French Chef Puts Crickets on Menu in Push to Use Insects as Food
titles Bloomberg's
Rudy Ruitenberg (thanks to RV who pointedly remarks: "But at least he'll be proud to anounce he will ferociously defend French cuisine tradition and never [imported] American junk food).
French chef David Faure says diners
don’t complain about the crickets he started serving with his
foie gras starter last month. Some say they wouldn’t mind more.
Faure, who runs the Michelin-starred restaurant Aphrodite
in Nice, praises the popcorn flavor of crickets and the nutty
tones that mealworms bring to his cod dish.
“I had this idea for several years, after travel to
continents where it’s normal to eat insects,” the chef said by
phone from his restaurant two days ago. “It’s really a question
of taste.”
Faure says eating insects may soon be as normal in Western
countries as having sushi. He may be onto something. The United
Nations agency in charge of agriculture published a report today
promoting insects as food, saying their benefits merit educating
consumers in rich countries to help overcome their aversion to
finding critters in their plate.
“Consumer disgust remains one of the largest barriers to
the adoption of insects as viable sources of protein in many
Western countries,” the UN’s Rome-based Food & Agriculture
Organization said in the 201-page report promoting the practice
known as entomophagy.
Insects are healthy and nutritious, convert feed more
efficiently than livestock and produce less greenhouse gases
than pigs and cattle, according to the agency. With 9 billion
people expected on the planet by 2050, new ways of growing food
are needed, the FAO wrote.
At least 2 billion people worldwide eat insects as part of
their traditional diet, the FAO said. The practice hasn’t caught
on in Europe nor in the U.S.
$76.50 Meal
Faure said his insect-themed “alternative foods” menu at
59 euros ($76.50), which also includes a desert with mealworms,
may provide confidence to diners who want to try eating a little
differently.
“People will continue to put a steak on the barbecue, but
if from time to time people make this gesture, that can make a
difference,” the chef said.
… In Western societies, communication and education
needs to address the “disgust factor,” it said.
“Some clients say it’s not cuisine or stupid things like
that,” Faure said.
