In 2026, 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.
A unique encounter between two women with exceptional careers
This unique 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 went into bringing the chef’s signature cuisine into zero gravity
Over several weeks, Anne-Sophie Pic and her teams designed, tested, and refined recipes tailored to Sophie 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.
Anne-Sophie Pic
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 a cutting-edge technology: 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.
François Adamski, servair corporate chef
A constellation of flavors created by Anne-Sophie Pic
For her first space trip, Sophie Adenot entrusted Anne-Sophie Pic, in collaboration with servair, with creating special meals, considered to be festive menus(1), 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
Servair presse contacts:
Alice Aroulanda – +33 6 31 57 16 60 – alice.aroulanda@servair.fr
Boris Eloy – +33 6 14 08 61 41 – boris.eloy@servair.fr
(1)“Festive menus”: meals specially designed for certain crew members, accounts for around 10% of their menu. These additional dishes are tailor-made according to each person’s tastes and preferences and are usually developed in collaboration with a chef. According to the astronauts, these dishes add variety to their meals, promote their mental well-being, and strengthen cohesion within the crew in orbit.
