About Grub

Grub founders Neil Whippey (left) and Shami Radia

To explain how this cookbook came about, we need to explain why two ordinary guys decided to set up a company to bring edible insects to Western diners. Grub was launched by me (Shami Radia) and my good friend Neil Whippey following a (slightly drunken) conversation on his 30th birthday. We couldn’t understand why nearly half the world’s population ate insects, while the other half found the very idea revolting.

Before setting up Grub in 2014, I worked for an international development charity, which would take me to remote and wonderfully unique countries. They each had their local delicacies, and some of those included insects. On my visits, I took pride in being happy to eat everything that was offered to me. It would have felt impolite to say no to food that someone had especially prepared – besides, if it’s a meal they enjoy eating, why wouldn’t I? As it turns out, many of the insect dishes were absolutely delicious and really satisfying.

Despite this culinary experimentation, the idea of launching Grub only took shape after I read an article in National Geographic about how sustainable and eco-friendly insects are to farm, and how little impact they have on land (unlike traditional farming). Neil was interested in a different element of the article, which explained how nutritious insects can be.

When he was 18 years old, Neil was diagnosed with the debilitating autoimmune illness Crohn’s disease. He’d struggled in his early adult life to manage the weight loss and cramps that came with it, and spent years looking for nutritional ideas to help keep him healthy. He finally found something that could help supplement his diet: insects. The amino acid profile and protein were fantastic additions to a balanced diet, and though it wasn’t a cure (and might not have the same impact for everyone with Crohn’s disease), eating insects gave him the nutritional boost he needed.

Tasty, eco-friendly, nutritious… what’s not to love? It made total sense that insects should be embraced as food in the West. But both Neil and I understood it was going to be something of a challenge to change people’s perceptions of eating insects. And Grub was created to tackle this challenge – and overcome it!

Grub packaged insects, which are freeze-dried and ready to be used in cooking.

In order to fully take on the task, I quit my job and started travelling to countries where entomophagy (insect-eating) is an everyday norm. I wanted to research why people ate insects and how they prepared and cooked them. Neil did the groundwork back at home, taking care of the market research and setting up the company. It was a big step for both of us. The only thing missing from our team was someone with the confidence and imagination to show people how easy and tasty it could be to cook with insects. But we were really lucky, finding talented young chef Sebby (Sebastian Holmes) who was incredibly excited by the prospect of cooking with a completely new ingredient. He brought the mad creativity that only top chefs have and has proved insects aren’t just a worthy food source, they taste great too.

Grub grew far more quickly than any of us had anticipated. Our insects (except for our own-farmed crickets) are reared in Holland for human consumption, then freeze-dried to lock in flavour and make them easy to cook with – and they were selling in big numbers. The first year was an exciting blur: we were hosting sell-out tasting events, being featured in mainstream press and seeing our insects be the first to be sold in a UK supermarket. Sebby started to develop menus for Grub’s pop-up restaurants as well as products such as cricket nut fudge and a range of roasted crickets, which were getting lots of repeat orders. Since that first year, we’ve discovered the interest in eating insects isn’t a fad, it’s growing rapidly. Grub’s vision is for insects to be embraced as a tasty, healthy food that’s kind to our planet. We strongly believe that Western countries will come to accept insects. We’ve always pointed to sushi as an example of a culturally specific food that wasn’t eagerly received at first, but is now a normal part of our diet. We hope this book will help inspire the insect-eating revolution, one delicious dish at a time…