Your luxury hospitality experience heads
for the skies... THIEU CUSTERS: Now
that almost every inch of the earth has been
discovered, we’ll venture more into the vast
unknown above our heads. Personal space
travel is closer than we might think. Virgin
Galactic is starting its first commercial space
flights this year, and the International Space
Station is working with SpaceX’s commercial
cargo ships.
Where humans go, food must follow.
Onboard spacecraft sustenance has always
focused on functionality, but not all nutrients
EXTREME EXPERIENCES
Nº 5Extreme
Cuisine
Thieu Custers envisions an OUT-OF-
THIS-WORLD DINING EXPERIENCE
for expeditions to outer space.can survive in prepackaged goods for lengthy
periods of time. Freshly grown produce will
therefore become a necessity for farther and
longer expeditions. And without gravity, how
might we shape our new dining experiences?Which is where The Cosmos Kitchen comes
in.. . The first eatery in outer space will be
a new frontier in fusion food. From weight-
less carrots to floating tomato plants, totally
new produce can be bred to fit the restau-
rant’s out-of-this-world experience. Cooked
entirely on renewable solar energy, meals willcomprise homegrown fruits and vegetables
nurtured by the nutrients guests expel after
eating; urine and faeces will be processed to
form the fertilizer for the next round of crops.The restaurant may support sustainable
practices, but what about the energy
expended to get there? Most experts list air
travel alone as one of the biggest contribu-
tors to climate change, let alone space travel.
Is this a factor in your design? That’s a great
question, and it’s one I’m trying to answer in
a broader sense. Together with Timm Donke,The solar-powered outer space eatery
serves meals that comprise homegrown
fruits and vegetables nurtured by the
nutrients guests expel after eating.Gu
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42 THE CHALLENGE