14 DAY TRIAL // “Top Chef”, Bravo TV's Emmy-award winning reality show has a special space race food challenge for the remaining contestants, as the last one standing will have his or her recipe prepared by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and shipped on a future space shuttle mission.
Yesterday, the chefs took part in a challenge to create a delicious meal for the astronauts, following the same nutritional guidelines that are followed in the Space Food Systems Laboratory in Houston.
The way food is prepared and how it tastes has come a long way since the Apollo days, and today's astronauts have the privilege of being able to choose between 180 beverages and foods.
A few of the things astronauts can eat up in space are tomato basil soup, chicken fajitas, scrambled eggs, shrimp cocktail and beef tips with mushrooms.
They can munch on nuts, granola bars and cookies, and enjoy sipping powder beverages like coffee, tea, apple cider, orange juice and lemonade.
And even a Zero gravity coffee cup that allows drinking liquids without a straw was invented by one astronaut, space veteran Don Pettit, SPACE.com reports.
NASA is trying, as much as possible of course, to give astronauts meals that look and taste like those on Earth, according to agency officials.
Astronauts themselves admitted that in an unfamiliar environment like a spacecraft, food is the main thing that reminds them of home.
According to NASA, former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin and current astronauts Sandy Magnus and Leland Melvin were expected to be a part of the show.
Parts of the episode were shot at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the "Top Chef" production crew, along with head judge Tom Colicchio and the five contestants had the opportunity of visiting Goddard and filmed in the Network Integration Center.