Consulting chefs?

[Chad]

Vickie, thanks so much for being here. This is a fascinating topic, and my kids are as excited as I am to learn more about the food prep for shuttle and ISS missions.

It's fairly common in the airline industry, not to mention the packaged food industry, to have consulting (sometimes celebrity) chefs who help out with product development. I know NASA has many food scientists on board, but have y'all ever brought in a consulting chef?

Is there a freeze-dried Wolfgang Puck pizza in the future? Ming Tsai's Spicy Shuttle Shrimp with peanut-MIR sauce?

Chad

[Vickie Kloeris]

No, we have not used chefs in the past. You have to remember that chefs are trained to produce food for real-time consumption. For the most part, they do not need to preserve the food they produce in any manner because it will be consumed right away or maybe within a few days of production. The type of food processing/production that we do is very different from what a chef is normally trained to do. In addition, we don't really have a budget that would allow us to keep a highly trained chef on staff.