Survival Food: Tonight, We Fine-Dine in Hell

Over the past 100 years, expedition gear has improved dramatically. Now, the quality of the food has caught up.

Words: Tom Guise

Photos: Coldhouse Collective/Adrian Samara, Martin Hartley

When Captain Scott trekked to the South Pole 106 years ago, his diet consisted of fatty meat and biscuits in a stew. On March 29, 1912, he and his last remaining colleagues died from starvation and exposure. The team had underestimated the sustenance needed.

When Ben Saunders set off on his trans-Antarctic solo expedition last November (see Lessons From The Edge, page 50), he had done the maths, packing 65 daily portions of dehydrated food. These included gourmet-like dishes such as orzo Bolognese and porcini mushroom risotto.

The Firepot range was created by John Fisher of Dorset firm Outdoorfood after his experiences of “tolerable” freeze-dried expedition food on a hike in Greenland. “They just mix up dry ingredients,” says Fisher. His solution: to make real meals and dehydrate them. “I said that if I could get it to work by just pouring in water, I’d go into business.”

He had just launched Firepot in February 2017 when a call came in from climber Leo Houlding. “He asked if we could do a menu for his trip to the Spectre in Antarctica. They were climbing one of the world’s remotest mountains,” Fisher recalls. “We made more than 400 meals for them.”

Leo Houlding’s trek to Antarctica was assisted by a kite… and posh pork

Outdoorfood has since concocted custom dining for the most extreme situations: vegans rowing the Atlantic, a keto trail-running diet for the Namib Desert, and lunches for cyclist Mark Beaumont’s 2017 round-the-world ride. “A lot of it was vegan, because he was in countries where you can’t import meat,” says Fisher.

He even factored in the tiniest details in Saunders’ Antarctic supplies: “We packed his food without labels. A sticker weighs oneand-a-half grams. It adds up.”

This leaves just one place uncharted by Fisher: “Space – the origin of dried food. One of our rowers is going into a space habitat in Poland, and hopefully we’re doing the food. Creating gourmet dishes for space – wouldn’t it be great?”

outdoorfood.com