LAURENT Veyet’s tasting menu is not for the faint-hearted, but may point to the future of feeding a booming world population – there is a prawn salad with yellow mealworm, crunchy insects on a bed of vegetables and chocolate-coated grasshoppers.
As sun bathed the outdoor restaurant terraces in Paris, Veyet’s ornate dishes were winning approving nods and murmurs of satisfaction from his adventurous clientele.
“It’s the ideal dish for first-timers,” the Parisian chef said, preparing a serving of pasta made with mealworm flour, sweet potato and sauteed insect larvae.
“There are some really interesting flavours. Not many people could say they don’t like that.”
The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) in January 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.
Mealworm, and insects more
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