Cookaholics Bulletin Board

13 min. video of how Antarctica's chefs plan ahead.

https://boingboing.net/2020/11/10/antarcticas-head-chef-plans-almost-1-million-meals-in-advance.html

I take it they use a lot of freeze dried food?

Almost no freeze dried foods at all! Unless it’s a very small science team in the field. At the bases the food is cooked from scratch. When the weather permits fresh veg and fruits come in once a week/10 days or so. When I was working at the South Pole station we had a scientist insist we were hoarding the freshies for ourselves when we went three weeks without a flight in. If a banana is an essential part of your daily diet, maybe working in Antarctica isn’t for you.
At Mc Murdo the granola recipe started with 50 pounds of oats. We would run up a batch twice a week. We baked all of the bread on site as well, since flour is way more compact and easier to ship than bread.
Loads and loads of stuff is stored frozen. At the pole that means in a bunch of shipping containers outside, but Mactown has a gigantic freezer building because it gets over 40F there sometimes. There is deliberately enough food to feed people for a long time of there should be trouble getting them off of the Ice.
It’s a neat place to work and the money is good.

Becky, fascinating! When were you there, and for how long?
I assume you were cooking.
I would love to hear more about it.