Scientist at Work: The Best Cuisine on Antarctic Ice

Alexander Kumar, a physician and researcher at Concordia Station, writes from Antarctica, where he conducts scientific experiments for the European Space Agency?s human spaceflight program.

Saturday, Aug. 18

The golden age of polar exploration is long gone, and 100 years have passed since Robert F. Scott?s men had enjoyed pemmican hoosh, stewed penguin and Champagne, yet winter in Antarctica has become increasingly vibrant. The continuous and monotonous state of sensory deprivation caused by months of isolation means life on the station quickly becomes black and white in every sense ? except taste.

International crews endure the long, dark Antarctic winter by enjoying the food they spend their time preparing, and awaiting the biggest party in the Antarctic year: the winter solstice arriving in late June, marking midwinter.

Although no tourists can visit Concordia Station, it is mentioned in the ?Lonely Planet Antarctica Travel Guide? as featuring the continent?s best cuisine, with fine wines and seven-course lunches.

Living here is not all rosy. We are actually more isolated than astronauts living on the International Space Station, with no opportunity to escape living in complete isolation for nine months, even in case of a medical emergency. But having the best chef in Antarctica certainly helps, and consequently there is never a thought of escape among the crew at mealtimes.

There is no denying that food is important to overwintering in Antarctica ? vital, in fact. Regular mealtimes do more than regulate ?normal office hours? and the internal body clock during the months of continuous night in the Antarctic winter. Good food can save a crew from mutiny and bolster team spirit during those cold, dark, long and lonely months.

But food that is not prepared properly may leave a crew deficient in vitamins and minerals, or even suffering an outbreak of food poisoning that could be disastrous.

Scurvy related to vitamin C deficiency ravaged and plagued previous expeditions, including those to the polar regions. During one of Scott?s expeditions, the expedition doctor Edward Wilson fought what he thought was ptomaine poisoning, which was suspected of being a cause of scurvy.

Wilson did not know that the limes the expedition had purchased from the West Indies and brought to Antarctica had been transported in copper vats, which had zapped them of vitamin C, leaving the crew deficient in the vitamin and suffering from scurvy.

I think having a good chef, alongside a good mechanic, may be more important than having a good doctor overwinter in Antarctica.?This year Concordia Station?s winter chef is an Italian national, Giorgio Deidda, and we are very lucky to have him.

In the past six years, he has spent three winters in Antarctica at Concordia Station. After a career and education in some of the best restaurants in the Britain, Ireland, France, Italy and Switzerland, among other places, Giorgio says he ?most enjoys the freedom offered when cooking on in Antarctica.? He says he is ?continually challenged by the unique nature of this base, with so many nationalities present, eager to surprise and cater for the different cultures.? That would include me, a British-Indian, and the resident French and Italian crew members, as well as a Russian meteorologist, Igor Petenko.

Everyone contributes somehow. Dr. Petenko, for example, often cooks Russian specialties, including borscht and plov, and other crew members also share their own national recipes.

It is important to our crew to share and celebrate the heritage and diversity of our nationalities. Besides helping to prepare an Indian-themed evening, I hosted the world?s coldest, most extreme and remote Diamond Jubilee tea party in honor of Queen Elizabeth II. We enjoyed it outdoors on the roof of the base on June 5, and served scones and Fortnum & Mason tea in a temperature of minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with one of the clearest views available on the planet.

It was one of the shortest tea parties ever. We had to drink the tea immediately before it froze or the tea cup stuck to our lips. We ate the scones before they became set in inedible stone and our hands became frostbitten.

Concordia even hosts the world?s most southern and extreme cooking classes. Chef Deidda maintains an open-door policy, encouraging crew members to help prepare meals and learn new recipes. He then issues certificates based on the various levels of training attained by the crew members throughout the year.

The base has run out of all its fresh food supplies, and its extreme geographical location leaves Chef Deidda with only frozen or canned food, presenting him with interesting and unique challenges.

For example, since Concordia Station is at about 12,500 feet equivalent altitude, water boils at about 189 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning boiling food to ensure its safety can take considerably longer than when cooking at sea level.

Chef Deidda takes extra care in preparing his mother?s recipes, especially pasta. Different pastas require different times for cooking, and down here, he has to recalculate the times needed to reach ?al dente,? so he can serve each pasta to perfection.

In Antarctica there is always a reason to celebrate. So far, the crew has enjoyed Indian, Mexican, seafood and other themed nights, including birthdays. I celebrated my own birthday on the ice, alongside a fellow crew member, Sebastien Aubin, a marine chemist from France.

After preparing a surprise English breakfast made specially for me at brunch, Chef Deidda created a memorable five-course feast, a fusion of French, English and Indian flavors. His menu included a dome of foie gras on a bed of beans and red cabbage with Indian spices, a puff-pastry cornucopia with spring onion cream and scallops, followed by pain de campagne and, later, gin sorbet.

A buttered sea bass fillet with cider sauce and rice was later rounded off with birthday cake, accompanied by red fruits coulis and ice cream.?A crew member?s own locally sourced Calvados brandy and caffe corretto served as ?le digestif.?

Down here in such extreme temperatures, you have to be careful not to dribble in response to such mouth-watering meals, as even with an open mouth, it quickly freezes.

In Antarctica, planes travel through stations over a far-flung network that amounts to a modernized, motorized Silk Road.

On our Russian-themed night we even enjoyed Russian caviar, sourced by Chef Deidda in the Antarctic summer; he had arranged a trade with the nearest neighbor, Russia?s Vostok base: a swap of fine Italian coffee for the caviar.

In the absence of a greenhouse on base to cultivate our own ingredients, we can?t guarantee an organic seal for our cooking. Still, eating well here is not all that challenging, and there are certain benefits to living at this extreme: I make an ordinary coffee and then put it on the open windowsill. With the air at minus 110 degrees Fahrenheit, my iced coffee is ready in just three minutes.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=74d75b437fb77bdf4fb2d83588f4bc4d

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