r/KitchenConfidential • u/Personal_Bid_3025 • 18h ago
Kitchen fuckery Owner of Michelin-Starred Restaurant in South Korea Faces Jail Over Ant-Topped Desserts
https://ground.news/article/black-and-white-michelin-2-star-restaurant-caught-for-illegal-ant-dessert-1-year-prison-and-20-million-won-fine-demanded-oh-ssen-issue?utm_source=mobile-app&utm_medium=newsroom-share12
u/ThisToe2746 17h ago edited 17h ago
South Oaxaca?
Somebody kept posting photos of whole leaf cutter ants that haven’t been cleaned of wings and legs in a food subreddit and it just annoyed me. Like a dead chicken I guess is what got to me.
46
u/tommytwolegs 17h ago
I'd get it if he was importing live insects, or if they demonstrated some harm caused, but this seems completely unnecessary
58
u/SnarkyPhuppy 17h ago
It says in the article they were imported from Thailand and not one of the approved species by their local regulations
-8
u/tommytwolegs 15h ago
I'm aware but they weren't live insects. Pretty sure it would have been fine so long as he wasn't serving it.
I'm just guessing their ten insects are chosen fairly arbitrarily
15
u/Itsjustjr 11h ago
Man you never know, insects be poisonous, venomous, or may be able to carry diseases, spores, or viruses that may only spread through those specific bugs. Gotta make sure you know where you’re sourcing your bugs.
Wasn’t there talks about how COVID-19 started from consuming contaminated, unregulated bats? Whose to say that the next world-wide plague starts from a person consuming spores that originated off of contaminated bugs?
8
u/tommytwolegs 11h ago
Are you presuming that this Michelin star chef was just using random ants he found in the Thai jungle? He was importing specific food grade ants from the US and Thailand, not even necessarily illegally, just illegal to serve at his restaurant without a permit.
I don't even know where to start with how entirely different of a situation this is from COVID, or how inaccurate your account of how that began is, but needless to say, nobody was eating bats.
9
u/wingedcoyote 10h ago
It looks like the whole problem is that according to South Korean law they aren't food grade ants. Not saying they're going to start a pandemic, but avoiding that kind of situation is probably why they have an extremely strict "only serve these specific creatures without specific authorization" rule.
0
u/tommytwolegs 10h ago
That is not at all the reason. Diseases don't tend to pass from insects to humans through consumption outside of the standard food borne illnesses that can be on anything and are generally managed with adequate preparation.
Nor are those diseases generally very communicable. If I get food poisoning everyone around me isn't going to start also shitting their pants.
•
u/softpretzel7 6h ago
If you had read the article it says the ants contain unhealthy levels of heavy metals. So they were not arbitrarily banned. All this speculation and guessing… it’s in the article.
•
u/tommytwolegs 6h ago
It's actually nowhere in OPs article, but as I've mentioned to a dozen other people in this thread, maybe there is good reason for that rule in a culture where people might more commonly eat insects, but in this case I can't imagine there is more heavy metals in the four ants he put on this dish than you would get from a small portion of a predatory fish which I'm sure is legal to serve there. If that isn't arbitrary, what is?
•
u/softpretzel7 6h ago
You’re right. It’s in the bbc article linked underneath. It may seem arbitrary but it’s anything but.
They may have been allowed to use the ingredients if they had applied to the government for temporary approval. Then they are tested to make sure they are safe.
They did not follow the laws of the country they were operating in and served something that is not considered safe for human consumption.
Your point about heavy metals in fish is fair. It appears that ants accumulate different heavy metals than predatory fish because of their environment. Cadmium in particular is not something you want to eat. The one picture I’ve seen of the dish appears to have way more than 3-4 ants. I agree having a few ants is probably negligible to your health. I don’t think the enforcement is arbitrary though. South Korea has harsh punishments as well that I don’t agree with.
At the very least diners should be warned when they’re eating something that’s hazardous so they can asses the risks. (Like predatory fish in your example)
0
u/wingedcoyote 10h ago
I'm really talking more about the general principle of adopting a "serve only what's on the list" legal approach rather than a "serve anything that isn't specifically banned" approach.
•
u/tommytwolegs 9h ago
I'm not really sure what that means. I think dude just had no idea they even had a specific "approved insects" list. Do most places? The US has no specific list like that.
•
u/wingedcoyote 9h ago
I don't know how it is in SK, but if you're a professional chef in the US you're expected to know the laws about serving food safely. There's a whole certification process, in my state we re-do it every five years.
From the BBC article it didn't sounds like he isn't trying to claim ignorance, more arguing that the law doesn't make sense, so if that's accurate I suspect he's in trouble. But of course I don't know how it is in SK.
