Michelin magic to go: The luxe inflight meal that beat airline food

Dallas is cooking up a storm.

Hungry Traveller

Lucia to Go in Dallas, Texas.

By Catherine Marshall

Updated April 1, 2025, first published March 3, 2025

Our flights depart Dallas smack bang in the middle of dinner. A blow to my sister and me: our long weekend of culinary hedonism with Texan friends Carole and Dale will end ignominiously.

We wake to the scent of sourdough popovers wafting from their kitchen, sip rosé as Dale slides oozy pizzas from the woodfired pizza oven, scoff Alabaman smoked sausage and wholewheat ricotta scones jewelled with raspberries from Carole's favourite chocolate/gelato store, Rapanui in Buenos Aires.

We gobble chicken fried steaks at Koffee Kup in Hico, queso fresco-slathered tacos at Tacodeli, strawberries from Saint Michael's Farmers Market. The frosting on this ambrosial layer-cake is dinner at Lucia in Dallas' Bishop Arts District.

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The James Beard Award-nominated Italian restaurant was recently listed in the inaugural Michelin Guide Texas. Executive Chef David Uygur and his wife and co-owner Jennifer come to check on our progress; our exclamations of delight are muffled by mouthfuls of breadcrumb-crusted gnocchi, glazed Berkshire pork collar with creamer peas, eight kinds of salumi.

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But alas, our departure is approaching - mine for Sydney, my sister's for San Francisco. Troubled by our mid-flight culinary prospects, Dale makes a plan. On our final afternoon in Dallas, he nips back to Lucia and returns bearing two paper bags. Inside nestle monster focaccia sandwiches stuffed with (among other delectables) capicola, roasted Wagyu, egg salad with Calabrian chilli, provolone and pickled peppers.

There are salt and pepper potato chips, tubs of caramelised onion dip and lemon bars for dessert. Every bite is house-made using farm-fresh ingredients. At Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport we farewell our generous hosts and shepherd our take-out safely through security.

High above Mexico, the dinner trolley rolls by. Declining service, I shuffle in my cramped seat, reach for my paper bag, and dream I'm in first class as I dine on a Michelin-worthy inflight meal.