Interstellar Megachef

BY ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR LAVANYA LAKSHMINARAYAN
Looking for your one shot to rise to the 'top of the pots' in the cutthroat world of interstellar cuisine? Look no further-you might have what it takes to be an INTERSTELLAR MEGACHEF!
Stepping off a long-haul star freighter from Earth, Saras Kaveri has one bag of clothes, her little flying robot Kili ... and an invitation to compete in the galaxy's most watched, most prestigious cooking show. Interstellar MegaChef is the showcase of the planet Primus's austere, carefully synthesized cuisine. No one from Earth---where they're so incredibly primitive they still cook with fire---has ever graced its flowmetal cookstations before, or smiled awkwardly for its buzzing drone-cams. Until now.
Corporate prodigy Serenity Ko, inventor of the smash-hit sim SoundSpace, has just got messily drunk at a floating bar, narrowly escaped an angry mob and been put on two weeks' mandatory leave to rest and get her work-life balance back. Perfect time to start a new project! And she's got just the idea: a sim for food. Now she just needs someone to teach her how to cook.
A chance meeting in the back of a flying cab has Saras and Serenity Ko working together on a new technology that could change the future of food-and both their lives-forever...