Bio

About Andrew Zimmern

Andrew Zimmern is an Emmy-winning and four-time James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, writer and passionate global citizen. As the creator, executive producer and host of the Bizarre Foods franchise, Andrew Zimmern’s Driven by Food, MSNBC’s What’s Eating America, the Emmy-nominated Family Dinner, Outdoor Channel’s Wild Game Kitchen and Field to Fire, and the Emmy-winning The Zimmern List, he has devoted his life to exploring and promoting cultural acceptance, tolerance and understanding through food.

A Taste of the Good—and Bad— Life

Andrew knew from a young age he wanted a career in food. After attending The Dalton School and Vassar College, he cooked in New York City restaurants for Anne Rosenzweig, Joachim Splichal and Thomas Keller, amongst others. Andrew helped open and run a dozen restaurants, but at the same time was an alcoholic and addict, spiraling out of control. After a year spent living on the streets, an intervention by close friends brought him to the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota. Transforming his life around sobriety, Andrew took a job washing dishes at Minneapolis’ Café Un Deux Trois. In 1992, he was named executive chef and during his 7-year tenure, turned Un Deux Trois into an awarded, national caliber restaurant.

Making Moves in the Media

Andrew’s menu at Un Deux Trois drew the attention of media. Local news appearances led to regular TV work as the ‘in-house chef’ on HGTV’s early slate of programming. Eventually he found a job as a features reporter for the local news, became Mpls.St.Paul Magazine’s dining critic and restaurant columnist, and hosted his own drive time radio show. In 2003, Andrew filmed a pilot for the show that ultimately became Bizarre Foods. Since Bizarre Foods first aired in 2006, he’s created the spin offs Bizarre World, Bizarre Foods America and Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations.

In 1997, Andrew founded the Minneapolis-based, multi-media company Food Works, which oversees his digital, print and social initiatives, including podcasting, his website and publishing projects. Food Works has grown to include all of Andrew’s consulting work, business development, and holds all his charitable endeavors, board work and business relationship management.

Andrew’s first book, The Bizarre Truth (Broadway, 2009), offers a behind-the-scenes look at cultures in his favorite destinations. Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre World of Food: Brains, Bugs and Blood Sausage (Delacorte, 2011) gives younger fans a backstage look at his culinary adventures. A book for young adults, Andrew Zimmern’s Field Guide to Exceptionally Weird, Wild, Wonderful Foods (Feiwel & Friends, 2012) is a pop culture-influenced look at fantastic and bizarre ingredients. His latest offering, a grade level reader series called Alliance of World Explorers, Volume 1: AZ and the Lost City of Ophir was released in February 2019 and won the Gold IPPY in Juvenile Fiction.

Creating Compelling and Impactful Content

In 2014, Andrew founded Intuitive Content, a full-service production company that develops and produces original television and specials, while partnering with companies to create brand-driven series and digital content. For the past three years, Intuitive Content has been named one of the top 100 production companies in the world by Realscreen and in 2024, was also named one of Realscreen’s Global Top 10 production companies in the lifestyle category.

Intuitive Content’s first television series, Andrew Zimmern’s Driven by Food, premiered on Travel Channel in August 2016. In their second series, The Zimmern List, Andrew reveals his favorite food experiences across the country. In 2020, the show won a Daytime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Travel and Adventure Program.” Intuitive Content created the MSNBC series What’s Eating America in 2020, which explores the most provocative political issues impacting Americans today–immigration, climate change, addiction, voting rights and healthcare–through the lens of food. In 2021, they premiered Family Dinner on Magnolia Network, which follows Andrew as he discovers how the cultural, regional, and historical facets of who we are inform what and how we eat. Family Dinner has been nominated for three Emmy awards, for Culinary Series (2023, 2024) and Culinary Host (2023). Most recently, Intuitive created Andrew Zimmern’s Wild Game Kitchen, which premiered in 2022, and Field to Fire, which premiered in 2024, both on Outdoor Channel. Other Intuitive Content series include Hope in the Water, Hardcore Carnivore, Life of Fire, Feral, Big Food Truck Tip, Crash Test World, Zoe Bakes and How to Survive a Murder. 

