Welcome to NASA HUNCH Culinary and Nutrition Science

2022-202 3 Theme:    Hearty Ethnic Soup/Stew

Click here 2022-2023 Information
Click Here to Register

Scroll Down for  last year's Culinary Challenge Winners

Why is this NASA Culinary Challenge so important to NASA?
Food Physiology: The crew performed saliva collections on Tuesday (4/14/2020).  The Integrated Impact of Diet on Human Immune Response, the Gut Microbiota, and Nutritional Status During Adaptation to Spaceflight (Food Physiology) experiment is designed to characterize the key effects of an enhanced spaceflight diet on immune function, the gut microbiome, and nutritional status indicators. These factors are interlinked, but diet is the only one that can be easily and meaningfully altered on Earth or during flight. This investigation aims to document the effect of dietary improvements on human physiology and the ability of those improvements to enhance adaptation to spaceflight.​

NASA HUNCH Video
A Bridge Above: ISS 20 years video

Reviews and Quotes

Click here to see astronaut review of 1st year Culinary winners

Quote from Tom Marshburn on Expedition 66 on Burnett HS Chicken Francese (2021 winner)

The winner, a chicken dish in some sort of cream or cheese sauce, with lemon, was outstanding!  We ate it over Christmas, loved it a lot and wish it were on the standard menu for ISS!  They did a great job creating a unique dish with flavors we don’t get up here typically.

Quote from Increment 61 astronauts on Phoebus HS (2019 Winner):
To the winning HUNCH team, Spice 2 Space 2.0:
Daysi, Amarianna, Mya, Travis, Iyana, Wesleigh, and Tierra,

Greetings from the International Space Station!  Thank you for the wonderful surprise Harvest Hash this holiday season!  We received it in advance of Christmas and anxiously waited to save it for a special occasion and had it on Christmas Day as part of a big brunch.  We loved it.  We were all speculating as to which herbs gave it the unique flavor and then found the ingredient list!  I think it was the fennel—one of my favorites.
 
Thank you and best wishes from orbit,
 
-Increment 61 of the ISS: Luca, Drew, Jessica, Oleg, Sasha, and Christina
 
Note – This is Private\Personal Mail, not for release to the media.
 

​​Quote from Expedition 59 astronauts on 2018 Culinary Winner:
“Thank you to all involved in this amazing program, and to the students for their efforts, creativity, and for nailing a really good dessert!
Please pass our huge THANK YOUS and WELL DONE to Decatur High School for their Orange-Blackberry Croissant Casserole. This was one of the best foods that we have had up here, we thoroughly enjoyed it and wished we had more! I would order this at a restaurant on Earth.” – Anne, Nick, Christina and David

Our Partners:

Sullivan University

The American Culinary Federation 

The winners from the 2021-2022 year's culinary challenge were :
1st Place:  PCTI from New Jersey :  Steak, Asparagus, Egg and Pistachio Fancier

2nd Place:  Wekiva from Florida:  Tandoori Chicken, Vegetable Curry, Lemon Magic Cake
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3rd Place:  Milton Hershey from Pennsylvania :      Tumeric Salmon w/Blueberry Chutney,   Broccoli Matcha Puree, Mocha Almond Brownie
 
​  Please see the scholarship page where we have both ACF and Sullivan University that are providing special awards for our winners and participants in this Culinary Challenge

HUNCH Culinary Prevailed even during COVID times.

Due to COVID issues, Sullivan University helped NASA HUNCH to complete the Culinary Challenge by having their chefs make the top 10 team's food and they had an outstanding judging panel.  See the videos below to become immersed in the 2021 final culinary challenge.