Andrew Zimmern: We’ve Reinvented the Word ‘Bizarre’

Andrew Zimmern visits new places in the upcoming season of Bizarre Foods. Photo: Travel Channel

It’s hard to believe that Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern has been on the air for eight years, but so is how greatly the food landscape has changed in that time.

Back then, Top Chef had just completed its second season. Few people had ever heard of Noma, the two Michelin–starred restaurant in Copenhagen now widely considered one of the best places to eat in the world. And the notion of eating “bizarre” foods such as grasshoppers and caterpillars was relegated to television programs like Fear Factor. That is, until Zimmern came around.

In anticipation of the show’s eighth season, which premieres tonight at 9 P.M. E.T. on the Travel Channel, we asked Zimmern about the shifting nature of “bizarre” food and his role in helping change hearts and minds (and stomachs).

Yahoo Food: What’s your take on the word “bizarre” these days?

Andrew Zimmern: The word “bizarre” is often used in a negative sense, but [I’ve] always thought of “bizarre” in the strictest definition of Mr. Webster: something unique or interesting. I happen to believe that food with a story is good, and one with a story that you’ve never heard before is best of all. I am proud to say that in the worlds of TV and culture, [I and other food world figures have] done a pretty good job of reinventing the word “bizarre.”

On your Instagram account, you post pictures of chefs around the world. What are some interesting, “bizarre” things they’re doing?

My account, @ChefAZ, I think is a great look at what chefs are up to. [One of] the things that chefs are doing today, that I find unique or interesting and spectacular, [is that] they are really becoming culture leaders … [they’re] getting invested in civic responsibility.

Zimmern snaps a picture of fire-roasted anchovies with herb salt and olive oil in Croatia. Photo: chefaz/Instagram

Which chefs do you admire?

People like Dan Barber, José Andrés, Tom Colicchio, Jamie Oliver, Emeril Lagasse through his foundation, Mario Batali through his, a whole network of chefs through programs like No Kid Hungry and other programs run by Feeding America. It’s fantastic.

Chefs who are in a position to have a large platform are doing something with it, and that is much different than the way it was 10 years ago. I would urge any chef with any platform at all to be involved in a grassroots movement of their choosing, because we need more leaders.

The Bizarre Foods host poses with a new friend in Peru. Photo: chefaz/Instagram

Do you think people are more open to and accepting of “bizarre” foods these days?

Yes, without a doubt, people are more open to and accepting of bizarre foods these days. Food is the new rock, right? I mean restaurants are churches, chefs are rock stars, everyone’s being exposed to more ideas on magazines and in TV shows. There is much more interest in awful oddities of the food world and things that have not been popular for the last 40 years. Certainly, over the last 10 years there’s been a lot more eating bugs and lizards and all that kind of thing.

Do you think you’re at all responsible?

I am a pretty ordinary guy, with an extraordinary job. As healthy a sense of self as I have, I wouldn’t want to lay claim to anything. Other people have been saying it for long enough, that I guess I am OK with acknowledging it.

Are there any places left in the world where you haven’t eaten? 

There are a lot of places left in the world where I haven’t eaten. I am in Croatia right now and I haven’t visited this country before, so I got to cross that off my list. I need to get to some of the countries [that] insurance-wise we were told we couldn’t go to: Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq. I want to tell the stories of food and culture in those places. There’s some countries, Mexico, with such incredible variety in regional cuisine. I have a monster list in my head and we just keep ticking it off.

I think I am up to 140 countries I’ve visited, which is fantastic. I think I’ve shot television in 60 or 70 of them. We’re shooting right now we’re in a lot of places that we haven’t done before that I have wanted to for a long time, like Holland, Israel, Guatemala, and Croatia. It is going to be an exciting year for the Bizarre Foods family.

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What “bizarre” foods do you love? Tell us below!