Heston Blumenthal in the nuclear submarine...

Spit

Spit

Spit

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Anyone else watch this?

I was shocked that they still took fresh food on board that lasted 2 weeks and then they were on powdered and tinned stuff. Surely someone must have been researching better methods for crews that have to be underwater for 90 days! Hestons boil in a bag method was awesome.

Also the nuclear reactor on board the sub could power half of plymouth they said. They didnt say how long for but why cant we have mini reactors dotted about to power our towns and cities. Would be interested to find out why not from people clued up. Surely its just about safety and politics rather than technology.

Is all this just due to the wrong people running our planet!!
 
Submarine nuclear reactors are insanely expensive, I'm sure it's a significant chunk of the cost of subs (over £1 billion for Astute class!). You'd be talking a construction cost of £1000's per person if you're powering towns with it, no wonder they prefer coal, oil and gas...
 
What's the difference between tins and boil in the bag? Same food in a different container surely? Dried also has massive savings in weight and volume - critical considerations in a nuclear submarine (or backpacking for that matter).

Most of the costs of reactors are safety, so it actually makes sense to scale them up to a reasonable size to increase efficiency. There's also no disputing gas and coal are cheaper.
 
I have a friend who did a couple of tours on one of the v class subs. He said the food was terrible. At the end of the 3 months he said dinner was spam and a choice of potatoes. The choice of potatoes was you could choose to have them or not to have them. He was very critical of the food being a foody himself
 
I'd guess every nuclear site in the UK has armed security, would cost a lot more on that if you had loads of small ones dotted around too.
 
Lots of small scale generation in a distributed energy generation system is something that works well for renewables. The load is shared across each system and they all feed into each other, which covers for the fact that renewables don't provide a constant output all the time. The same could almost certainly work with small scale nuclear as a backup. Problem is, who wants a nuclear reactor at the end of their road? An especially big issue in light of what has just happened in Japan.
 
Jonny69 said:
Problem is, who wants a nuclear reactor at the end of their road? An especially big issue in light of what has just happened in Japan.
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It's okay, I live on a hill 100 miles inland, no chance of flooding ;)

Although sadly no decent supply of water (not a problem for boats).
 
Miniature reactors are or are just about to go on sale, although they are aimed at remote/isolated "cities". Pretty much entirely safe and terrorist proof. Buried, sealed and underground.

http://www.dailytech.com/Miniature+Nuclear+Reactors+to+be+on+Sale+Within+5+Years/article13389.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Power_Generation#

Anyway this series sucks. He always just goes in and does crazy stuff. Stop with these stupid series and get back to making more cooking programs ie. in search of perfection.
 
Anyway this series sucks. He always just goes in and does crazy stuff. Stop with these stupid series and get back to making more cooking programs ie. in search of perfection
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I completely agree. I really enjoy his cooking and extreme attention to making things as close to perfection, but sending him to hospitals and submarines and little chefs is getting annoying. unfortunately I think a lot of his income these days is from media whoring himself. Get back to the Fat Duck and just cook awesome food again to those that appreciate it!
 
Spit said:
Anyone else watch this?

I was shocked that they still took fresh food on board that lasted 2 weeks and then they were on powdered and tinned stuff. Surely someone must have been researching better methods for crews that have to be underwater for 90 days! Hestons boil in a bag method was awesome.

Also the nuclear reactor on board the sub could power half of plymouth they said. They didnt say how long for but why cant we have mini reactors dotted about to power our towns and cities. Would be interested to find out why not from people clued up. Surely its just about safety and politics rather than technology.
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The new Astute class are fueled for 25years and enough power for somewhere like Leed with 5kg of enriched uranium... not bad. Cost a fortune though :)
 
Telescopi said:
What's the difference between tins and boil in the bag? Same food in a different container surely? Dried also has massive savings in weight and volume - critical considerations in a nuclear submarine (or backpacking for that matter).

Most of the costs of reactors are safety, so it actually makes sense to scale them up to a reasonable size to increase efficiency. There's also no disputing gas and coal are cheaper.
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You really need to watch it to see the point of the "boil in the bag" method. It saved a lot of space while giving the crew a better quality of food.

The food was pre-cooked before being shrink wrapped in a vacuum bag to keep goodness in. Items like onions were chopped up and sealed up the same way saving a huge amount of storage.
 
The food was pre-cooked before being shrink wrapped in a vacuum bag to keep goodness in. Items like onions were chopped up and sealed up the same way saving a huge amount of storage.
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nope it was pre-shrunk before being cooked
 
heeeed said:
nope it was pre-shrunk before being cooked
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Ok, my mistake but was more trying to explain the space saving.

I was in cineworld yesterday and no sign of any changes he tried to bring in there. Have any of the places actually taken up the changes he tried to introduce?
Not sure if Little-chef kept his ideas on or not.
 
Its amusing it appeared to be something that wasn't considered before but I imagine free fish heads and that sort of process drops above the per man cost for the food when the MoD look at catering - pennies compared to the 'running costs' of a fleet of SSNs.

It is the limiting factor for patrols though so who knows if they will take it.. The newer subs require less maintainance at base so you will have more options to play on if they can extend patrols to 120days.

Cineworld mini manager was a muppet, expecting Heston to even compare with the margins on popcorn is literally impossible.
 
Drukk said:
You really need to watch it to see the point of the "boil in the bag" method. It saved a lot of space while giving the crew a better quality of food.
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Vacuum sealed boil in the bag food - like those 'lok what I found' meals in the supermarket, or ration packs for that matter. I don't see how it's better than canning, it's sealing it in and cooking it to kill bacteria.

Anyway, considering the constraints and the ability to recycle water dried foods should be where it's at - I'd be impressed to see him making something tasty from dried egg, tomato paste and flour.
 
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