Insects crawl onto more menus

BANGKOK (AP) — Bugs in a gourmet kitchen usually are something to be squashed or swatted. But at Le Cordon Bleu, the esteemed French cooking school, chefs and food scientists spent a week simmering, sauteing and grilling insects to extract innovative flavors they say could open a new gastronomic frontier.

As a finale to their research, the school’s Bangkok branch held a seminar called “Edible Insects in a Gastronomic Context,’” which booked up weeks in advance. The event included lectures and a tasting menu for 60 open-minded participants, a mix of student chefs, scientists, professors and insect farmers.

First came a vial of ant-infused gin, followed by a shot glass of warm cricket consomme, then an hors d’oeuvre of cockchafer butter and herb crisp. For the unfamiliar, a cockchafer could be mistaken for a water bug, but is in fact a giant beetle.