Michelin-Starred Chef to Serve Meal in Upper Atmosphere
A Michelin-starred chef has teamed up with the Florida-based company Space Perspective to take fine-dining to our upper atmosphere in late 2025.
Six guests are set to travel on board Spaceship Neptune and enjoy a meal served up by Danish Michelin-starred chef Rasmus Munk.
Munk, 33, will travel with the guests and serve the meal himself, from a small kitchen. He says his menu will be inspired by the impact of space innovation.
"We want to tell stories through the food," Munk says. "We … want to talk and highlight some of the research that's been done through the last 60 years."
"I think that will make an even stronger impact when you're up there and looking down," added Munk.
Spaceship Neptune is more of a balloon than a rocket. The company says its pressurized capsule, attached to a balloon, will rise to around 30,480 meters above sea level where guests will dine while watching the sun rise over the Earth.
Organizers say the trip, which costs $495,000 per ticket, will last six hours and that they are still in discussion with potential participants.
The flight won't technically reach "space" — Spaceship Neptune will rise to around 30 kilometers, while the border between Earth's atmosphere and outer space is some 100 kilometers from Earth.
Munk's menu is expected to be very different from meals eaten by past and present astronauts.
The first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, squeezed beef and liver paste into his mouth from an aluminum tube.
To save on weight, astronauts on the International Space Station usually dine on dishes packaged in containers that can be rehydrated, including soups and casseroles.
Though Munk is mysterious about his menu, he says he's planning to include glow-in-dark stars made with jellyfish protein.
"We are also working on an edible piece of space junk from a satellite," he said.
Munk's Alchemist restaurant in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, has held two Michelin stars since 2020, and last year was ranked fifth best restaurant in the world.
