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    "parsed_content": "David George Gordon in the short film \u201cBugs Appetit!\u201d (2013).Credit...By Rodika Tollefson And Annette FrahmDavid George Gordon, Apostle for Bugs on the Dinner Plate, Dies at 76His \u201cThe Eat-a-Bug Cookbook\u201d made a case for insects as food, while his boisterous cooking demonstrations brought tarantulas and crickets to TV.David George Gordon in the short film \u201cBugs Appetit!\u201d (2013).Credit...By Rodika Tollefson And Annette FrahmSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTShare full articleBy Michael S. RosenwaldMichael S. Rosenwald ate grasshopper tacos as part of his research for this obituary.Sept. 21, 2026David George Gordon, a science writer who elevated the culinary profile of insects with \u201cThe Eat-a-Bug Cookbook,\u201d a guide to deep-frying tarantulas and saut\u00e9ing crickets, and with boisterous, squirm-inducing cooking demonstrations on late-night television, died on Aug. 4 in Tacoma, Wash. He was 76.His death, in a hospital, was caused by complications of a fall, his daughter Julia Mullen Gordon said.Known as the bug chef, Mr. Gordon looked like a young Einstein, with a bushy beard, tousled hair and round spectacles. To many, he was a figure of considerable oddity.On \u201cLate Night With Conan O\u2019Brien,\u201d the wisecracking host called Mr. Gordon a \u201cfreak\u201d and, for good measure, \u201ca very strange man.\u201d The Seattle Post-Intelligencer declared that \u201ca more bent mind would be hard to find on the Olympic Peninsula.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIn Mr. Gordon\u2019s view, people like Mr. O\u2019Brien were the freaks for not embracing insects the way he did: as a sustainable (and delicious) source of protein eaten by billions of people around the world, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America.\u201cWe\u2019re really the weirdos because we don\u2019t eat bugs,\u201d Mr. Gordon told Business Insider in 2013. \u201cWestern ideas about taste are pretty narrowly defined.\u201dMr. Gordon began chewing on the idea of eating insects while writing his 1996 book \u201cThe Compleat Cockroach,\u201d about their biology, history and behavior. (There is no typo in the title.)ImageMr. Gordon, a science writer, began chewing on the idea of eating insects while writing his 1996 book \u201cThe Compleat Cockroach,\u201d about their biology, history and behavior.Credit...Ten Speed PressIntended as a paean to a \u201cwizened old soul,\u201d as the introduction describes the six-legged critter, Mr. Gordon cast a wide net in his research. In \u201cSome New and Interesting Points in Ships\u2019 Hygiene\" (1911), by the British medical official W. Melville-Davison, he read a passage that made his antennae twitch.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u201cShelled cockroaches,\u201d Mr. Melville-Davison wrote, \u201care in flavor similar to shrimps.\u201d With proper salting, they taste delicious \u201cin certain popular sauces.\u201dMr. Gordon thought, \u201cWow, this is really weird,\u201d he later told The Kansas City Star.In \u201cThe Compleat Cockroach,\u201d he included a section on cuisine, describing ways that cockroaches have been prepared for centuries. Roach jam, he wrote, is a \u201csupposedly succulent dish made from a choice selection of blattarians that were to be simmered in vinegar all morning, then dried in the sun.\u201dMr. Gordon then began researching other insect delicacies. He was astonished to learn that insects were an ordinary food in many cultures \u2014 a discovery that made him feel that westerners, especially Americans, had been missing out.\u201cOnce I got more information, rather than write a scholarly text, I thought a cookbook would be a really cool way of getting my message across,\u201d Mr. Gordon told The Virginia Quarterly Review in 2016.He tested recipes he had come across in entomology and anthropology research journals as well as ones from bug experts like Zack Lemann, an entomologist and insect keeper.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTMr. Gordon sourced his insects from suppliers whose typical customers were pet stores and research laboratories. The bugs arrived alive and went into the freezer for their final slumber.\u201cThat\u2019s probably the most humane way to dispatch the bugs because they\u2019re basically drifting o\ufb00 into a deep sleep, kind of like a Jack London story,\u201d he told Vice. \u201cThey just don\u2019t wake up.\u201d\u201cThe Eat-a-Bug Cookbook,\u201d which Mr. Gordon published in 1998, included recipes for curried termite stew, larval latkes and fried green tomato hornworms. He understood it would be a tough sell.Image\u201cThe Eat-a-Bug Cookbook,\u201d which Mr. Gordon published in 1998, included recipes for curried termite stew, larval latkes and fried green tomato hornworm.Credit...Ten Speed Press\u201cWe have a mistrust or dislike of bugs,\u201d Mr. Gordon told The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash. \u201cThe idea of eating them is sort of like sleeping with the enemy.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTA few weeks after the book was published, Mr. O\u2019Brien invited him on his show for a cooking demonstration. The host gave Mr. Gordon a taste of what he was up against.\u201cFirst of all, why?\u201d Mr. O\u2019Brien said, surveying a bowl of farm-raised cricket nymphs in orzo. \u201cWhy eat bugs? Why do that?\u201d\u201cYou know, it\u2019s a vast overlooked resource,\u201d Mr. Gordon said. \u201cBugs outnumber us thousands to one. So I say, why not eat bugs?\u201dThat response did not satiate Mr. O\u2019Brien.\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of dirt out there, too,\u201d he replied, \u201cbut you don\u2019t see me running around a field with a big spoon.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTMr. Gordon helped him make \u201cSheesh! Kebabs\u201d \u2014 skewers of tomatoes, mushrooms and very robust grasshoppers. Mr. O\u2019Brien took a bite, then immediately went to a commercial.ImageA grasshopper shish kebab, which Mr. Gordon called \u201cSheesh! Kebabs.\u201d Credit...Staton Rabin\/Zuma Press, via AlamyDavid George Gordon was born in Chicago on April 15, 1950. His father, Bernard Gordon, worked in a cosmetics factory. His mother, Rosalie (Sabath) Gordon, was a social worker and later taught English in high school.Growing up, his interest in the natural world was kindled by large aquariums that his father kept well stocked in the family room. He also play-acted with his older brother, Stuart, who later became a filmmaker specializing in horror. (Stuart Gordon died in 2020.)David followed his brother to the University of Wisconsin-Madison but dropped out and moved to California. He returned to Chicago to work in theater and eventually enrolled at Northeastern Illinois University, majoring in biology.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTDuring college, he worked as an aquarist at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and lived in a series of bug-ridden apartments. \u201cCockroach infestations were practically written into every apartment rental agreement I signed,\u201d he wrote in \u201cThe Compleat Cockroach.\u201dAfter graduating from Northeastern Illinois in 1980, he moved to the Seattle area to work at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium before eventually transitioning to science writing.\u201cThe Eat-a-Bug Cookbook\u201d was not a best seller, but Mr. Gordon did not despair.\u201cI think he was too optimistic and upbeat a person for that,\u201d Mr. Lemann, the bug curator, said in an interview. \u201cI think he was simply trying to introduce to an American audience a practice that\u2019s common in other parts of the world so that we could expand our thinking.\u201dIn that way, he was successful.ImageMr. Gordon in 2012. Among his favorite dishes was deep-fried tarantulas.Credit...Taylor Hill\/Getty ImagesHe cooked insects at food festivals and frequently on TV, including memorable appearances on \u201cThe View\u201d and \u201cThe Late Late Show With James Corden.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u201cThe Eat-a-Bug Cookbook\u201d was also mentioned in a United Nations report promoting insects as an important resource in addressing food insecurity.\u201cChefs and food culture play a large role in determining the acceptance of foods,\u201d the report said. \u201cIn some cases, those who would be averse to eating a whole grasshopper might enjoy a mealworm cupcake instead.\u201dMr. Gordon was also gratified when high-end restaurants like Xochi in Houston, Guelaguetza in Los Angeles and Oyamel, in New York and Washington, D.C., put bugs on their menus.The other day, I went to Oyamel and ordered the chapulines.\u201cThe legendary Oaxacan specialty!\u201d the menu said. \u201cSaut\u00e9ed grasshoppers with shallots and tequila with guacamole.\u201dIt arrived looking like a standard taco, except it was filled with dozens of small grasshoppers rather than, say, chorizo or braised pork.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTI thought back to my childhood, collecting grasshoppers at recess and storing them in Tupperware that I hid in my backpack. I hadn\u2019t considered having them for lunch.After a deep breath, I went all in.My first impression: Crunchy. Also, salty. But they weren\u2019t horrible. That assessment would probably have pleased the Bug Chef.\u201cI\u2019m not trying to get the whole world to eat bugs,\u201d he told The Star in 2001. \u201cI\u2019m actually just trying to get people to look at bugs in a different way.\u201dMr. Gordon preparing a meal at Bug Fest 2014, held at Ripley\u2019s Believe It Or Not! in Hollywood, Calif.Credit... Araya Doheny\/Getty Images;Tommaso Boddi\/WireImage, via Getty ImagesMr. Gordon\u2019s marriages to Maureen Cleary and Mari Mullen ended in divorce.He married the painter Karen Luke Fildes in 2009. She illustrated several of his books, including \u201cThe Secret World of Slugs and Snails: Life in the Very Slow Lane\u201d (2010) and a revised 2013 edition of \u201cThe Eat-a-Bug Cookbook.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTBesides his wife, he is survived by two children from his first marriage, Jennifer Cleary and Vic Motherwell; a daughter from his second marriage, Julia Mullen Gordon; three stepchildren, Marian Call, Ellen Kilcup and David Pew; and four grandchildren.Mr. Gordon wasn\u2019t picky when it came to eating insects, but cockroaches never thrilled him.\u201cThey have kind of a chemical taste to them,\u201d he told The Virginia Quarterly Review.That flavor comes naturally, though.\u201cIt\u2019s not from people spraying them with roach spray,\u201d he said.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-21T09:02:54+00:00",
    "author_name": "Michael S. Rosenwald",
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    "ai_headline": "David George Gordon, Apostle for Bugs on the Dinner Plate, Dies at 76",
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    "ai_excerpt": "David George Gordon, a science writer known as the \"bug chef,\" who advocated for insects as food through his cookbook and TV demonstrations, died on Aug. 4 in Tacoma, Wash. He was 76.",
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