Andrew Zimmern

Owner, Andrew Zimmern’s Canteen

About This Expert

Andrew partnered in 2014 with CHEFS Catalog to design a collection of premium, hand-crafted cookware, spices and accessories. Each artisan and manufacturer was carefully chosen to create an unparalleled line of products that represent 30 years of Andrew’s life experiences in his own kitchen and the countless kitchens he’s visited around the world.

In 2012, he launched Andrew Zimmern’s Canteen, reflecting his fascination with food history from around the world. The business quickly expanded to include a food truck and a location at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins. In Spring 2015 the company will expand into Kaufman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, Viking Stadium, the new home of the Minnesota Vikings, and several other locations. Inspired by visits to countless street stalls and markets around the world, the fare at Andrew Zimmern’s Canteen reflects the perfect intersection of food and travel with menu items like cabrito sausage grinders and cabrito butter burgers made with an exclusive all-natural goat from Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors. According to Andrew, “Diversifying the American diet is the most important step we can take towards decentralizing our food system, combating food insecurity, eliminating hunger and restoring wellness to our society.”

A Taste of the Good—and Bad— Life
Thanks to his parents who had him traveling around the world mouth first, Andrew knew from a young age that he wanted a career in food. As a teenager, while his peers were picking up part-time summer jobs at the local landscape company, Andrew was spending days at the beach and nights cooking in Long Island restaurants. After attending The Dalton School and then Vassar College, Andrew was on the fast track to success cooking in New York City restaurants helmed by Anne Rosenzweig, Joachim Splichal and Thomas Keller. He helped open and run a dozen restaurants, but he was also an active addict and alcoholic spiraling out of control. Crashed and burnt, he lost his apartment and spent a year living on the streets, stealing to support his addiction, ultimately leading to one last intervention by close friends. That brought him to the renowned Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota. Transforming his life around sobriety, Andrew began work again washing dishes and bussing tables at the Minneapolis outpost of New York’s Café Un Deux Trois restaurant in 1992. When a line cook fortuitously didn’t show up for his shift, Andrew took over his station, and in seven weeks was named Executive Chef, changed the menus and turned Un Deux Trois into one of America’s first successful gastro-bistros during his six year tenure.

Making Moves in the Media
Andrew’s revamped menu of French dishes shot through a Vietnamese and Chinese prism drew the attention of local media. Local news appearances led to regular TV work as the ‘in-house chef’ on HGTV’s early slate of programming produced in Minnesota. Rebecca’s Garden and TIPical Mary Ellen proved to be extraordinary springboards. Zimmern sold his restaurant partnership and volunteered to intern for a local glossy monthly magazine, TV and radio station. Within months he had a regular job as a features reporter doing live local news, became MSP Magazine’s dining critic and restaurant columnist, and hosted his own drive time radio show.

Singularly pursuing Travel Channel, he created a test pilot for what ultimately became Bizarre Foods. In 1997, Andrew founded the Minneapolis-based, multi-media content production company, Food Works, a full-service operation that develops and manages content, as well as oversees production and distribution for all of Andrew’s media endeavors. Andrew and Food Works are Executive Producers on Bizarre Foods, Bizarre Foods America and Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations on Travel Channel and his weekly podcast titled Go Fork Yourself with Andrew Zimmern and Molly Mogren. The team also produced Appetite for Life, for which they won an Effie Award, and Delta Dish, once a webisode offering for Delta Airlines. Go Fork Yourself won the Stitcher Award for Best Food/Cooking Podcast in 2012 and AndrewZimmern.com has been nominated consecutively the past 2 years for best food website by the Webby Awards.

In January 2015, Andrew launched Intuitive Content, a full service production company that will create long format content for cable and network broadcast.

Andrew is a contributing editor and Chef-in-Residence at Food & Wine Magazine and a senior editor at Delta Sky Magazine. He has been nominated for 8 prestigious James Beard Awards, including digital content nominations, and he has won awards for “Outstanding Food Personality” (2010), “Best TV program on location” (2012), and “Outstanding Personality/Host” (2013). He has also been awarded with an Effie for his 5 season long MSN.com Web series Toyota’s Appetite for Life.

Another Chapter
The success of his Travel Channel series and Andrew’s background as a journalist led him seamlessly into the world of publishing. Giving a behind-the-scenes look at the cultures and lifestyles he found in his favorite destinations, The Bizarre Truth (Broadway, 2009), inspired readers to travel, explore and eat the unconventional. Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre World of Food: Brains, Bugs and Blood Sausage (Delacorte, 2011) gave younger fans a backstage look at his culinary adventures. His experiences tasting iconic dishes from every hemisphere has inspired his book designed for young adults, Andrew Zimmern’s Field Guide to Exceptionally Weird, Wild, Wonderful Foods: An Intrepid Eater’s Digest (Feiwel & Friends, 2012), a pop culture-influenced look at funny, fantastic and occasionally bizarre-ingredients.

Delicious Life
When he’s not sampling unusual dishes at home and abroad, Andrew teaches entrepreneurship and offers the latest insights on food issues and problem solving to the students and faculty of The Lewis Institute for Social Innovation at Babson College, a learning laboratory for the real-world problems facing business and society. He sits on the board of directors of Services for the UnderServed, the National Youth Recovery Foundation, Foodie Tout, Taste of the NFL, and is an honorary board member and advisor to the Alliance for Coffee Excellence. In his rare downtime, he relaxes in Minneapolis, MN. with his wife Rishia, son Noah and two uneaten pets. Behind closed doors you can find him reading, cooking, and playing electric guitar.