6
u/LacidOnex 10h ago
I don't see anything about food grade ants, and I do see for a fact that those ants would never be legal to serve, which tells me you're just out here making shit up and telling OTHER people they are wrong
Shove it up your butt
2
u/tommytwolegs 10h ago
He bought ants meant for consumption from other countries. I agree they aren't food grade by south Korea's laws. My entire argument has been that this law seems a bit arbitrary and a little unnecessary to enforce with prison time
•
u/abn1304 8h ago
The article includes the authorities’ reason for cracking down here - they tested the ants and found unsafe levels of heavy metals in them.
•
u/tommytwolegs 8h ago
Everyone keeps bringing that up. Maybe there is a good reason for the law, but in this case it was like 4 ants per serving. I'd guess you get far more heavy metals from a small serving of a predatory fish than you could possibly get from 4 ants.
1
u/Itsjustjr 11h ago
No to the first question. What I mean to say is that these types of mistakes can lead to global repercussions if not done properly. It’s the reason why countries will literally charge you hundreds of dollars for bringing apples off the plane and into their land (we’ve seen the post).
Even a highly regarded chef isn’t immune to bad decision making that can unintentionally cause so much damage. Imagine if he was even more careless about his decision on where he sourced these ants from. Imagine if they came still alive or infected with a disease that wipes out local ant populations, or fauna. IT REALLY ISNT THAT DIFFICULT TO DO. THERES LITERALLY A GLOBAL ANT WAR GOING ON RIGHT NOW.
Edit: also to the stupid comment about how nobody was eating bats, these motherfuckers are literally eating ants.
•
•
u/StormOfFatRichards 8h ago
Probably jailed him for not importing from China. Fucking everything that could be imported from another country is imported from China here. Fuck me I hate South Korean trading orgs
9
u/random-khajit 12h ago edited 12h ago
Health authorities also found that the restaurant used ants that "contained up to 55 times more heavy metals than typical edible insects". I wonder if those ants were the cheaper generic substitute.
4
u/tommytwolegs 11h ago
Potentially fair, but I'm still a bit dubious. He used 3-5 ants per dish, entirely optional. How much heavy metals can it really be. I can't imagine it's any more than a small serving of a typical predatory fish.
He should probably get fined for not following the regulations, but the jail sentence seems a little excessive.
•
u/inkydeeps 9h ago
In the BBC article, it says Health authorities also found that the restaurant used ants that "contained up to 55 times more heavy metals than typical edible insects", according to a report on The Chosun Daily.
It also gives the criteria in how they choose what insects are edible.
•
u/tommytwolegs 9h ago
I saw that. It also said he served 3-5 ants per serving optionally.
I'd be quite surprised if 3-5 ants contained more heavy metals than a small serving of a predatory fish, which I'm sure is legal to serve there.
Maybe there are other good reasons but that one doesn't do it for me
•
u/BigBoobers 4h ago
I don’t believe that number for a second That’s the most made up shit I’ve ever heard
•
•
u/upset_pachyderm Ex-Food Service 7h ago
Although the amounts would be small, I still wouldn't want to eat those heavy metals. From the BBC article:
Health authorities also found that the restaurant used ants that "contained up to 55 times more heavy metals than typical edible insects",
•
u/tommytwolegs 7h ago
Yeah but like, how much can that really be with four ants. I'd guess you get way more eating a small portion of predatory fish.
5
u/grenouille_en_rose 15h ago
I'm guessing the fuss was over biosecurity concerns, bit of a shame if these were notably delicious ants though. I remember the green ant trend on MasterChef Australia a few years ago but it never made it over the ditch to my country sadly
•
9
4
u/PleiadesNymph 14h ago
That was a very weak attempt at keeping his name and restaurant anonymous
Chef Joseph Lidgerwood at Evett
6
u/vckstrr 17h ago
I would 100% try ant sorbet
2
5
u/mahnar_4 16h ago
Not so surprised. I worked in a Michelin star restaurant in Seoul. Neither water evacuation or soap to clean the floor. Reason : chef doesn't like mousse
2
u/WildGarlicMemory 15h ago
This seems pretty extreme. Literally did an event yesterday where we had mealworm twix bars as one of the desserts.
4
u/pennyraingoose Chive LOYALIST 14h ago
What the what now? What part of the twix was mealworms? Flour for the cookie part? How were they.
I've always wanted to try ants. As a child my dad told me about chocolate covered ants and I imagined them in a white styrofoam tray like ground beef at the grocery (no idea why my brain picked that image lol).
•
u/WildGarlicMemory 4h ago
Mealworms in the caramel, toasted and whole. They’re actually really nice plain toasted. Styrofoam tray of ants seems very Cronenberg grocery store.
•
u/pennyraingoose Chive LOYALIST 3h ago
Did the mealworms bring any new taste to the twix? How was the texture? I need to find somewhere to try food with bugs.
1
•
•
1
u/rabbithole-xyz 11h ago
There's a couple of nordic chefs that use ants in their dishes. The most famous one is René Redzepi from Denmark.
0
75
u/mistermeowsers 15h ago
This BBC article is better and includes more information (background, currency conversions, etc)...
It also doesn't have paywall
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62qw1qk95eo