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On Monday, Feb. 26, visitors to the Integrated Engineering Services Building at NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, were greeted by the mouthwatering smell of roasted garlic, saut\u00e9ed peppers and onions, fragrant herbs, and the unexpected discovery that the building\u2019s main hallway had been turned into a pop-up kitchen for local high school students.<\/p>\n
These students were participants in NASA HUNCH Culinary. NASA HUNCH (High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware) is a Project Based Learning program where high school students participate in the design and fabrication of real world valued products for NASA. HUNCH has six areas of focus that students may choose to participate in: Precision Machining, Softgoods, Design and Prototype, Food Science, Communications, and Software.<\/p>\n
The HUNCH Astronaut Culinary Program provides students the opportunity to create dishes for astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Students must create tasty recipes following a specific food processing procedure and meeting certain nutritional requirements. These dishes must meet the standards of the NASA Johnson Space Center Food Lab in Houston, Texas.<\/p>\n
Through this program, students gain culinary experience as well as experience with research and presenting their work in a professional environment. Students spend weeks perfecting their recipes so that on competition day, they can recreate their dishes in person at various NASA centers across the country.<\/p>\n
This year, HUNCH Culinary student teams were tasked with the challenge of creating a savory breakfast dish that included a vegetable. The recipes had to fall between 150 and 350 calories, contain less than 12 grams of fat and 250 milligrams of sodium, have at least one gram of fiber, and \u201cmust process well for spaceflight and for use in microgravity\u201d among several other requirements.<\/p>\n
Several students described challenges around creating a recipe under these guidelines. Nyland Clay, a student at Landstown High School in Virginia Beach, explained his team\u2019s problem solving around the minimal sodium guideline.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were able to work around that by using different types of flavors in order to substitute for the extra sodium,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the ways we did this was with poblano peppers. When seared over a grill, they make a nice smoky flavor that doesn\u2019t add any sodium whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nyland\u2019s team additionally chose to use ground turkey in their sweet potato hash recipe instead of ground beef to avoid unnecessary fat.<\/p>\n
Travis Walker, culinary instructor at Phoebus High School in Hampton and former executive catering chef manager for the NASA Langley Exchange, spoke highly of his students as his reason for teaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most rewarding part is just watching the growth of the kids,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom the day you get them and they can\u2019t boil water, to the time they get here and they\u2019re in these competitions and excelling \u2014 that\u2019s the most rewarding part.\u201d<\/p>\n
The student groups with the highest scores will be invited to Johnson Space Center in Houston for a final competition where their dishes will be judged by Johnson Food Lab personnel, industry professionals, the ISS program office, and astronauts. The criteria are quality, taste, and the students\u2019 work on the research paper and presentation video. The winning entree will be processed by the Johnson Space Center Food Lab and sent up to the station for the astronauts to enjoy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n