It just came to my attention that the world of gastronomic food delivery has reached new heights. It’s been reported the next French astronaut to join the space station will be served foie gras prepared by three-star Michelin chef Anne-Sophie Pic. I can almost picture the scene having read, Orbital, last year’s Booker Prize-winner by Samantha Harvey. This slight book, almost a meditation, follows four astronauts and two cosmonauts through one day, that's 16 revolutions of the earth, on the International Space Station.

This mind-bending news made me wonder how the cost of having a gastronomic experience in space compared with one delivered to my earthbound bungalow. I couldn’t help but wonder how the cost of such a meal prepared in a restaurant compared with one cooked at home. Thanks to Chat GPT, I satisfied my curiosity in a matter of minutes.

The app and I planned a meal of a foie gras appetizer, a plate of salmon in a truffle and white wine sauce with a side of green beans and a dinner roll. The cost of this meal prepared and delivered meal by one of the popular delivery services came in at $14-15 including delivery but without gratuity or ambiance.

A restaurant dinner consisting of a foie gras starter and a plate of salmon would cost $50 -70 per person with tip. In that setting wine pairings would be an additional and desirable expense. The benefits of having a chef’s talents and an elegant atmosphere offset the fact this would be 3 to 5 times the cost of a pre-made, delivered meal.

The cost of this menu were I to purchase the ingredients and prepare it myself (including a lobe of fresh foie gras) would come be $24.50 to $34.50 per person plus the wines and table decor.

My AI assistant divided the cost of shipping this single gourmet meal to the ISS into three categories. Least expensive was the food itself which was priced by weight at $25-$35 for 0.75kg. The cost of the launch to the ISS was estimated to be $7,500-$15,000 depending which NASA carrier was used. A third consideration was the cost of developing recipes and packaging that met NASA’s stringent standards for certification which includes being stable and safe without refrigeration for long periods of time. For example, foie gras cannot be crumbly because it would be eaten in microgravity and could lead to floating grease blobs.  The total estimated cost for a single gastronomic meal served in space was $12,500-$25,000+.

All this information was enough to make me lose my appetite for dining in space. I'm still a fan of ISS, this highly successful 26 year-old venture in international relations. With the help of NASA’s app “Spot the Station”, I look forward to watching the night sky for the ISS flyover some 250 miles up and imagine a young astronaut enjoying this emotional luxury in space station's small, Velcro-lined dining area.

Let me add that Chat GPT was a fast, thorough and thoughtful research assistant. ‘They’ even offered to produce a recipe card should I want to prepare the meal we devised. I send it on to you to enjoy.

Foie Gras & Salmon Duo

A gourmet home-chef recipe featuring foie gras, salmon, haricots verts, a multigrain roll, and a truffle cream sauce.                     

1. Ingredients (Serves 1)
Protein:
- 4 oz foie gras (Grade A)
- 6 oz salmon filet
Vegetables & Sides:
- 1 cup haricots verts, trimmed
- 1 multigrain roll
Sauce:
- 1 tsp truffle butter (or truffle oil + butter)
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 tbsp dry white wine or vermouth
- 1/2 tsp shallot, minced
- Salt and black pepper
Optional Garnish:
- Chive tips, microgreens, or lemon zest

1. Prep Ingredients:
- Pat foie gras and salmon dry. Trim green beans and prepare roll.
- Let foie gras rest at room temp for 10 minutes.
2. Cook Salmon:
- Season and sear salmon 3–4 min per side. Keep warm.
3. Sear Foie Gras:
- Sear in dry pan, 30–60 sec per side. Drain on paper towel.
4.Make Truffle Sauce:
- Sauté shallots in foie fat or butter. Deglaze with wine.
- Add cream and truffle butter. Simmer to thicken. Season.
5. Blanch Haricots Verts:
- Boil for 2 min, drain, and sauté in butter.
6. Plate:
- Plate salmon and foie gras, spoon sauce, add beans.
- Garnish and serve with warm roll.

Wine Pairing Guide
For Foie Gras:
- Sauternes (classic, sweet pairing)
- Late-harvest Riesling
For Salmon & Truffle:
- Chardonnay (Burgundy-style or oaked)
- Chablis (if you prefer dry)
- Dry rosé (for a bridge pairing)

_{The GMO salmon that never made it to market}

Not that long ago the clear, plump eyes of the fish on the seafood counter in the grocery was enough to assure a shopper that it was safe to eat. Today, that whole fish has been replaced by filets possibly farmed in foreign waters or wild-caught by a floating fishing factory, fileted, frozen, shipped to your market and defrosted in the back room. Our oceans have become polluted by poorly regulated runoff from industry, from jettisoned trash and by the fishing industry’s inadequate removal of its own waste. How does a seafood lover know what to buy?

Marion Nestle* stepped into this dystopian scene in 2002 with the book, Food Politics, a thorough analysis of the problems facing he world’s seafood supply. In a just-published pamphlet, The Fish Counter, Nestle updates and expands on the issues currently facing consumers. She explains how and why our government and the fishing industry have failed to properly address water pollution and dwindling fish stocks. Nestle also examines a GMO salmon project that never made it to market, the nutritional properties of surimi, vegan seafood and why color is added to farmed salmon

Nestle herself gives us the takeaway: consumers are on their own when it comes to purchasing a fish untainted by toxins or practices that harm the environment, degrade the ocean and disrupt coastal communities.

_{The Whole Foods fish counter on June 16 in Willowbrook, IL (check out the prices!)}

Here is a checklist I developed after reading The Fish Counter:

1. I shop at a store I trust: my local Whole Foods where employees are knowledgeable about what they sell, and the fish is clearly labeled as to country of origin, whether it is farmed or wild and if it has been previously frozen.

2. I check to see that a wild-caught fish bears the certification label of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)

3. A farmed fish has to bear the the label of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC).

4. Even better, but not imperative, is a seal from the Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) a 8,000 member trade association.

5. I eat wild salmon and tuna no more than once a week and look for the small skipjack salmon and light tuna which harbor lower levels of methylmercury.

6. I avoid buying fish from countries in Southeast Asia and China where the violations of the human rights of their crews are well documented.

Mackerel from TinCanFish.com

Nestle has yet to use her sleuthing skills to examine the canned/tinned fish industry. Tinned fish is an inexpensive alternative when prices for fresh fish are high or the selection is limited. Sardines and small mackerel live shorter lives and eat vitamin-rich algae which makes them less likely to carry toxins and more likely to have a higher level of omega-3’s than larger fish.

Graciously accept a neighbor’s gift of fresh water fish caught in an American stream or lake but ask where it was caught. Inland waters carry the same risks to fish as the sea. But sometimes it's worth taking a chance.  A friend left two small lake sturgeon at my back door one recent Sunday morning. They looked like living fossils with thorny armor-thick hides and shovel noses. These fish had been plucked from their spawning grounds in the muddy shallows of the Mississippi in northwestern Wisconsin.

In the process of removing the tough scales, the larger one split open to reveal an eight ounce sack of glistening black roe. After a short soak in a bath of filtered water and salt, these eggs became caviar. I served us a generous mound  in a baked potato with crème fraîche, and we toasted our good fortune with a glass of bubbly. (At Caviar Caspia on the Place de la Madeleine in Paris the price for a baked potato with one ounce of caviar is currently 122€.)

* Marion Nestle is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita at New York University and is also a visiting professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell.