Ginny Kim ran Evett, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Gangnam, Seoul, when she decided its sorbets needed a different tart twist.
The solution was between three and five dried black ants per dish, imported from the United States and Thailand and sprinkled over a sorbet made with sikhye, a traditional Korean sweet rice drink. For nearly four years, from April 2021 to November 2024, the restaurant served that dessert to about 12.274 customers. The final tally: nearly 49.096 ants consumed and 120 million won in revenue, about 64.700 dollars. The problem is that the ants had never been on the list of the 10 insect species approved for human consumption in South Korea—only grasshoppers, mealworms, and silkworm pupae are on it. And when prosecutors analyzed the ingredient, they found heavy metal levels above what was permitted.
Judge Lee Se-chang called the case a ‘non-minor’ violation and fined the operating company 10 million won (7.200 dollars) and Kim, in her capacity as the restaurant’s CEO, 15 million (about 10.800 dollars), although prosecutors had sought a year in prison for her. Chef Joseph Lidgerwood, the restaurant’s founder and Kim’s husband, was not even charged.