On a crisp Monday morning, February 26, the air inside the Integrated Engineering Services Building at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, was alive with the enticing aromas of roasted garlic, sautéed peppers and onions, and a medley of herbs. What caught visitors by surprise was the transformation of the building’s main corridor into a bustling pop-up kitchen, a stage set for local high school students to showcase their culinary talents.
These students were part of the NASA HUNCH Culinary initiative, a segment of the broader NASA HUNCH program. This innovative project-based learning initiative invites high school students to engage in the design and creation of products that hold real-world value for NASA. With a spectrum of focus areas including Precision Machining, Softgoods, Design and Prototype, Food Science, Communications, and Software, HUNCH offers students a unique opportunity to contribute meaningfully to NASA’s mission.
The HUNCH Astronaut Culinary Program specifically challenges students to devise recipes suitable for astronauts aboard the International Space Station. These culinary creations must not only be delicious but also adhere to stringent food processing and nutritional criteria, ensuring they meet the exacting standards of the NASA Johnson Space Center Food Lab in Houston, Texas.
Participating in this program allows students to hone their culinary skills, engage in research, and present their findings in a professional setting. After weeks of refining their recipes, students have the opportunity to prepare their dishes at various NASA centers nationwide, competing to impress a panel of judges.
This year’s challenge for the HUNCH Culinary student teams was to invent a savory breakfast dish incorporating a vegetable, with specific nutritional guidelines including calorie, fat, sodium, and fiber content, all while ensuring the dish could be suitably processed for spaceflight and consumption in microgravity.
Students like Nyland Clay from Landstown High School in Virginia Beach faced these constraints head-on, innovating within the guidelines to create flavorful dishes without exceeding sodium limits. Clay’s team, for example, opted for poblano peppers to add a smoky flavor without the need for added salt and chose ground turkey over beef to reduce fat content.
Travis Walker, a culinary instructor at Phoebus High School in Hampton and a former executive catering chef manager for the NASA Langley Exchange, expressed immense pride in his students’ growth and achievements. Witnessing their transformation from novices to competent chefs capable of competing at a high level is, for him, the ultimate reward.
The top-scoring student groups will advance to a final showdown at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where their dishes will undergo evaluation by Johnson Food Lab staff, industry experts, ISS program office representatives, and astronauts. The winning dish, judged on quality, taste, and the accompanying research paper and presentation video, will be prepared by the Johnson Space Center Food Lab and sent to the International Space Station, offering astronauts a taste of home.