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I'm organising a workshop next week at the Science Museum in London. One of the topics we will be discussing is a 'Chef's challenge' called 'Recipes for Space'. The criteria for a 'Recipe for Space' are much more strict than here on earth (of course we need to be more strict here as well, that's why it's such an interesting challenge). I have included the text here below:

The second topic, 'Recipes for Space', involves the idea of designing recipes that optimally address the various criteria for future food in space ('space-grown'), such as minimising resource use, growth time, required space; and maximising nutrition, edible biomass, and taste, plus various variables regarding CO2, O2, and more. Clearly, the conditions in space have significant relevance for earth (if we care about sustainable agriculture). This is a challenge that requires the collaboration between highly-qualified cooks, nutritionists, space engineers, and (urban) farmers. During the session, we will further define the criteria and work on a 'Chef's challenge', to be launched next year.​

I'm interested in suggestions and ideas on how to generate such a framework, and the specifics for the criteria.

Thieme Hennis
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  • and if you want to come (it's free) please register at borderlabs.org or our Meetup Group (Border Labs) – Thieme Hennis Sep 05 '16 at 12:40
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    This is more applicable to space exploration than seasoned advice, but it's still too broad even on that site. Long term sustainability in space is still being worked on. – GdD Sep 05 '16 at 12:56
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    This sounds more like 'Gardening for space' than 'Recipes for space' You need to determine what to grow first, within those constraints. Only when that has been answered, can you start thinking about recipes. –  Sep 05 '16 at 13:32
  • I think it's useful to address this challenge from both angles - what are those space criteria and what is possible within those? And also: what do we want to eat in space, and developing solutions to make this possible (so tweaking/changing those criteria). – Thieme Hennis Sep 05 '16 at 15:21
  • and to reply on thecomments: it is indeed a highly interdisciplinary challenge, involving nutritionists, space engineers, plant researchers, chefs, and more. – Thieme Hennis Sep 05 '16 at 15:25
  • suggested criteria are welcome, so please don't be overwhelmed by the complexity of the challenge, try answering this from your own perspective/domain of expertise. – Thieme Hennis Sep 05 '16 at 15:27
  • Dang, Thieme, that is *really* too broad for this site. I'll give you a bonus upvote because I guess a few of our regulars would perhaps be happy to discuss this in [chat] so if someone else would do the same, we'll get you to the threshold (Better: answer another question...!). I'll vtc later. Note: this is clearly *an exception*. – Stephie Sep 05 '16 at 17:43
  • thanks for your comment and upvote. Can you help me out in re-formulating this question or adding a new question? Would it be possible to ask a question focused on just nutrition, for example? Something like: How to measure taste? Or how to measure nutritional value? (I'd have to check if those have not been asked already) – Thieme Hennis Sep 07 '16 at 11:09
  • @Stephie : NASA actually has had similarly themed competitions ... but in their case, it *was* just recipes -- they had a specific list of ingredients that you should use, as those were things that were known to grow well in space. There are other contests for food pre-made to be sent up to the space stations. See http://www.space.com/33010-nasa-space-food-challenge-student-winners.html – Joe Feb 13 '17 at 01:39
  • thnks for the comment @Joe - useful link to compare with our own recipes for space competition (which is under development...) – Thieme Hennis Feb 14 '17 at 20:45
  • @ThiemeHennis : I've not had much luck finding the full details about what the requirements are, but I found this for the shuttle & ISS : http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/71426main_FS-2002-10-079-JSC.pdf ; Mars planning is the one that requires growing stuff, and I've found dead links to a program called 'Advanced Food Technology', but no luck in finding where it moved to. I did find reports from a 2002 workshop of the same name : https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/pdf/486020main_AdvFoodTechReportVol1.pdf ; https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/pdf/486021main_AdvFoodTechReportVol2.pdf – Joe Feb 15 '17 at 02:56
  • @ThiemeHennis : and I found mention of a 2012 project : http://www.bonappetit.com/trends/article/nasa-is-looking-to-train-space-chefs , but this wasn't the one that I wanted to enter (that one was lying in a bed for weeks, but there was also something about cooking things, too, but I was just over the BMI max). Also see http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/vegan-food-on-the-menu-for-nasa-mars-mission/ and http://www.tested.com/science/space/455536-tasting-astronaut-food-inside-nasas-space-food-systems-laboratory/ – Joe Feb 15 '17 at 03:19
  • again: thanks a lot for your work. I will keep this post updated when we make progress ourselves. Best, Thieme – Thieme Hennis Feb 16 '17 at 11:06

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