Food writer David George Gordon, known as the “Bug Chef,” died Aug. 4, 2026, aged 76. In cookbooks including The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook, he promoted insect dishes for taste and nutrition, offering recipes from chocolate-dipped ants to cicada pizza.
Gordon said crickets contain omega-3 fatty acids and about as much protein per gram as lean beef. He also claimed farming grasshoppers instead of cattle could reduce harmful greenhouse-gas emissions by 60%.
Born in Chicago in 1950, Gordon later earned a biology degree and worked as an aquarist at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma. His books also covered slugs, oysters and Sasquatch. He is survived by his wife, artist Karen Fildes, and three children from previous marriages.
