Archive 2017 September

Brooklyn Bugs: A celebration of edible insects - a few weeks later

Chef Joseph Yoon

Brooklyn Bugs, Dinner Echo, Yummy Eats

Brooklyn, NY

Lou Sorkin

American Museum of Natural History

New York, New York

Where: Linder Theater, AMNH, enter West 77th Street entrance

Date: Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Time: 7 PM to 8:30 PM

This evening we’ll explore insect cuisine with some historical accounts of our 1992 centennial banquet, the “second centennial banquet” for Japanese television in 1993, NYEATSBUGS in 2015 and now Brooklyn Bugs in 2017.

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Brooklyn Bugs was a three-day festival held over Labor Day Weekend which featured a day of speakers (industry leaders, entrepreneurs, chefs, educators, and visionaries), an outdoor vendor market, video screenings, a Bug Banquet, and sponsored (insect) meals provided throughout the festival. "A big part of the mission is to change Americans' perception on insects, from that creepy-crawly bug in your apartment to actually being a sustainable, nutritious, and delicious part of your diet," said Joseph Yoon, organizer of Brooklyn Bugs.

Chef Yoon was recently featured in a live 40 minute broadcast on New York Times – Science featuring a sampling of the cuisine he served during the festival.

After working in the music industry for 15 years, Joseph switched over to cooking, starting his private chef and catering company, Yummy Eats, more than six years ago and founding Dinner Echo earlier this year. Both companies bring Joseph’s skills to everything from ten course tasting dinners to large weddings to client appreciation events. While he works tirelessly to learn new techniques and ingredients, “my bug eating experience prior to this year has been quite limited. [It has been] mainly as a novelty when someone would travel and bring back some edible insects.”

That all changed when Miru Kim, an artist and a friend, asked for Joseph’s help with her project ‘Phobia/Phagia.’ The series was “an exploration of her fear of bugs and her conquest to destroy her fear,” including hosting an insect tasting fundraiser. This project presented both a challenge and an opportunity for Joseph – to work with new ingredients and to step up his game. “Little did I know that was a spark to something that would essentially transform and change my life.” In the half year since the event, he has dedicated a lot of his time to studying entomophagy (the human practice of eating insects), raising awareness on the subject matter, and producing Brooklyn Bugs over Labor Day Weekend.

Written By: Justin Butner for Little Herds

Dinner: Senn Thai Comfort Food, 452 Amsterdam Avenue, 9:00 p.m.

Society meetings are always open to the public with no admission charge.

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