering suppliers for between one and two days to review the recipes, change anything we don’t like and make sure it meets our expectations.”
Meals are cooked by the catering supplier before travel and are simply re-heated on board, which enables Eurostar to offer its passengers a bewildering range of options. “
We change every six months to make sure we remain seasonal,” says Bayeul adding that “each season has six menus within it and you have different choice within one menu as well.” Blanc’s brief is for dishes to be rustic with a touch of modernity.
As such, ingredients are sourced locally in each country Eurostar departs from. In the UK the supplier is in Kent; in France it is in Burgundy and in Belgium it is just outside Brussels.
The current menu on services from Paris includes tomato and onion terrine with pesto to start, followed by sautéed Charolais beef rendang with sweet potato purée or marinated mackerel fillet with white wine and ratte potato salad for main.
Then there’s apricot and hazelnut tart with speculoos crumble for a sweet finish. An addendum to the menu informs passengers that Eurostar uses French Charolais beef from Burgundy, where cattle feed in the open fields of central France. Bayeul says the partnership with Blanc is already growing beyond catering.
“He is now also helping us source the chinaware and, as it a Business Premier product, we want him to give us recommendations on the snacks and drinks in the lounges.”
The next step is to introduce wine served from full, rather than half-sized, bottles on the new Eurostar trains, which will come into service next year. There’s still a long way to go before business cabins on the cross-Channel rail service can compete with its aviation equivalent, but it’s a good start.