Antarctica on a Plate

Antarctica on a Plate - Misadventures of a Polar Chef
By Alexa Thomson

Reviewed by Claudine

Imagine this. You have never been to Antarctica or anywhere extreme for that matter.
You work as a web designer for an investment bank, lead a high life and have anything you want materially.
But you are languishing in discontent, sick of your current lifestyle and of being single and desperately want a change in circumstances.
Would you throw away your job, take on the unknown perils of Antarctica and hack out a life there as a chef for 3 months?

Well, according to Alexa, yes.

That was precisely what she did. She wangled her way through the interview to land a job as a chef on the one of the most inhospitable continents on earth. Madness, some may say. But this is why the book is truly enjoyable. You laugh at her amateurish ways in handling everything, aka wide-eyed teenager fashion, from firing up the stoves (literally, with flames licking the top of the cooking tent), hedging her way out of sticky situations (just act cool and pretend that you think you know what to do), to singlehandedly defrosting and serving up delectable meals, using only basic kitchen amenities, for sometimes more than 70 people at a time with huge amounts of food and ingredients stored in an ice cave (what a freezer!).

But you also marvel at her ingenuity and ability to cope with the harsh and nightmarish conditions there. Somehow, she managed to find fun there, built a deep camaraderie with other people through countless card and table games, zoomed over the surface of Antarctica in a skidoo and jumped (Alexa and her colleague, Lisa, actually screeched ‘Yee-haaaa!’) at the offer of a sauna bath on a Russian base there. You cannot help but savour the delight of the sauna bath along with her after realizing she had gone without a hot bath for a month or two. The experience living there is really out of this world and it is not something many amateurs would dare to take on but she did. She brought out the awe and beauty of Antarctica and we learn to respect the great continent and that we are but mere specks existing on its huge surface and we live according to its rules and timing, whether we like it or not. And of all the most unlikely places, Alexa found love.

This is a truly a travel book with a difference.