PARIS (AFP) — Quails cooked by star French chef Alain Ducasse are on the menu for the seven crew due to take off on the US space shuttle Atlantis this weekend.
Quails stuffed with Madiran wine, accompanied by nutmeg-flavoured celeriac mash and followed up by a chocolate fondant dessert, are among the 10 different Ducasse meals shipped to NASA for the flight, his company said.
Breakfast delights include an omelette with herbs, while a Sicilian "caponata", with pureed tomatos and peppers, is among the appetisers.
Ducasse, who is supplying the gourmet fare as part of an agreement with the European Space Agency and France's CNES space centre, sent the same meals on the Russian spaceship Progress launched in October 2006.
NASA postponed the planned launch of Atlantis from Friday to Saturday due to technical problems.
Atlantis is to ferry crew, including Frenchman Leopold Eyharts and German Hans Schlegel, to the International Space Station.
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