HAMPTON, Va. — Phoebus High senior Makhi Johnson and his team of culinary explorers have created an out-of-this-world dish that will reach palates on the International Space Station.
“We have a jerk sauce, we have pasta, and chicken,” Makhi said.
These gastro-nauts, led by culinary chef and teacher Travis Walker, won NASA’s Culinary Challenge with their Jamaican Rasta Pasta, beating out high school culinary teams from all over the planet.
“There’s a lot of research the team has to do to figure out which direction they’d like this to go in. You can choose from dehydration, vacuum sealing, pouches—things like that. We chose freeze drying,” Walker said.
So the dish will be sent to the astronauts as MRE-style meals, which require adding water and heating.
“Boldly going where no man has ever gone,” this team had to meet specific dietary guidelines for space dwellers while still making it tasty.
“We chose this dish because of the flavors it brings, knowing that we also have to limit the fat, sodium, and calories of the entire thing,” Makhi explained. “They need a very strict diet to perform.”
They learned that sodium is a problem for those living in a weightless atmosphere.
“Something called fluid shift: they tend to retain more sodium and fluid, which makes their ankles swell and cheeks swell. So it has to be low sodium,” Walker said.
To make up for the low salt, they had to rocket boost the flavor with spices.
“What’s in the jerk sauce is allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, chives, and garlic,” Makhi added.
“We have peppers, kind of like a habanero pepper, that adds the spiciness to it,” he continued.
“We didn’t want it too spicy, so we toned it down with the heavy cream,” Makhi said.
And I can tell you firsthand that that spicy, creamy combo will send your taste buds into warp drive.
The Phoebus High culinary team and their Jamaican Rasta Pasta are intergalactically great and positively Hampton Roads.
