Astronaut Brings French Menu in Space
According to BBC, Astronaut Sophie Adenot has teamed up with award-winning French chef Anne-Sophie Pic to create a menu of gastronomic delights that will travel with Adenot to the ISS next year.
Instead of the usual freeze-dried nutrients that astronauts eat, Adenot, 42, will be choosing from the likes of 'Foie gras cream on toasted brioche' and 'Lobster bisque with crab and caraway.'
The menu - which the European Space Agency (ESA) has dubbed 'a pinch of France in space' - includes four starters, two main courses and two desserts.
Adenot said the dishes, which also include braised beef, and chocolate cream, will not only 'delight our palates' but also help her feel connected to Earth, and her home country.
'Her (Pic's) cuisine signature is deeply influenced by the terroir. This is important to me because I grew up in the countryside, and it will remind me of my roots,' she was quoted as saying in an ESA statement.
There are strict rules for food on the ISS - it must be crumb-free, lightweight and keep for at least 24 months, the ESA says.
Therefore, most meals are canned, vacuum packed or freeze-dried, with fresh fruit and vegetables a rare luxury that can only be enjoyed when a spacecraft arrives with new supplies.
But to keep things interesting, boost morale, and help with crew bonding, every tenth or so meal is one prepared especially for each astronaut, with these 'bonus meals' often made in partnership with a chef.
Famous for her haute cuisine, Pic, 55, has the most Michelin stars of any female chef in the world - 10.
She says this project is "pushing the boundaries" of gastronomy, as she worked with her team to create special food, while keeping within the technical constraints.
'Cooking for space is an exhilarating challenge,' she was quoted as saying by the ESA.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asharq Al-Awsat
18 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Astronaut Brings French Menu in Space
When you think about the food that astronauts eat in space, lobster, haddock and foie gras probably don't spring to mind - but that's exactly what France's next visitor to the International Space Station (ISS) will be dining on. According to BBC, Astronaut Sophie Adenot has teamed up with award-winning French chef Anne-Sophie Pic to create a menu of gastronomic delights that will travel with Adenot to the ISS next year. Instead of the usual freeze-dried nutrients that astronauts eat, Adenot, 42, will be choosing from the likes of 'Foie gras cream on toasted brioche' and 'Lobster bisque with crab and caraway.' The menu - which the European Space Agency (ESA) has dubbed 'a pinch of France in space' - includes four starters, two main courses and two desserts. Adenot said the dishes, which also include braised beef, and chocolate cream, will not only 'delight our palates' but also help her feel connected to Earth, and her home country. 'Her (Pic's) cuisine signature is deeply influenced by the terroir. This is important to me because I grew up in the countryside, and it will remind me of my roots,' she was quoted as saying in an ESA statement. There are strict rules for food on the ISS - it must be crumb-free, lightweight and keep for at least 24 months, the ESA says. Therefore, most meals are canned, vacuum packed or freeze-dried, with fresh fruit and vegetables a rare luxury that can only be enjoyed when a spacecraft arrives with new supplies. But to keep things interesting, boost morale, and help with crew bonding, every tenth or so meal is one prepared especially for each astronaut, with these 'bonus meals' often made in partnership with a chef. Famous for her haute cuisine, Pic, 55, has the most Michelin stars of any female chef in the world - 10. She says this project is "pushing the boundaries" of gastronomy, as she worked with her team to create special food, while keeping within the technical constraints. 'Cooking for space is an exhilarating challenge,' she was quoted as saying by the ESA.
