ESA and Big City Beats cook up food event for space

At the beginning of 2022, German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer will prepare food on the International Space Station, and share his meal with fellow diners on Earth. Advised by well-known chefs on the ground, anyone will be able to follow online and cook along at home.

This is the concept behind the ‘Space Club Kitchen’, the brainchild of Big City Beats CEO Bernd Breiter. Originally, the Club Kitchens were exclusive areas within the Big City Beats ‘World Club Dome’ dance music events, where clubbers could sample haute cuisine and mingle with star chefs, superstar DJs and VIP guests.

Now, the plan is to recreate the Club Kitchen experience from space, in a unique event that will involve kitchens all over the world, whether in venues, restaurants or people’s own homes.

Bernd’s idea was inspired by the effects of social distancing during the COVID pandemic. “How can the world recover, how can you reunite people?” asks Bernd. “Imagine the whole world is cooking a dish, with millions of people all sitting, sharing at one table!”

This event will take place during the Cosmic Kiss mission of Matthias Maurer, who is only too happy to take part. "I'm really happy that our collaboration with Big City Beats enables us to reach people's hearts and get them excited about ESA and space exploration. Music and food are universal languages," said Matthias.

Matthias was assigned his first mission to the Space Station in December 2020. He will be the second ESA astronaut to fly on a Space-X Crew Dragon, launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in October this year as part of Crew-3.

Luckily, Matthias is a bit of a ‘foodie’. He says, “Good food is extra important for astronauts on long-duration missions – not only in terms of physical health, but also for mental wellbeing.”

Last year, chefs from Saarland, Matthias’s home region in south-western Germany, created a selection of spaceworthy dishes and put these out for public vote. The most popular dishes were added to the space menu for his mission, but he will not taste the winning Saarland speciality until he is on board.

“Bonus food like these Saarland dishes not only allows to add variety to the usual daily space food, but also provides a way to bond with crew mates and boost morale. We get to share a little something from our culture and enjoy a taste of home,” he explained.

For the Space Club Kitchen, German TV chef Tim Mälzer created the dish that Matthias will eat together with the rest of the world, choosing one of Matthias’s favourites, an Indonesian rendang. Tim cooked the dish in coordination with ESA, with the help of LSG in Frankfurt, the dish was then sealed and shipped off for launch to the Space Station ahead of Matthias’s arrival.

While Matthias prepares one of these meals in space next year, viewers will be able to join online and connect with countless others around the world. Tim Mälzer’s recipe for Indonesian rendang will be downloadable so people can cook at home at the same time as Matthias's prepares his meal on Station, or they can join various Club Kitchen parties around the world, where chefs will add their own touches to the menus.

Dining events are not complete without some background music, and so Big City Beats also commissioned the renowned classical violinist David Garrett to compose the ‘Space Table Symphony’. This piece was recorded by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, and will be played at the event.

ESA and Big City Beats are no strangers: the first collaboration started in 2018 with the World Club Dome Zero G, the first dance music club held on a ‘zero gravity’ parabolic flight. Then ESA was involved in the World Club Dome Space Edition where ESA astronauts André Kuipers and Matthias Maurer gave the audience a taste of the excitement of space. The most recent event within the partnerships between ESA and Big City Beats was when  ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano become the first ‘DJ’ in space, playing a set live from the International Space Station in 2019.

More information about Space Club Kitchen.