The comments of the chefs: “Grasshoppers and crickets? We are not yet ready “- SardiniaPost

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toasted bee larvae, liquor ants, garum of grasshoppers are some of the dishes offered by Roberto Flore , head chef of the Nordic Food Lab , during a recent seminar at Brussels at the headquarters of the European Parliament.

Regardless of taste, what is now just a experiments designed to expand the frontiers food will soon become reality between our tables: the Strasbourg Parliament recently approved the simplification of the Novel Food , the law (dating back to January 1997), which regulates the ‘introduction of foods derived from technological innovation or external traditions. Through this review the process for introducing specific foods in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, with the approval of the agency for food safety, will be faster and easier. In a not too distant future we can then eat at a Thai restaurant that offers scorpions, termites and locusts, or find crocodile meat in the refrigerated section of the supermarket.

For now, the news coming from Strasbourg It aroused a certain astonishment and disgust. Yet in Sardinia, as recalled by the chef Flore, the bugs are not new: always the Casual marzu , the cheese with worms, is considered a delicacy. But we are sure that the chefs islanders will be hostile towards them?

“For me it is not so strange: I have already had to deal with crocodiles, snakes, lizards and insects – tells Mario Leoni , chef at Bela Lugosi Carlisle – years ago I worked in Germany where these foods are used in the kitchen Fusion. Reptiles? Reminiscent of the chicken meat. The insects however are not so different from ours that also consume shellfish without problems. I do not think that today I could introduce them among the dishes of my restaurant, but I have no problem if they saw prepared by others. “

Some concern instead for Jacopo Fishing Line , chef who works Cagliari especially in Costa Smeralda: “I tasted the insects, I admit that they are my passion. Anyway lately I’m going back to the raw materials of quality and not like the sophistication so do not think I would use them in my kitchen, not at least for now. And I also believe that the Italians are not ready. “

No closure for Marina Fin restaurant Chapter Two of Cagliari, in his menu there are already dishes the fusion No arrival from Thailand, Japan, India and China if well adapted to Western palates: “The legislation touches three aspects: the ethical, the economic and the cultural. Aspects that are inevitably intertwined but that arise from different needs. The habits of every people are so entrenched that even the culinary influences are just perceived as contamination and when we visit a foreign country we try to live it in all its forms including gourmet. From here it goes without saying that a food tasting for us uncommon not taste the same that would have their places of origin. I propose the same kind of food that comes from Japan and I understand the limit circumstantial my own proposal. I never cooked what is today listed as novel foods, I do not think that my activities there will be space for it, but the changes have the incentive to innovate so do not rule out any new experience. The other issues are more complex and involve sustainability, ecology, needs to find new sources of supply in a world where perhaps the usefulness of the decline may be the only solution. “

(in photo, Mario Leoni)

FM

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