Sandra Magnus Cooks in Space!

by Monika Bartyzel, Posted Mar 26th 2009 @ 5:00PM

These days, it's pretty easy to try any sort of cooking you desire, whether it be some outdoor grilling or molecular gastronomy. However, while most cooking techniques, recipes and flavors might be at our fingertips, there's one new cooking spin decidedly out of our reach -- space cooking.

I don't know about you, but when I think of eating in space, my mind is awash with thoughts of freeze-dried foods and utter blandness. But these days, things are a little different. MSNBC has posted a great interview with Sandra Magnus, a NASA astronaut who spent months working -- and cooking -- in the station way out there in space.

We might complain about small kitchens and poor equipment, but we have nothing on Sandra, someone who put together dishes like mesquite grilled tuna without gravity, relying on duct tape to keep ingredients and tools from flying away, using a mere meal warmer to cook her dishes. If the latter might not seem like a big deal, chew on this: The warmer would only stay on for 30 minutes, and it would take 4 to 5 cycles inside just to make cooked garlic and onions. That's 2 to 2.5 hours.

Methinks Sandra might be the most resilient cook out there. I'd like to see "Iron Chef" or "Dinner Impossible" take her on in space!

[Via MSNBC]

Filed Under: On the Blogs, Food News
Tags: cooking in space, CookingInSpace, Sandra Magnus, SandraMagnus, space cooking, SpaceCooking