Why a Seoul Michelin Restaurant Just Paid 25 Million Won in Fines
A two-Michelin-star restaurant in Seoul was fined 25 million won this week over a dessert topping most diners probably assumed was safe to eat. It wasn't. The Seoul Western District Court on September 16 ordered the restaurant's operator to pay 15 million won of that (roughly $10,900 at this month's exchange rate), with the company that runs the restaurant paying the remaining 10 million won. Dried ants aren't a niche ingredient globally. Colombia sells toasted hormigas culonas as a snack, Thailand puts red ant eggs in soup, and high-end Nordic tasting menus have used ant garnishes for years. None of that carries over into Korean law. The scale of it According to Herald Corp and Korea JoongAng Daily's reporting on the ruling, the operator and the restaurant began importing dried ants from the United States and Thailand in 2021 and kept using them as a dessert topping until around January 2025, close to four years. Herald Corp's count from court records pu...