French Restaurant Serves Up Insects

French chef, Laurent Veyet’s tasting menu is not for the faint-hearted.

There is a prawn salad with yellow mealworm, crunchy insects on a bed of vegetables and chocolate-coated grasshoppers

Describing the dishes and preparing a serving of pasta made with mealworm flour, sweet potato and sauteed insect larvae, the Parisian chef said, “It’s the ideal dish for first-timers, There are some really interesting flavours. Not many people could say they don’t like that.”

In January, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) deemed the mealworm fit for human consumption and in May approved its sale on the market. The agency has fielded more than a dozen other applications for insect-based food products, including crickets and locusts.

It is said that Mealworm and insects at all stages of life are generally a rich source of animal protein and could offer a sustainable and low carbon-emission food source for the future.

Chef Veyet grows his mealworm on site, feeding them porridge oats and vegetables. While the mealworm may look like an unappetizing maggot, it is in fact the larvae of the darkling beetle and is rich in protein, fat and fibre.

For Veyet, the challenge is two-fold: winning over public opinion and learning how to match the insects’ taste with other foods. “You have to find the right flavours, the right accompaniments. All that is fascinating, any chef will tell you the same,” he said.