Five years after his first visit to Hawaii, culinary adventurer Andrew Zimmern was back in town this month to film an upcoming episode of “Bizarre Foods America.”
Those who recognize Zimmern from his Travel Channel show might be surprised to learn he’s not only a two-time James Beard Award-winning television personality and chef, but he also writes for magazines and newspapers, is the author of multiple books and leads the charge to educate and inspire online via his own food-centric website.
Zimmern is also a prolific user of social media, often posting multiple updates via Twitter (@andrewzimmern) and Instagram (@chefaz) while filming on location.
The Star-Advertiser caught up with Zimmern on Nov. 16 in Kaimuki between stops at a crack seed manufacturer and shave ice stand. Over a lunch of Chinese takeout, Zimmern talked about his TV show, his website, his latest book and his new food truck.
“Bizarre Foods America” airs Mondays; the upcoming Hawaii episode is expected to air around March.
QUESTION: How important is a show like “Bizarre Foods” to food lovers?
ANSWER: I think “No Reservations” and “Bizarre Foods,” together for most of (their) run on the same night on Travel Channel … helped to define a food era. I’m really super proud of it.
My show, I think, is so important for preaching patience, tolerance and understanding … and I think even more important than that, it shows that our food world is big, broad, roomy and inclusive, and we should be doing everything we can to learn from folks around the world.
Q: The last time you were here filming, it didn’t seem like you were very adventurous with your food choices.
A: Everyone says the same thing to me when I’m shooting in their hometown. They’re like, “We don’t have stuff that’s that bizarre.” (But) put poi in front of most people, and they’ll find it impossible to eat.
I think what we do is go to a place and show people what it really feels like eating your way through there, across a broad spectrum. Most of the time we get it right. I’m proudest, actually, of that. We get it right.
Q: Visitors to your website, AndrewZimmern.com, can find a lot of great content.
A: We’re really proud of it. We just relaunched that about five or six months ago. I think (AndrewZimmern.com) is one of the best food sites in the country. … We want to put on things we’re really cooking and tasting and eating, and if that means being more patient and having it be more robust on the recipe front in a couple of months, so be it. But we have great content that changes there daily. I like it.
Q: You also launched a new food truck business, AZ Canteen, this year.
A: I’m so proud of my guys. We worked really hard, launched a truck, put great recipes on it. It’s a national food truck company. We’re going to grow it very, very fast. Hopefully by summer we’ll have four more trucks.
Our food is unbelievably delicious. And I wanted a chance to put my mouth where my money and my mind are, in the sense that I go around the world trying to teach people about accepting other cultures, and I believe … that alternative proteins and consuming them are going to be the magic sauce to helping cure our poisoned food world. And so we serve goat on our truck, and it is absolutely out of sight.
Q: You’re also an author. Do you enjoy writing?
A: Depending on how you count, this is my third or fourth book. … Making “Andrew Zimmern’s Field Guide to Exceptionally Weird, Wild, and Wonderful Foods: An Intrepid Eater’s Digest” was the best thing I’ve ever done. I like it more than every television show I’ve ever done, put together. …
This is a book of history, sociology, anthropology, humor, photography, art; it is a mixed-media experience for young kids, and I think it gets them really energized about food and travel.
You can open up the chapter on brains and get a great recipe and get a great idea of how the French have cooked them for 1,000 years and, at the same time, learn how to survive a zombie attack. In the brains chapter, we pingpong seamlessly between talking about the best way to cook them in a French restaurant, to how big Albert Einstein’s brain was, to the professor at the University of Ottawa who is the world’s expert on zombie attack survival.
———
See Jason Genegabus’ extended interview with Andrew Zimmern at www.honolulupulse.com.
