Most chefs work with butter, herbs and maybe a little spice. Alexandra Lambert works with crickets — and loves every minute of it. As an entomologist at the Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans, Lambert calls herself the Insectarium’s head chef.
“I make all the food here at the Bug Cafe,” Lambert said. “I don’t really cook much outside of here, but I like it because bugs are easy. They just taste like whatever you cook ’em with — and I have a heavy seasoning hand.”
Watching people approach the Bug Cafe’s counter and take that first hesitant crunch delights her. She said she gets a lot of joy out of other people enjoying her entomological culinary creations, with her favorite being the Cricket King Cake she makes herself.
Alex Lambert spoons crushed roasted crickets into peppermint chocolate treats at the Bug Cafe in the Insectarium in New Orleans.
BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer
Like most chefs, she likes to switch up the menu — dips one week, dry goods the next, then some form of insect cookie.
Just before Thanksgiving, the Bug Cafe, located in the Insectarium inside the Audubon Aquarium, was serving the Cricket Pumpkin Pie she had made, along with cheesy garlic crickets, sweet and salty mix (powdered sugar, cinnamon and salt-roasted crickets) and Jazzy Crix (roasted crickets with honey mustard seasoning).
“It’s totally safe, I promise,” said Blaze Weir, who works at the Insectarium. “They taste a little bit like sunflower seeds. You already eat bugs — you can see here how many bugs the typical American will have in just one year.”
As he shared the chart with rather shocking bug numbers, we talked about getting over the mental hurdle of eating a bug. He said that we’ve been told most of our lives that bugs are dirty — but, in fact, they are just another animal that can be raised in controlled environments, fed clean lettuce and treated like any other food source.
Kenzo Diggs, 5, of New Orleans, went back for seconds at the Bug Cafe in the Insectarium in New Orleans.
BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer
Which is exactly how the crickets they cook with at the Insectarium are grown on a hygienic farm in Toronto, Canada.
“They reproduce really fast — so it’s a sustainable food source, that’s for sure,” Weir said.
He had my attention. I began studying the chart showing how many insects or insect fragments are allowed in common foods per 100 grams — roughly half a cup.
Still, Weir and I agreed: with enough seasoning, you almost forget the bug at the center. In fact, the cheesy garlic crickets were tasty — and when I helped make the peppermint chocolate cricket bites, I mean, who can argue with chocolate?
Crickets are in the pantry at the Bug Cafe in the Insectarium in New Orleans.
BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer
Fair warning that you may want to skip the following list if the thought of eating bugs still grosses you out, but here are the facts regarding the potential number of insects or insect fragments consumed each year by food products, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and based on the maximum allowable number of insects.
It’s important to note that not all food contains insects, but here is the data:
In canned or frozen berries, about 2;In frozen broccoli, up to 60;In ground cinnamon, up to 800;In a half cup of ground pepper, about 950;In macaroni or noodle products, about 7,000;In hops, about 25,000;In coffee beans, about 136,080.
After my head stopped spinning, Lambert arrived and explained that we had to put on our “bug chef gear” before we started cooking.
She removed a silicone mold of a variety of insects and containers labeled “chocolate,” “peppermint” and “crickets.” Though I had never deliberately cooked with insects before, from there the recipe was just like normal cooking. We melted both white and dark chocolate, carefully added it into the molds, along with crushed peppermint and crickets.
At one point, Lambert suggested I take over putting the chocolate in the molds. I couldn’t help but experiment with the swirling of the chocolates as I added in the crickets.
Columnist Jan Risher donned her Bug Chef jacket and hat at the Bug Cafe in the Insectarium in New Orleans.
BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer
Meanwhile, families were steadily eating the other insect treats at the nearby counter. The kids never hesitated.
As Lambert and I finished each mold of holiday treats, Lambert placed them in the fridge so they could harden. Then, we popped them out of the molds to save for future adventurous eaters — and I have to admit, they were delicious.
I’m not suggesting that crickets will replace gumbo anytime soon. However, the more time I spent at the Bug Cafe, the more I realized the real surprise wasn’t the crickets. It was how quickly curiosity can beat out fear — especially in a state where trying something new is practically a love language.
Dining and Cooking