COPENHAGEN (AP) – Since then humans traveled to spacehis meals there proved to be unremarkable.
But that could change after a Michelin-starred chef teamed up with Florida-based startup Space Perspective to bring fine dining to our upper atmosphere in late 2025.
Six guests will climb aboard the Neptune spacecraft into the stratosphere, where they will enjoy an immersive dining experience served by Michelin-starred Danish chef Rasmus Munk.
Munk, 33, will travel with the guests and serve the meal himself, in a small kitchen. He says his menu will be inspired by the impact of space innovation.
“We want to tell stories through food,” says Munk. “We…want to talk and highlight some of the research that has been done over the last 60 years.”
“I think this will have an even stronger impact when you’re up there and looking down,” added Munk, who will be flying with the six ticket buyers.
The Neptune spacecraft is more of a balloon than a rocket. The company says its pressurized capsule, attached to a balloon, will be lifted to an altitude of about 30,480 meters (100,000 feet) above sea level, where guests will dine while watching the sun rise over the curvature of the Earth.
The organizers promise an out-of-this-world experience for anyone with an appetite for adventure. But this astronomical menu comes with an appropriately astronomical price tag – $495,000 per ticket.
Organizers say the trip will last six hours and that they are still in discussions with potential participants.
It’s one of the latest offerings from private companies that include Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic and EspaçoX.
The flight won’t technically reach “space” — the Neptune spacecraft will climb about 19 miles (30 kilometers), well below the Karman line, the boundary separating Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, which is about 62 miles ( 100 kilometers) from Earth. .
Munk’s menu is expected to be a far cry from the meals eaten by astronauts past and present.
The first man in space, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, squeezed meat and liver paste into his mouth from an aluminum tube.
To save weight, astronauts aboard the International Space Station often eat dishes packaged in rehydratable containers, including soups and casseroles.
There were some exceptions. In 2006, French chef Alain Ducasse created special gourmet food that could be used in celebratory meals aboard the ISS. The canned dishes included typical Mediterranean ingredients such as olives, tomatoes, quail and swordfish.
Although Munk is mysterious about his menu, he says he’s planning to incorporate glow-in-the-dark stars made from airgel and jellyfish protein.
“We are also working on an edible piece of space debris from a satellite,” he said.
“And then, we want to talk about some of the things that are happening on the planet… from deforestation to rising temperatures and trash in our seas,” he added.
The Munk’s Alchemist restaurant in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, has held two Michelin stars since 2020 and, last year, was ranked as the fifth best restaurant in the world.
Guests dine on a menu of 50 edible “impressions” and the experience is accompanied by artists and installations, all set within the restaurant’s own architecture – a former theater set construction workshop in Copenhagen.
At the center of the restaurant is a large planetarium dome, where guests eat surrounded by projections of the Earth from space, oceans, forests and even a beating heart.
“I think fine dining, in general, is changing a lot,” says Munk. “And I think you, as a guest, need more experience in the future.”
Danish food and wine writer Rasmus Palsgaard says gastronomy is becoming more about the experienceand less about what’s on the plate.
“Wealthy people or big companies really want to create something special that is more than a meal,” he says. “It’s so much more than just the food served in front of you.”
