Traveling gourmets transiting or flying out of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris may want to add the restaurant I Love Paris by Guy Martin to their travel itinerary, after it was named the best fine dining airport restaurant of 2016.
The best in airport dining was recognised at the Airport Food and Beverage (FAB) Conference and Awards in Geneva last week, which singled out the best dining concepts at hubs around the world.
In the category of chef-led, fine dining offer of the year, Martin won over celebrity Briton Gordon Ramsay, whose Heathrow outpost Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food was given honourable mention.
Opened last year, I Love Paris by Guy Martin offers classic French fare like blanquette de veau (veal ragout) and pot-au-feu alongside contemporary offerings like vegetarian burgers and mango carpaccio.
The restaurant, which is a riff off of his Michelin-starred fine dining Paris restaurant Le Grand Vefour, features an upscale sandwich shop, champagne bar and a dining area that seats up to 70 guests.
Charles de Gaulle has significantly upped its gastronomic game, with local, celebrity French chefs Thierry Marx and Michel Rostang also opening new restaurants at the airport last week.
I Love Paris by Guy Martin is located in Terminal 2E.
Meanwhile, Copenhagen Airport was named best overall airport for food and beverage for the second time, after it took the same award in 2014.
In recent years, the Danish capital has become a culinary hotspot for its New Nordic cuisine, popularized by chef Rene Redzepi’s restaurant Noma.
As the gateway into the country, the Copenhagen Airport has also made its culinary offerings a priority and features 34 restaurants and coffee shops that range from steaks, sushi to caviar.
Here are a few other winners of the FAB Conference and Awards:
Airport coffee shop of the year: Emirates Leisure Retail; Hudsons, Brisbane Airport
Best food to go: Tastes on the Fly, Modmarket, Denver International
Bar of the Year: JD Wetherspoon, The Windmill, London Stansted Airport
Wine bar of the year: SSP Finland, Wine & View, Helsinki Airport
Casual dining restaurant of the year: Hausmann’s Flughafen Gastronomie, Hausmann’s, Frankfurt Airport
Food court of the year: Universal Dining, Straits Food Village, Singapore Changi Airport
Fast food, quick service: HMSHost International, Leon, London Heathrow Airport
Best individual food and beverage in a railway station: SSP France, Le Train Bleu, Gare de Lyon, France
Overall food and beverage offer in a railway station: HS1, London St. Pancras International UK
Airport food and beverage offer of the year: Copenhagen Airport
