The Hungarian who developed special food for John Glenn, the legendary American astronaut

Lajos Jókay-Ihász is also the father of aspartame, a sweetener used in beverages like Coca-Cola and interestingly, more Americans know his name than Hungarians.

He left Hungary on a horse

He was born in 1924, in Budapest, and was raised in Hathalompuszta where one of the greatest Hungarian writers, Mór Jókai was a frequent guest since the director of the local estate was his brother, Károly Jókai. He finished his studies in Pápa, in the famous Calvinist college and wanted to study agriculture in Mosonmagyaróvár to help his family around the estate but politics intervened.

During WWII the 20-year-old man wanted to save the estate and those working on it. Successfully, he managed to save the livestock from the German armed forces and rescued 30 servants out from labour service which meant death in most cases. Since he knew that for him and the Hathalompuszta estate it is all the same whether the Germans or the Russians win the war: either way there is no chance for survival. Therefore, he got on a horse and left the country.

He arrived in the United States and finished the university there. Afterwards, he worked for the Food and Container Institute for the Armed Forces in Chicago. He was responsible for

developing special food edible in space

and he was very successful in it.

Cosmonautics and Coca-Cola

He designed the food that the famous American astronaut, John Glenn ate in space. Glenn was the third man in the History of the American cosmonautics who got to space and the first one who went round planet Earth with his spaceship. Lajos Jókay-Ihász was praised for his successes, his special foods were used even later, and in the Army, they still use the so-called Jókay-Ihász menu.