Pasta made with mealworm flour, sweet potato, and sauteed insect larvae -- are just some of the dishes you will be served at Parisian chef Laurent Veyet's restaurant -- Inoveat.
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.
The Parisian chef has been serving these adventurous dishes after the European Food Safety Agency in January deemed the mealworm fit for human consumption and in May approved its sale on the market. Photograph: Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters
Veyet grows his mealworms on site, feeding them porridge oats and vegetables. While the mealworm may look like an unappetising maggot, it is in fact the larvae of the darkling beetle, rich in protein, fat and fiber. Photograph: Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters
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. Photograph: Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters
Mealworm, and insects more generally, could offer a sustainable and low carbon-emission food source for the future. Photograph: Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters
A versatile ingredient, the mealworm can be used whole in curries or salads, or ground to make flour for pasta, biscuits or bread. Photograph: Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters
