The Next Generation of Chefs and Journalists Talk Edible Bugs

Anika Derby interviews Liliana Heide at the Edible Insect Banquet, part of Adult Swim: Sustainability Sideshow (3/6/15), held at Madison Children’s Museum to benefit the museum and Sustain Dane.

At the recent Adult Swim: Sustainability Sideshow, Wisconsin State Journal reporter Samara Kalk Derby arranged to attend the event so that she could interview Chef David Heide of Liliana’s about his work on the Edible Insect Banquet. That dinner, with multiple seatings, has become the centerpiece of the annual benefit event.  Afterward, Samara wrote a great “Around Town” piece called Insects, They’re What’s for Dinner Now.

Now, technically, we don’t allow kids at Adult Swim events. This is the time we clear the museum for the adults to play while enjoying a few adult beverages, if they choose. But Samara needed to bring her 9-year-old daughter, Anika. And Chef Dave brought his 8-year-old daughter, Liliana (namesake of the family restaurant), to help prepare and serve. Liliana was clearly there to work, sporting a smart chef’s coat. We gave Anika a press badge, just like her mom’s, to make it clear she was there in an official capacity.

It was pretty clear what needed to happen next. While Samara interviewed Chef Dave, Anika interviewed Liliana. That interview follows.

Interview with Liliana Heide

By Anika Kalk Derby, exclusive for the Madison Children’s Museum blog

I interviewed 8-year-old Liliana at the Edible Insect Banquet held at the Madison Children’s Museum.

Liliana had mixed feelings about coming, wondering if her Dad, Dave Heide, who was asked to cook food for the banquet was going to prepare whole bugs. But Liliana informed me that the crickets were in a powder. “I think that eating insects is a lot better of an idea than eating regular meat because if you think about it, a bug actually only needs a little bit of food to keep it alive while a cow needs to drink a bathtub of water a day to keep it alive and edible.”

Liliana told me “I say this because less goes to waste when eating insects and cows are so big and only a little bit of it is used when making meat products, plus there are only so many cows.”

Well, there are a lot of cows in Wisconsin.

So overall I thought that Liliana showed a lot of knowledge about the topic and was open minded to the idea of insects being a new food option.

Anika Kalk Derby is the daughter of Samara Kalk Derby and Jamie Derby. She is a fourth-grader at Lowell Elementary School on Madison’s East Side who enjoys rock climbing, skateboarding, swimming, biking, basketball, Z104, playing piano, drawing and learning Hebrew.