Chef brings traditional Turkish food into space

April 17, 2022 13:15 GMT+7

Kebab is a dish that uses meat cut into pieces and skewered on charcoal grills popular in the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean, and South Asia.

Chef brings traditional Turkish food into space

A Turkish chef who wants to elevate the traditional dishes of his homeland decided to take on a bold idea.

Chef Yaşar Aydın teamed up with space engineering student Idris Albayrak to bring kebabs into space.

To realize the idea, they attached a plate of kebabs to a hot air balloon and sent it to the stratosphere. The premiere took place in the Turkish province of Adana, where the famous pipe kebabs are produced.

Using a helium balloon and a special box with a camera and tracking device, Yaşar Aydın and Idris Albayrak launched the dish into the sky of Adana. The balloon reached a distance of 38 km before crashing into the sea off Hatay, about 121 km away. The kebab was picked up from the sea, surprising everyone because most of it was still intact.

Yaşar Aydın joked: “I think the aliens sent it back because it had too much pepper. I’ll send a dish with less pepper next time.”

The chef took back the box and vowed to continue his efforts to bring the famous dishes further into space.

“I’m happy to promote our city and our cuisine. I like to be first in something,” Yaşar Aydın said during the launch.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Space Agency announced that Turkey’s AYAP-1 lunar mission has successfully tested a hybrid booster system (HIS). Turkey plans to send a rover to the moon by the end of the decade, using a rocket engine developed by Delta V Space Technologies. They will fly to the moon for the first time on a test mission next year.

The mission is part of a 10-year space program that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced last year.

Hoang Dung (synopsis)