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Using geothermal energy for cooking – examples from around the world

Using geothermal energy for cooking – examples from around the world Geothermal rye bread, Iceland (source: tourdesk.is)
Alexander Richter 7 Nov 2020

There are examples from around the world where geothermal energy is used for cooking. Often a tourist attraction, in many cultures it has been an element of daily life ... yet cooking your chicken in the hot springs of Yellowstone might not be a good idea.

Over the years, we learned about about various approaches to utilise geothermal hot springs for cooking. There are many many different examples from around the world. Stumbling across a story of a man caught in trying to cook chicken in the geothermal hot springs in Yellowstone National Park in the U.S., we thought it would be timely to share a few of the geothermal cooking examples we are aware of. There are likely a lot more, maybe drop us a line if you know of more examples like this – and no we are not talking about “cooking yourself in geothermal baths and spas” 😉

In Iceland, bread is baked utilising the hot springs shown in a recent Netflix piece “Down to Earth with Zac Efron: episode 1, Iceland”

In New Zealand, in a Maori village near Rotorua on the North Island, people cook corn in the geothermal hot springs.

In the north of Thailand, on the road between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, people stop over to boil eggs in a hot spring.

On the Azores, an island group of Portugal, geothermal heat is also used for cooking:

On Lanzarote/ Spain, the El Diablo restaurant is famous for its geothermal BBQ:

In the West Thumb area of Yellowstone, there are stories of people cooking fresh-caught trout in the geothermal hot springs.

But now there are news from Yellowstone National Park, where a man from Idaho was issued a two-year ban to visit the park for attempting to cook chickens in a hot spring.

“After being alerted to hikers in an off-limits thermal area of the park carrying cooking pots on Friday, Aug. 7, a park ranger found two whole chickens in a hot spring inside a burlap sack, according to East Idaho News.” (see full news on People.com, thanks Taylor for sharing the story)

…  and NO NO, you should not do marshmellows at an active volcanoe: