Star chef José Andrés is sending Ibérico Ham into space

Venus, the planet of love and relationships, has gone into retrograde, and will be so till January ends, which is when we are hoping Omicron will start to bid adieu. (Photo: NASA via Unsplash)

José Andrés has discovered a new frontier for his cooking: space.

The star chef and humanitarian announced that his restaurant company, ThinkFoodGroup LLC, is partnering with Houston-based Axiom Space Inc., which aims to build the first private space station, to create meals that will feed the four-person crew headed to the International Space Station. The 10-day mission, which was delayed from last November, is now scheduled for sometime after April 3 with launch partner SpaceX.

Among the dishes Andrés has planned for space are chicken and mushroom paella and the highly marbled and flavorful “secret” cut of Ibérico pork known as secreto de cerdo, served with a sauce of tomatoes, onions, eggplant, and peppers. The astronauts will also take into orbit other quintessential Spanish snacks, including jamón, the smoked sausage salchichón, and Marcona almonds. The collaboration came about from a friendship between Andrés and the commander of the mission, Michael López-Alegría—both are Spanish-born.

Details of the deal with Axiom were not disclosed, but Andrés will be using some of his own products, including his eponymous olive oil from Casas de Hualdo and La Cala almonds, packaged by famed chef Albert Adrià. The food will be thermostabilized to prevent spoilage and make it suitable for space travel.

The project is just one more entry on Andrés’s nonstop schedule. The chef is currently in Poland, working with his nonprofit World Central Kitchen on the Ukraine border to feed refugees from the war; to date the nonprofit has served more than 2 million hot meals.

Prior to that, the chef took time to visit one of his investments, Bowery Farming Inc., the largest vertical farming operation in the U.S. Andrés plans to use the New Jersey-based company’s hydroponic strawberries at his upcoming Manhattan restaurant Zaytinya.

The Spanish chef has been associated with space missions before: In July, Jeff Bezos awarded $100 million to Andrés after the Amazon.com Inc. founder returned from his Blue Origin flight.