ROCHESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - Some high school students in Rochester have the opportunity to serve an out-of-this-world dish to astronauts at the International Space Station through a challenge presented by NASA.
The culinary students at Old Colony Regional Vocation Technical High School are one of 10 teams selected for the final round of NASA’s challenge to develop a meal for those in space. Known as the Cosmic Chefs, the team will head to Houston, Texas to compete in the next round.
“To know that something we created here would be able to go up into outer space would just be such an amazing opportunity,” said Leah Hollenbeck, a student on the team.
The theme for this year’s competition is tacos. The students must follow strict rules in their recipes, and are not allowed to use any salt.
“They looked at different things like toasting different spices, using multiple spices to combine flavors, to really give their taco a bold flavor,” said Ashley Ulette, the Culinary Instructor.
The competition is part of a year-long research project, including studying how space travel affects digestion. Students also had to make their tacos more nutritious than the ones eaten on Earth.
“We had to, like, dial it in on those micro and macronutrients within our food that would allow our astronauts to eat it, and it would help their digestive system, and help them carry out their tasks while they’re on the space station,” said Justin Ielo, a student on the team.
The Cosmic Chefs were able to come up with a chicken vindaloo taco recipe they hope will make for a stellar space snack.
“It’s refreshing, I’ll say that much,” Ielo said. “First the chicken vindaloo comes through, but then we have a nice crema that goes on top of it, and it’s really nice.”
On April 28, the team will head to Nationals for the third time where astronauts will taste test their tacos.
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