1.4.23

For whatever reason, I woke up this morning thinking of all some of my favorite science fiction movies– Aliens, 2001, Moon, Star Wars–as well as a slew of sci-fi books I’ve read recently–Bourne, Children of Time, Blindsight–and how they all had one thing in common; zero attention to decent meals. Yeah. In each of these movies the crew either don’t eat at all or are just hunkered down chowing on a grey, thin, tasteless gruel of some sort. None of these enjoyable, imaginative stories of the human future or even of some weird, alternate futuristic timeline gave a damn about good food and what that meant. Most of the time, food and drink aren’t important in science fiction, unless for some type of comedic effect or if featured during a holiday scene gone awry (Thanksgiving scene in Alien).

Yes, yes, there is an unspoken element in all stories where we assume the characters do all the things they are supposed to like eating, taking bathroom breaks, etc. It’s the same suspension of disbelief present that allows us to watch something so far fetched in the first place. My whole argument, however, revolves around how incredibly lame the future or even the made up future would be without some possibility of a drink or cassoulet on a cold night.

In many of these stories, there’s a slew of people with titles and jobs inherent to the preservation of the crew. You know, an engineer, a mathematician, in some cases a historian, etc. Never a chef or for that matter, a bartender. How about a person who could fill multiple roles as gardener, cook, master brewer/distiller and so on and so forth. Someone who could go down to a planet and make an assessment of whether or not the soil was decent, what type of fauna would make the best meals, what they could start to make booze out of.

I can already hear the backlash from the N.A.S.A. nerds. “Well, good food and drink aren’t a necessity to survival.” Really? I don’t know about you, but I think I would really like to have a well made old fashioned and a medium rare steak if I were millions of miles from home. It may minimize a lot of the stress of the situation for just a moment or two. It’s not like these books and movies take place in hospitable worlds where everything is hunky dory. Nope. It’s always a crazy situation. Hostile environments, nasty aliens, on occasion the resident AI plotting everyone’s demise. It might be nice to drink a daiquiri while the monsters close in.

Let’s also not discount the fact that good meals and drinks while sitting around a table bring everyone together. How many times have you been in a seemingly insurmountable situation (usually family oriented) only to have it all washed away by a fantastic bowl of pasta and a couple glasses of wine? Camaraderie, friends, is the glue holding all stressful space travel situations together. Even astronauts and space pirates get hangry.

During quarantine, we witnessed a world without restaurants, bartenders, and chefs. Pretty damn bleak if you ask me.