Britain’s first insect restaurant is due to open its doors next week in St. Davids, Pembrokeshire.
For those with an adventurous palette, cricket koftas, bug burritos and bamboo worm fudge ice cream will all be on the menu at the UK’s first insect-focused restaurant, aptly named The Grub Kitchen. Head Chef Andy Holcroft, formerly chef at the much loved Cwtch restaurant in St Davids, is confident diners will love his bug-laden dishes.
The restaurant will be the first in the UK to have its main focus on insect produce although it will also sell traditional meat dishes. Restaurants like the Wahaca Mexican chain serve a cricket dish but The Grub Kitchen will go far further serving items including grasshoppers, crickets and a variety of worms, as well as a bug pick ‘n’ mix starter and bug burger main. It will be based at Dr Beynon’s Bug Farm, a science attraction in St Davids run by entomologist and television presenter Dr Sarah Beynon, Andy Holcroft’s partner.
The award-winning chef is a passionate advocate of entomophagy – eating insects. At least two billion people worldwide already do so, with about 1,900 species commonly consumed, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation at the United Nations. Eating insects for protein is increasingly popular in other EU countries such as the Netherlands, and Mr Holcroft believes his restaurant will be a step towards normalising it here. Mexican food chain Wahaca, founded by Master Chef winner, Thomasina Miers, sold 1,500 plates a week of its fried-cricket specialin one month.
There is no current UK law on how to breed insects for human consumption. The critters served at Grub Kitchen are bred in laboratories and imported from a variety of European firms, but Mr Holcroft is in talks with the Food Standards Agency and hopes to be breeding his own supply by next year.
For those favouring more traditional food, never fear. Pembrokeshire offers numerous exceptional places to eat including Coast, winner of the AA Restaurant of the Year for Wales.
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