A panel of culinary specialists, including Michelin-starred chefs, has chosen the ‘1, 2, 3, Mars’ recipe from Portuguese chef Kiko Martins.


The chef told Lusa News Agency that in developing the Martian recipe he took account of the fact that a meal on the planet would need to use ingredients “that [can] make a very long journey of eight months”, so he included in the recipe freeze-dried ingredients that are lighter and can remain conserved for longer.


Martins also took into account the fact that in a human colony on Mars “every minute of time spent by an astronaut costs a lot, there is no water in abundance and any amount of energy is very expensive.” He thus developed a recipe that is fast and does not require a great effort to prepare.


The dehydrated ingredients contain no water and are thus less vulnerable to fungi and bacteria, noted Martins, who is pondering introducing the Martian dish in a restaurant on Earth.


Overseeing the project headed by Martins was a community of scientists looking at space exploration associated with the site www.bit2geek.com, whose director, Nuno Chabert, told Lusa that the world’s scientists are “making real advances” in studying the conditions for travel to and the maintenance of human life on Mars.


Among proposals to pave the way for journeys between Earth and Mars is a space platform between Earth and the Moon where ships can be built that do not require fuel to escape the Earth’s gravity, which is one of the most demanding parts of interplanetary journeys, Chabert explained.


The Bit2geek community is comprised of specialists in areas such as genetics, molecular biology or physics, he said.
On Martins’s receipt, Chabert highlighted the look of the dish, in which the arrangement of the ingredients reproduces the image of the globe of Mars, with olives as volcanoes, in an attempt to make the dish appealing.


Chabert stressed that the Madrid Centre for Astrobiology, which organised the recipe competition, is affiliated to NASA, the US space agency – a sign of how far Martins’s recipe could potentially go.