Ducasse shoots for the stars!

[ravelda]

The article below appeared in the FT today - would be interested to hear people's thoughts. I can't help but feel that this is a waste of the mans tallents, and a PR event for him more than anything - oh, and the chance to say you were the first chef in space!

A lot of chefs have worked with airlines and cruise ships as the development chef or consultant, and some, e.g. Rhodes and Nobu have branded venues on ships, would be interested to hear any anecdotes or views on this. Alsohas any one tried any of these, and if so what do you think, is Nobu at sea any good, will we ever see a michelin starred restaurant at sea? The ones I have tried have certainly not blown me away or been any reflection on the chef behind them.

Chef for the stars

The European Space Agency and the French CNES space research centre have enlisted Mr Ducasse's company to develop a full range of tasty, nutritious and healthy meals for astronauts. The first experimental dishes have just been sent to the space station by Russian spacecraft.

Edited October 25, 2006 by ravelda (log)

[Jon Tseng]

This is effectively a riff on chefs consulting on in-flight catering (e.g. charlie trotter for united; shaun hill vineet bhatia et al for british airways; tetsuya for aussie airline or sing airline or something I forget), just a step up.

One-upmanship right and, as has been pointed out, good branding. expect to see vac-packed AD "space meals" (viz the Fisher Price Space Pen) popping up in an upmarkey epicerie near you...

J

[ravelda]

I am sure we will see them being flogged on ebay etc soon as well!

[naebody]

One-upmanship right and, as has been pointed out, good branding. expect to see vac-packed AD "space meals" (viz the Fisher Price Space Pen) popping up in an upmarkey epicerie near you...

←

Not sure it's great branding, to be honest, when the only existing competition supplies 70s-style novelty gifts for pacifying irritating children, as a sideline to its main business of feeding paranoid New World Order types.

The key phrase is, of course, "Mr Ducasse's company". I'm reminded of today's story that "Mr Ramsay's company" is buying the Warrington Hotel in Maida Vale to turn it into a gastropub.

Needless to say, there's as much chance of Mr Ducasse getting his hands dirty with the nitro-packer as there is finding Gogs Walnuts peeling spuds in kitchen of the Warrington, so I'm not entirely sure why we should give a toss. Beyond the celeb name to generate column interest, it may as well be Compass, Brake Brothers or Gondola doing the business.

Edited October 25, 2006 by naebody (log)

[handmc]

Emril beat him to it. BAM! BAM!! BAM!! He provided meals for the US space program and had something on the food network.

[beandork]

I always thought moto's homaro cantu would be the ideal choice to cater for space-travel, seeing as though he's already nitro-vacuum-lasering everything back down here on earth

[rjs1]

quote "Mr Ramsay's company" is buying the Warrington Hotel in Maida Vale to turn it into a gastropub.