Meet the chef leading the edible insects movement

Brut America

There are bugs in your noodles ... and it's delicious.  Brut sat down for a meal with chef Joseph Yoon whose food features one special ingredient: insects.

Transcript

00:00Are you ready for some cicada stir-fry noodles, my friend?

00:04I'm headed to Queens, New York, to meet up with Joseph Yoon, who cooks with bugs.

00:09Prior to my start working with edible insects, I had only eaten insects when I traveled.

00:15Yoon was working as a private chef and caterer when he discovered just how nutritious, sustainable,

00:21and delicious insects could be.

00:23It's estimated that we'll be at 9.5 billion people in 2050, and at the rate that we're

00:29going, we're going to run out of those resources to feed the growing population.

00:34Did you know that over 80% of the world's nations already consume insects on a regular

00:39basis?

00:40He founded Brooklyn Bugs in 2017 to raise awareness and appreciation for edible insects.

00:45Like, if you don't know insects are edible, you might be like, oh, that's disgusting.

00:51Now Yoon travels the country, giving lectures and hosting cooking workshops to encourage

00:55others to incorporate insects into their diet.

00:58What we really try to do is to, like, normalize it by showing just how easy it is to incorporate

01:05them, how delicious it can be, and we are ready to start cooking.

01:11What we've done here is made a beautiful aromatic and veggie bed for, now, the piece de resistance

01:19brewed eggs cicadas.

01:24They don't really take a long time to cook.

01:26We're going to add the rice noodles to this dish now.

01:30Start folding everything in.

01:32Top it off with some fresh scallions.

01:35I'm going to make sure I get some cicadas in my mouth.

01:38Me too.

01:44Hmm.

01:45It's almost like a raisin.

01:46Kind of got a crunch.

01:47It's a little juicy.

01:48You can see those little eyeballs.

01:50With insects, people think that they're going to taste a certain way, but when we look through

01:56the different insects that we have, black ants, they taste zesty and citrusy.

02:02Roasted crickets taste nutty.

02:04Superworms taste cheesy.

02:06Cicadas have, like, a vegetal quality to them.

02:09Bamboo worms are a little more unctuous.

02:11Palm weevils have a coconutty flavor.

02:13We have so many different flavor profiles, and if you think about the fact that there

02:18are over 2,000 types of edible insects, we're looking at a cornucopia of culinary potential

02:25that we have yet to unlock.

02:27This certainly isn't weird tasting.

02:30It tastes very familiar.

02:31A lot of times people have fear of something they don't know.

02:34Having that kind of relationship with a diner as a chef to help them conquer their fear,

02:39what an incredible relationship to have.

02:42Not only in opening people's minds to the idea of being able to eat more sustainably,

02:47but also to, like, kind of be like, wow, I used to fear scorpions, and now I can't believe

02:52I'm eating it.

02:53Well, I didn't want to queue that up like that, but I do have some scorpions if you

02:58want to try it with the cicada stir-fry.

03:00If you're wondering, the stinger is still attached, but it's safe to eat because the

03:05venom is denatured during the curing process, and it's not, I don't know.

03:11Or so they say.

03:12Okay, cheers.

03:13All right.

03:14Bug-appetit.

03:18The sauce itself is really good.

03:20The bug is kind of the vehicle for the sauce, and it's nice and crunchy.

03:25Bowl club!

03:26Ah!

03:27You did it.

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