Arab News
a day ago
- Arab News
Book Review: ‘The Hidden Life of Trees' by Peter Wohlleben
'The Hidden Life of Trees' is a controversial 2015 book by German author Peter Wohlleben, who argues that trees communicate with each other as well as feel. Wohlleben presents the idea that forests are a living social network — claiming that trees have ties akin to families, which they care for and help grow in their own way. According to the author, trees use underground fungal networks to share nutrients with other trees to help them recover from disease and thrive. It is a contentious claim, supported in part by academics including from the University of Portsmouth, which has published research showing that mature plants help smaller plants thrive in harsh environmental conditions. Another article from BBC Earth supports some of Wohlleben's claims, describing how some trees can use their senses to 'hear' predators through vibrations in the ground or 'smell' other plants by detecting chemical indicators. An additionally curious aspect of the book is its ideas about complex tree communication methods. It also talks about different factors that play a role in their growth, like fungi, insects and birds. The author goes to great lengths, moreover, to push the idea that securing healthy forests through sustainable practices helps the wider environment flourish. However, the book has come in for significant criticism, with Sharon Kingsland, writing in the Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, suggesting it is aimed at 'lay' readers rather than forestry scientists, many of whom Wohlleben has 'infuriated' by 'eliciting an emotional response from readers through (the book's) powers of suggestion.' Kingsland says the author tends to anthropomorphize trees, whilst noting a 2017 petition launched by two German scientists calling on colleagues to criticize the book received over 4,500 signatures, calling it a 'conglomeration of half-truths, biased judgements, and wishful thinking.' Despite this, 'The Hidden Life of Trees' is a great read for people who want to see nature in a new light, as it sets out a path to view trees not as inanimate commodities, but as ecosystems with needs which, if met, will have wider benefits for the planet.
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Third-ever confirmed interstellar object blazing through solar system
Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through our solar system — only the third ever spotted, though scientists suspect many more may slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas, is likely the largest yet detected and has been classified as a comet, or cosmic snowball. 'It looks kind of fuzzy,' Peter Veres, an astronomer with the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, which was responsible for the official confirmation, told AFP. 'It seems that there is some gas around it, and I think one or two telescopes reported a very short tail.' Originally known as A11pl3Z before it was confirmed to be of interstellar origin, the object poses no threat to Earth, said Richard Moissl, head of planetary defense at the European Space Agency. 'It will fly deep through the solar system, passing just inside the orbit of Mars,' but will not hit our neighboring planet, he told AFP. Excited astronomers are still refining their calculations, but the object appears to be zooming more than 60 kilometers (37 miles) a second. This would mean it is not bound by the Sun's orbit, unlike objects that remain within the solar system. Its trajectory also 'means it's not orbiting our star, but coming from interstellar space and flying off to there again,' Moissl said. 'We think that probably these little ice balls get formed associated with star systems,' added Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. 'And then as another star passes by, tugs on the ice ball, frees it out. It goes rogue, wanders through the galaxy, and now this one is just passing us.' A Chile-based observatory that is part of the NASA-funded ATLAS survey first discovered the object on Tuesday. Professional and amateur astronomers across the world then searched through past telescope data, tracing its trajectory back to at least June 14. The object is currently estimated to be roughly 10–20 kilometers wide, Moissl said, which would make it the largest interstellar interloper ever detected. But the object could be smaller if it is made out of ice, which reflects more light. Veres said the object will continue to brighten as it nears the Sun, bending slightly under the pull of gravity, and is expected to reach its closest point — perihelion — on October 29. It will then recede and exit the solar system over the next few years. This marks only the third time humanity has detected an object entering the solar system from the stars. The first, ʻOumuamua, was discovered in 2017. It was so strange that at least one prominent scientist became convinced it was an alien vessel — though this has since been contradicted by further research. Our second interstellar visitor, 2I/Borisov, was spotted in 2019. There is no reason to suspect an artificial origin for 3I/Atlas, but teams around the world are now racing to answer key questions about things like its shape, composition, and rotation. Mark Norris, an astronomer at the UK's University of Central Lancashire, told AFP that the new object appears to be 'moving considerably faster than the other two extrasolar objects that we previously discovered.' The object is currently roughly around the distance from Jupiter away from Earth, Norris said. Norris pointed to modeling estimating that there could be as many as 10,000 interstellar objects drifting through the solar system at any given time, though most would be smaller than the newly discovered object. If true, this suggests that the newly online Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile could soon be finding these dim interstellar visitors every month, Norris said. Moissl said it is not feasible to send a mission into space to intercept the new object. Still, these visitors offer scientists a rare chance to study something outside of our solar system. For example, if we detected precursors of life such as amino acids on such an object, it would give us 'a lot more confidence that the conditions for life exist in other star systems,' Norris said.
