This exclusive and ridiculously expensive dish would most probably be served only by billionaires trying to impress their guests and out-do their contemporaries:

1) Take a plucked chicken, generously baste with olive oil and place in a well greased titanium pod, designed to an optimal thickness by a team of engineers and chefs to achieve just the right level of heat exposure during re-entry.

2) Launch the pod into orbit either using a purpose built rocket, or as cargo on a space shuttle.

3) Release the pod at a point where you can be sure it will land in the ocean in a location convenient for collection.

4) The chicken will be cooked by the heat generated in re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. On reaching a pre-designated height above sea level, the pod will deploy a parachute to slow the chicken down.

5) Fish the chicken out of the sea.

4) Serve cold with salad.
-- stupop, Apr 25 2002

Re-entry cooked Meatballs http://www.halfbake...a/Meatball_20Cooker
Rods has already devised this method of cookery in his brilliant Jan. 10 annotation here. Bonus pull-string delivery system. [waugsqueke, Apr 25 2002]

Pizza Satellite http://www.halfbake...a/Pizza_20Satellite
More halfbakery orbital fast food. [Aristotle, Apr 25 2002]

We'll serve the drinks SDI_3a_20Sodapop_20Defense_20Initiative
[normzone, Jan 21 2008]

XKDC what-if Steak Drop http://what-if.xkcd.com/28/
[xaviergisz, Jan 18 2013]

Orbital_20toaster didn't we do this just last week? [Brian the Painter, Jan 19 2013]

are tights involved in any way?
-- po, Apr 25 2002


I read this idea name and my stomach lurched. I think I have the mind of a schoolboy...
-- calum, Apr 25 2002


The chicken-vessel could have aerodynamic control surfaces to vary its speed and flight-path to ensure the chicken is done to a turn. Although, being as I'm a vegetarian, could you do me some roast peppers instead?
-- pottedstu, Apr 25 2002


I don't think I've ever seen the turn of phrase "Fish the chicken" before... Oh, wonderful halfbakery!

(Hey! Not that I'm an orbital cooking expert or anything, but isn't this more like "Re-entry baked chicken"?)
-- globaltourniquet, Apr 25 2002


stuff with onion and a potato. cook sage and onion stuffing separately if desired. yum
-- po, Apr 25 2002


at what temperature would olive oil begin to decompose? perhaps you'd be better off with a motor-oil derivative.
-- yaffo, Nov 24 2002


The butter on my corn cob would melt far to quickly.
-- skinflaps, Jan 21 2008


I think a re-entry Tandoor oven would work better - the principle of a Tandoor oven is to cook small pieces of chicken for a short time at a very high temperature (340C).
-- hippo, Jan 21 2008


[+]
-- theleopard, Jan 21 2008


There would doubtlessly be a huge espionage story surrounding the theft of the Colonel's recipe and 16 secret spices.

Far away galaxies have been using the same cooking technique, but with Pizza in flying saucers.

You've successfully practiced the maneuver, here, with buns.
-- Arcana, Jan 21 2008


// Far away galaxies have been using the same cooking technique //

No, frictional heating from atmospheric braking is a bit crude. The trick is to slingshot a projectile around a chosen star at sublight velocity, so that the package arrives back perfectly cooked, and still warm.

If you can cook a souffle that way you earn extra points.
-- 8th of 7, Jan 21 2008


//16 secret spices// Salt, sugar, MSG.
-- Spacecoyote, Jan 21 2008


//frictional heating// - <scientific pedantry>Things rushing through the atmosphere don't heat up because of friction, they heat up because the air in front of them is compressed and thus under high pressure, and so heats up. </scientific pedantry>
-- hippo, Jan 21 2008


Crispy duck would be better, but the pancakes might be a little dried out.
-- 8th of 7, Jan 21 2008


[xaviergisz] that link is priceless, thx
-- theircompetitor, Jan 18 2013


// //16 secret spices// Salt, sugar, MSG. //

I was at a friend's house recently and was amazed to see a large bag of MSG along with the salt and pepper.

[+] for the idea. A bimetallic strip (or some complicated robotics) will have to be added to release Yorkshire pudding* batter when the temperature of a separate, but attached, tray is correct.

*Yes, a Yorkshire pudding is different from the batter pudding I'm talking about here, but let's ignore that, as everyone else does.
-- TomP, Jan 19 2013


Would it work if you released the Tandoor pod a kitchen that was already up there at say, Baumgartner height? When the patron orders the chicken, it's launched from the space station or some high-flying Zeppelin or somesuch, cooks on the way down, and lands at (or on, or into) the restaurant ...
-- smendler, Jan 20 2013


Was this "catering", or "cratering"?
-- lurch, Jan 20 2013



random, halfbakery