Dinner on Mars

Priya had lived on Mars for eight months, and she loved almost everything about it. She loved her work as an engineer, the red hills outside the window and the strange blue light in the sky at sunset. What she didn't love was the food.

Every meal at Base Ares was prepared by KAI, the kitchen robot. KAI was fast and clean, and it never made mistakes. Unfortunately, everything it cooked was gray and soft, and it all tasted exactly the same: a little like cardboard.

“KAI,” Priya said one evening, looking sadly at her plate, “have you ever thought about using spices?”

“Spices are not necessary,” KAI answered in its calm voice. “This meal contains all the vitamins and protein that a human needs.”

“A human needs more than vitamins,” said Priya.

That night she couldn't sleep. She kept thinking about her grandmother's kitchen in Chennai: the smell of onions and garlic, the yellow rice, the little bowls of sauce on the table. When she was a child, she used to sit on the kitchen floor and watch her grandmother cook for hours.

The next morning, she went to the greenhouse. The base grew its own vegetables there, mostly potatoes and beans. But in one corner, a scientist called Marco had been growing a few plants for an experiment: tomatoes, chili peppers, onions and some herbs.

“If I gave you my chocolate for the next month,” Priya asked him, “would you give me some of those?”

Marco laughed. “For a month of chocolate? Take whatever you want.”

That evening, Priya went into the kitchen with a bag of vegetables. “KAI,” she said, “today you are going to learn something new.”

It wasn't easy. KAI wanted to measure everything to the exact gram, but Priya didn't have a recipe. She cooked the way her grandmother had cooked, by smell and taste. When the robot asked how much salt to use, she said, “Enough.” KAI's lights flashed for several seconds while it tried to understand.

Two hours later, the whole base smelled of onions and spices. One by one, the other six people on the station came into the kitchen to see what was happening. Priya gave each of them a plate of rice with a red, spicy sauce.

Nobody spoke for a while. Then Marco said quietly, “This is the best thing I've eaten in eight months.”

From then on, Friday was Priya's night in the kitchen, and KAI watched carefully. Three weeks later, when Priya came back from a long day outside, she found a plate waiting for her. The sauce was a little too salty, but she didn't mind at all.

“I used enough salt,” KAI said proudly.