Gordon thinks insects will make the leap, but when they do, they probably won’t look like the tempura-fried tarantula in his cookbook. “The idea of eating a whole anything is weird,” he says. “People say, ‘I can’t eat this. It’s looking back at me.’ ”
Instead, he points to the work of researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, who hope to purée mealworms into burgers and sausages. Copenhagen’s Nordic Food Lab is working along similar lines with its bee-larvae-based granola and yogurt. (They describe the flavor as something like egg and honey with a hint of honeydew melon.)
The most elegant bug offering to date comes from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, where a team of postgraduate students created the “ento box,” a sleek bento-style container of insect-protein cubes. It looks a lot like sushi, which even a few decades ago was still regarded warily in the West. With the right packaging, maybe bugs could follow a similar path.
Lesson duration is: 50 min
