Astronauts, however, are able to have specially catered “bonus food” that makes up about 10% of what they eat. This is usually developed in partnership with a chef, and astronauts say it boosts mental wellbeing, adds variety and helps them bond with fellow crew members when shared in orbit, according to the ESA.
Adenot said that she connected with Pic after a meeting in Paris and that the food will delight fellow astronauts and allow them to reconnect with life on Earth.
Describing Pic’s cuisine as “deeply influenced” by the land, she said: “This is important to me because I grew up in the countryside, and it will remind me of my roots”.
The menu for the mission includes starters such as foie gras on toasted brioche with candied lemon, lobster bisque with crab and caraway, parsnip velouté with curry and smoked haddock, and onion soup with pink peppercorns and gratinéed croutons.
Main courses include shredded braised beef with black garlic and smoked vanilla, and poultry with voatsiperifery pepper, tonka bean and creamy comté cheese polenta.
For dessert: coconut and smoked vanilla rice pudding, as well as chocolate cream with hazelnut flower and coffee.
“During a mission, sharing our respective food is a way to invite our crewmates to discover more about our culture,” Adenot said.
“It is a very special bonding moment for all of us and a welcome change in our day-to-day routine. I have no doubt they will be as enthusiastic as I am when they get a chance to taste Anne-Sophie’s dishes.”
Adenot is a multilingual helicopter pilot who has undergone basic military training.
She studied engineering and spacecraft before completing her astronaut training in April last year.
On board the ISS, she will carry out European scientific experiments and research.
The mission takes its name, Epsilon, from the mathematical symbol “ε”, representing something small that plays a meaningful role in a larger whole.
It is also the fifth Greek letter and the fifth-brightest star of the Leo constellation, and it follows the French tradition of naming human space missions after celestial bodies.
Pic is a “member of the highly exclusive club of female three-starred chefs”, according to the Michelin Guide, which describes her as an “iconic figure”.
Her Restaurant Pic in Valence, France, won Tripadvisor’s Best Restaurants Award in 2024. She was also named the world’s best female chef in 2011 by San Pellegrino’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards.
Pic said she was thrilled to be involved in the mission, as “cooking for space means pushing the boundaries of gastronomy”.
She said her research team embraced the challenge of “preserving the emotion of taste despite extreme technical constraints”.
The food was made in conjunction with Servair, a French airline catering company, which helped adapt and manufacture the recipes by sterilising the food in flexible bags, the ESA said.
Trying to eat in space
A healthy, varied and nutrition-packed diet is critical for astronauts who lose bone and muscle mass while in space.
Space agencies also face the challenges of how to store food for months, keep it lightweight, and ensure crumbs do not float away and become embedded in equipment.
Freeze-dried scrambled eggs, for example, are typically subject to complaints because they are deemed “too crumbly and difficult to eat in microgravity”, Nasa said, adding that the freeze-drying process is predominantly to blame.
On the ISS, dehydrated food is typically provided by the United States, while canned food is provided by Russia, according to the ESA.
Menus are planned months in advance and repeat on an eight-day cycle.
Chocolate pudding, macaroni and cheese, and tortillas are among the food options Nasa provides, as well as one-off treats like spicy Jamaican rice and beans with coconut milk, designed by high school students from Virginia and delivered to the ISS in 2016.
Nasa has also shown an interest in developing vegetarian menus because vegetables are easier to grow and to preserve than meat or dairy products.
Chef specials of the past
While Pic’s menu is likely to be hotly anticipated, it won’t be the first time a famous chef has been tasked with serving gourmet food in space.
Last month, the ESA announced Belgian astronaut Raphaël Liégeois, who is due to travel on the same mission as Adenot, would take Belgian endive with ham gratin and boulets à la liégeoise – a local meatball dish – into space.
He worked with renowned chef Wouter Keersmaekers of De Schone van Boskoop restaurant in Antwerp to develop the space-friendly versions.
Astronaut Thomas Pesquet worked with French chefs Thierry Marx and Alain Ducasse in 2016.
The Alain Ducasse Foundation designed meals for ISS astronauts on a 2006 mission that could be used for celebratory moments, the ESA said at the time.
During that mission, dishes including Riviera-style swordfish, confit duck breast with capers, and quails roasted in wine and caponata – a dip made from tomato, eggplant and olives – were packaged in tins and heated in the ISS oven by astronauts.
ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter said at the time it was a “really nice treat for a Sunday evening”.
The only complaint? “We have no doubt that it would taste much better if we had some wine with it as well!” Reiter said.
