Nutritionist Christine Chénard has a habit of embarking on big adventures, like climbing mountains all over the planet.
Lately, though, she’s been setting her sights on something higher.
“Up there,” she laughed, pointing to the sky. “It’s really amazing!”
Chénard is the co-founder of Happy Yak, a company in Cowansville, Que., that turns fresh food into gourmet freeze-dried meals. She found a way to remove most of the water and weight while maintaining the flavor.
“Usually vegetables will lose about 90 percent of their weight,” she explained, “so a 10kg vegetable will be 1kg after freeze-drying. So it’s really, really easy.”
Such foods are ideal for expeditions where weight is a factor. That’s why one of her latest creations has attracted worldwide attention – a shrimp meal that was transported on the Artemis II mission aboard the Orion spacecraft by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen and crew.
“It’s making us feel very proud,” Happy Yak production manager Marc-André Lebel told Global News.
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“Making food and sending it into space — that’s something we’re really proud of here in Cowansville.”
Shrimp curry is identical to what is sold to the public, except for a slight difference in the formula – it needs warm water instead of boiling water for rehydration before consumption.
“Up there, we can’t bring the water to the boiling point because it could be dangerous,” Chénard explained.
The company’s worldwide success first began in 2018 when another Canadian astronaut, David Saint-Jacques, was given four Happy Yak meals on his journey to the International Space Station.
With the help of the company, another meal even served as a link to his wife on earth as he orbited the planet – food from the astronaut’s wife.
“We dried his wife’s chili so he could have nice comfort food,” smiled the nutritionist.
Chénard’s latest achievement has put her and her entire staff over the moon. She even participated in the launch of Artemis II and told Global News, “We participated in that mission and for me it was really something brand new and exciting.”
This lifelong adventurer is now setting her sights on a mission to Mars.
“Yes,” she chimed. “It’s really amazing.”
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
