Molecular astronomy

The new, improved solar system, 3

Shiny moons and new planets may be all right for the gawking masses, you may ask, but what of those of us with more refined tastes? The adventurous chefs of tomorrow won’t be content with merely Earthly delights, and fleets of robot probes will scour the system for new and ever more absurdly expensive ingredients and techniques.

Moon dust is unsealed at the table and sprinkled over the amuse bouche. As the glittering powder is exposed for the first time in millions of years to a moist, reducing atmosphere, the fleeting bouquet, comparable to Sichuan pepper, freshly-cut glass and burnt gunpowder, will arouse the most jaded palate.

Martian salt, with its unique brick-red colour and sour, alkali undertones, is the idea garnish for sous-vide loaves leavened with Titanian anaerobic yeasts and poach/baked for three weeks.

Forget glacier melt or deep ocean water: nothing is as untouched, or as recherche, as comet water, frozen in the depths of the Oort cloud since long before the Earth formed. Its bracing ammonia-and-tholin tang makes it an ideal accompaniment for seafood.