My WIP Research uncovered opportunities I never knew existed!

Bae Sang-moon is a space chef. He (more on that research fail later!*) is a whizz in a kitchen and his relocation to Theta Station allows him some zany misadventures with food. But is there such a thing as a space chef?

Now, as an armchair astronaut, I do tend to scour some obscure and less obscure sources of astronomical news. I found to my delight that there really is a real position of space chef available, but… you also have to be a systems engineer.

While looking, I also discovered that there is, in fact, a book out there called “Space Chef and the Great Gorgonzola” for children, but the author has been sadly silent since 2014. I hope he will resurface and we can metaphorically shake hands on board Theta Station.

Then there is the Manga Space Chef Caisar, which is sadly hard to get hold of, but if the cover is anything to go by, will be a fun read. Also, a game, Space Chef exists on Steam, a time management cooking extravaganza.

But if our future is in space, there is a whole new field of science that is just starting to be explored. What would food look like on strange new worlds? Will Xeno-nutritionists like Bae be able to find enough to satisfy us in transplanted Earth food, or will we have to adapt to what we find on new planets when we get there? Will it be funny or serious? Bae finds it to be a bit of both. #Alien A La Carte is coming soon!

*Epic research fail in coming up with Bae’s name. Firstly, full disclosure, his mother wanted a girl, and she didn’t know that Bae would come to mean something else in this internet world we live in.

Also, I was going to go with Kuch (Cook!), after deep discussion with a Korean colleague. We had run through popular names like Min Joon, Si Woo and his own favorite Hyan Woo, which I admit for some time I also coveted. In the end, I returned to the name Bae because I liked it, and Bae had grown up with it. It perhaps explains some of his anxieties in life! And after all, it didn’t do Marion Morrison too much harm… 😉