The beauty of writing fiction is that you get to make things up. However, if what you make up is not consistent with the rules of the world and universe you have built, no one is going to believe you and invest time reading what you have written. 

In deciding to write a fictional story about cooking in space, I had to do some real life research. Why? Since my universe was this universe, you wouldn’t believe me if I didn’t. I wanted to write a science fiction novel that was based in real world science, but that was accessible to people who perhaps were not big on science.

So, I needed a dose of reality mixed in with my fiction.

Starting with NASA I branched out, and researched CSA, ESA, and the Citizen Science Astronaut programs. I even went to the ROM and bought some Space Icecream (unnecessarily as it turns out that space icecream never goes into space). 

Then I threw in some fiction.

They say that being in the right place at the right time is important, and having done some research about cooking in space I was pleased and excited to see a new article come out about baking in space:
https://www.space.com/first-space-cookies-final-baking-results-aroma.html

I was pleased and excited because it tied in so well with my fictional cook and his experiences, having taken into account some of the very concepts that the engineers designing the baking oven had thought about.

Then I was worried. Did that mean that my novel would be … no longer fiction.  Worse still, no longer about the possible future, but now a historical novel? Luckily no. It turns out that the technology is still in the works, but I hope that the astronauts go to enjoy the smell of baking.

I am an engineer by profession. I’m not a cook.  These are two factors that play into my novel. In fact some of the other research that is used in this book is from my own private research … I won’t tell you which, but I will say that if you ever visited my house, you might not want to stay for dinner.

If, like me, you are interested in space food then you might like to check out some of these links:
https://www.spaceweather.com/
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-shape-of-watering-plants-in-space
and of course Chris Hadfields Space kitchen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZx0RIV0wss