Astrochefs
Research Project
- Creation
- "Flying tapas" · UFO.OD
- Award
- Best Technological Innovation 2010 · Madrid Fusión
- Team
- Hervé Bouy · Bertrand Leford
Francisco Javier Pancorbo García
Diego Schattenhofer
Cooking, physics, research
Physics, engineering and cooking
A multidisciplinary team of experts in physics, engineering and cooking, united in the search for scientific solutions applied to the world of gastronomy.
Team, analysis, technologies
Creation of the famous flying tapas, UFO.OD, a compact device used to make small objects such as plates, glasses, snacks and so on levitate. It is a mechanism of magnets that forms a magnetic field that literally holds the plates in the air, devised by the group during a creative process that lasted more than two years.
Our vision for the future of cooking and gastronomy runs through science
Chef Diego Schattenhofer
Best Technological Innovation 2010
We won the Best Technological Innovation 2010 award, presented at theMadrid Fusión gastronomic summit for our "flying tapas", also earning a distinction at the Flemish Primitives de Dominique Persoone in Belgium and an invitation to Heston Blumenthal (opens in a new tab)’s "Heston’s Feast" programme on Channel 4.
Multidisciplinary team that is part of Astrochefs
Hervé Bouy
PhD in Astrophysics, Astrophysics Laboratory at the University of Bordeaux.
Francisco Javier Pancorbo García
Industrial Engineer, Telespazio Ibérica Madrid.
Diego Schattenhofer
Executive chef at the Hotel Villa Cortés ***** (opens in a new tab) and at the Taste 1973 (opens in a new tab) restaurant, co-founder of Gastrosinapsis.
Study, science, evolution
— view the full-size photoFlying tapa: the whole dessert stays suspended over its base. 
— view the full-size photoSmall tableware levitating on the magnetic base. 
— view the full-size photoThe UFO.OD also holds glasses. 
— view the full-size photoFour glasses suspended on their bases, in a row. 
— view the full-size photoHeston Blumenthal, in front of one of the flying tapas.