servair sends culinary creations by Anne-Sophie Pic to space
(From left to right) servair Corporate Chef, François Adamski; Sophie Adenot from the European Space Agency; Michelin-starred chef Anne-Sophie Pic
This year, during her first long-term mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), French astronaut Sophie Adenot from the European Space Agency (ESA) will take with her culinary creations specially designed by Anne-Sophie Pic, the world's most Michelin-starred chef, and then prepared by the servair teams and its Corporate Chef, François Adamski – Meilleur Ouvrier de France & Bocuse d'Or.
This collaboration was born out of Sophie Adenot's desire to showcase French talent during her first long-term mission aboard the International Space Station. She quickly chose Anne-Sophie Pic, whom she admires for her career and sensitivity. When they met, they discovered they had many things in common: high standards, rigor, a sense of community, humility, and passion. servair then joined the adventure, bringing its space expertise to oversee the entire adaptation and manufacturing process.
A year of research and development
Over several weeks, Pic and her teams designed, tested, and refined recipes tailored to Adenot’s taste preferences. In collaboration with servair, they successfully balanced gastronomic excellence with technical constraints—weightlessness, preservation and autoclave sterilization—while preserving flavor.
The composition of ingredients for each dish were rigorously worked on to ensure their stability in weightlessness, in particular by limiting the presence of liquids to ensure practical tasting. The flavors, meanwhile, were intensified through powerful aromatic profiles—spices, smoky notes—carefully selected to compensate for the attenuation of taste perceptions in space.
“What an honor to have been invited by Sophie Adenot to accompany her on a gastronomic level during her mission! Through our discussions and tastings, I discovered an exceptional woman, inspiring in so many ways. Cooking for space is an exhilarating challenge—it is a true pleasure to be part of this extraordinary adventure," Pic said.
Gastronomy in a pouch
To preserve taste while ensuring a very long shelf life at room temperature, servair's engineers and chefs, in collaboration with the CTCPA (Technical Center for the Preservation of Agricultural Products), chose sterilization in flexible pouches.
"The real challenge was to develop ‘gourmet’ recipes within the constraints of pouch sterilization and low sodium content. Unlike traditional canning, the flexible pouch technique allowed us to prepare recipes in the traditional way, maintaining the original flavors and textures with a very long shelf life. We had already developed this expertise during a previous mission to the ISS with a French astronaut. It is a real honor to be asked back a second time," said Chef François Adamski, Corporate Chef, servair.
A constellation of flavors
For her first space trip, Adenot entrusted Pic, in collaboration with servair, with creating special meals, considered to be festive menus, capable of offering her, hundreds of kilometers from Earth, a moment of comfort, connection and emotion based on the astronaut's tastes and culinary memories.
The selection includes iconic dishes, but completely revisited:
- Cream of foie gras brioche, grilled and candied lemon
- Lobster bisque, crab and caraway
- Cream of parsnip soup with curry and haddock
- Onion and pink peppercorn soup with gratinated croutons
- Braised beef pulled with black garlic and smoked vanilla
- Poultry with voatsiperifery pepper, tonka bean, and creamy Comté cheese polenta
- Coconut rice pudding with smoked vanilla
- Chocolate cream with cazette flower and coffee
