Would you eat a cricket? Bite down on a beetle? Chef Joseph Yoon was a musician looking for a new career, and what he found was a new passion: cooking with bugs. He founded Brooklyn Bugs in 2017 to raise appreciation and awareness for edible insects and their potential for insect agriculture. Today, Yoon travels the world offering programs about cooking with bugs. He will be in Kalamazoo beginning July 14, with events at the Kalamazoo Nature Center (KNC) July 23 to July 27.
“Brooklyn Bugs serves as a platform for a lot of things, with the main focus, though, being on encouraging people to consider edible insects into their foods,” Yoon says. “While this may seem far-out and outlandish, we try to provide everyday ways that we can actually integrate it into our food. One of the great things that I’ve found has evolved from this … is the growth from edible insects has allowed for me to find this incredible global platform.”
Yoon will bring his mission to encourage eating edible insects to Kalamazoo Nature Center over several days of events. He will arrive in Kalamazoo prior to those events to get to know the community and its eating habits first.
“One of the really important things I found in traveling is that I never want to just parachute in, give a talk, eat some food, and be on my way,” Yoon says. “I love to learn about the local community, eat their food, and think about how I can integrate that food, the regional produce, the seasonal produce, into the menu ideation that I’m doing.”
The first event at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, Heronwood Field Station, called “Insect Canápés and Conversation with Chef Yoon,” will be held on Friday, July 24, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., with a fee of $25. Registration is required. The event will involve conversation and tasting of various dishes.
The second event at KNC will be the “Terry Todd Lecture and Tasting: Can Eating Insects Save the Planet?” and take place on Saturday, July 25, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. This event has a fee of $5 per person and requires registration.
Chef Joseph Yoon is the founder of Brooklyn Bugs, Chef Advocate for the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, and member of The Explorers Club. Yoon is also a Chef Advocate for the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development.
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