Fine dining is not one of the usual attractions of a space mission but one French astronaut is set to enjoy both the stars and a gourmet experience on her mission next year.
Lobster bisque with crab and caraway, shredded beef with black garlic, chocolate cream with hazelnut flower and coconut and smoked vanilla rice pudding are among the gastronomic delights that Sophie Adenot will tuck into aboard the International Space Station.
Anne-Sophie Pic, who holds more Michelin stars than any other female chef, has created a special menu for the astronaut.
Pic is accustomed to having her most exquisite dishes described as “out of this world” but said she was especially thrilled that Adenot will take them into orbit.
Pic’s restaurants have earned ten Michelin stars
PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP
Astronauts often have to make do with freeze-dried meals, such as macaroni cheese or chicken soup, but Adenot will be able to choose from four starters, two main courses and two desserts. “Bonus food” catered to suit the tastes of individual crew members makes up about a tenth of their diet, adding variety and boosting their mental wellbeing.
Adenot’s menu was described as “a pinch of France in space” by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The astronaut said she chose Pic, who comes from a family of restaurateurs in Valence in the south of France, as her personal chef because of their shared love of creative cuisine, as well as time-honoured classics, and that her “cuisine signature is deeply influenced by the terroir”.
Adenot added: “This is important to me because I grew up in the countryside and it will remind me of my roots. Anne-Sophie’s menu will not only surprise our taste buds and delight our palates, it will also allow us to reconnect with the Earth.”
The menu will include onion soup with pink peppercorns and gratinéed croutons, chicken with voatsiperifery pepper from Madagascar, tonka beans with Comté cheese polenta and foie gras cream on toasted brioche.
Adenot said sharing the menu with her fellow astronauts would help her bond with them. “During a mission, sharing food is a way to invite our crewmates to discover more about our culture. It is a very special bonding moment for all of us and a welcome change in our day-to-day routine.”
Food taken aboard the space station is subject to strict rules. It must be crumb-free, lightweight and able to be stored for at least 24 months, according to the ESA.
That means most meals must be canned, vacuum-packed or freeze-dried. Fresh fruit and vegetables are a luxury that can be enjoyed only when a spacecraft arrives with supplies.
Food taken into orbit needs to be specially packaged, making a gourmet menu difficult to deliver
JASON CONNOLLY/AFP
“Cooking for space means pushing the boundaries of gastronomy,” Pic said. “With my team in the research and development lab we embraced a thrilling challenge: preserving the emotion of taste despite extreme technical constraints.”
Space can affect astronauts’ taste buds by dulling their sense of smell and their ability to distinguish between different flavours. This can make even the tastiest dishes bland, so Pic’s space meals will be more intensely flavoured than her earthbound dishes.
In space, fluid shifts from the lower to the upper parts of the body because of weightlessness. This causes swelling in the face and upper body, and nasal congestion. Because odour is essential to the sense of taste, and a blocked nose affects your sense of smell, a decrease in the perception of flavours can occur.
“It is similar to flying on a plane, which is why we often work with companies specialised in airline catering,” an ESA spokesperson said. Taste and sense of smell diminish when flying “because of the lack of humidity, lower air pressure and background noise,” according to Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist at Oxford University.
The women met by chance in what Adenot described as a “stroke of fate”. The astronaut added: “Nothing predestined us to meet and work together and yet we ended up collaborating on this collective adventure.”