Beyond television, Intuitive Content works with clients on branded entertainment and advertisements, including a partnership with Hy-Vee to produce the digital series Seafood Without the Catch, with Renaissance Hotels to create The Navigator’s Table and with Caribou Coffee to film Behind the ‘Bou. In 2021, they partnered with Cointreau and the Independent Restaurant Coalition to create a Super Bowl ad featuring restaurant workers affected by Covid 19. Their digital work includes Andrew in the Kitchen, a companion series to Bizarre Foods that was nominated for a James Beard Award in 2018, Bravo TV’s Beats + Bites with the Potash Twins, instructional cooking classes for Food Network Kitchen and workshops for Magnolia Network.

Andrew has appeared on Food Network’s All Star Academy, Beat Bobby Flay, Bobby’s Triple Threat, 24 in 24, Wildcard Kitchen, Out Chef’d, and the original Iron Chef. He has been a guest judge on Magnolia Network’s Silos Baking Competition, Netflix’s Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend, Chopped, Top Chef Masters, Top Chef, and Guy Fieri’s Tournament of Champions.

Innovative Culinary Concepts and Partnerships

In 2015, Andrew launched Passport Hospitality, which creates unique culinary concepts and provides consulting services to various restaurant and retail projects. Passport Hospitality partnered with Robert Montwaid and Gansevoort Construction to develop an experiential food hall and market in Atlanta’s Chattahoochee Food Works. Passport Hospitality also oversees several brands, including the hot dog and burger concept Patty & Frank’s, located in the Chattahoochee food hall.

Andrew collaborated with Minneapolis chef Gavin Kaysen to create KZ Provisioning, a performance-driven culinary company transforming the way professional sports teams think about nutrition.  KZ Provisioning collaborates with athletes, nutritionists, and coaches to provide menus designed for wellness, endurance, recovery, and injury prevention.  Since its inception, KZ Provisioning continues to be the trusted culinary partner for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Minnesota Lynx, and Minnesota Wild.

Passport’s largest effort to date was overseeing all food service contracting and development for the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream in Washington DC, opening in 2025.

Delicious Life

In 2024, Andrew was nominated for two Daytime Emmys, as a host of Andrew and Zoe’s Holiday Party, a holiday special which premiered on Magnolia Network, and for his series Family Dinner. In 2020 and 2023, he was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host. He has won James Beard awards for “TV Food Personality” (2010), “TV Program on Location” (2012), and “Outstanding Personality/Host” (2013 and 2017). In 2021, the Taste Awards created a special achievement award, The Andrew Zimmern Discovery Award, that honors his mission to discover new cultures and flavors. Andrew has been named one of “America’s 50 Most Powerful People in Food” by The Daily Meal, one of the “30 Most Influential People in Food” by Adweek and as one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business.” According to Eater, “Zimmern knows more about the foods of the world and the history of modern gastronomy than anyone else in our solar system. He’s a walking, talking food encyclopedia, and a true omnivore.”

Andrew hosted the 2019 Conversations at Copia in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America to publicize, educate and amplify the hard conversations around social justice and food. He is an entrepreneur-in-residence at The Lewis Institute for Social Innovation at Babson College. In 2022, he was a contributor to the White House Strategic Policy for Hunger, Nutrition and Health and a contributor to the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. Through the James Beard Foundation and the Culinary Institute of America he funds Andrew Zimmern’s Second Chances Scholarships, which offer students faced with extreme challenges an opportunity to follow a culinary path.

Andrew sits on the board of directors of Services for the UnderServed, EXPLR Media, Soigne Hospitality, Giving Kitchen, Beans is How and The Great Northern. He is on the advisory board of Procure Impact and the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, and serves on City Harvest’s Food Council. Andrew is a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme and The Nature Conservancy, and is the International Rescue Committee’s Voice for Nutrition. He is a founding member of the Coalition for Sustainable Aquaculture and the Independent Restaurant Coalition. Andrew is a tireless team member of the Environmental Working Group, lobbying statehouses and Washington DC for many causes. Other nonprofits that Andrew works with include Lovin’ Spoonfuls, ONE, Food Policy Action Committee, and No Kid Hungry. In his rare downtime, Andrew relaxes in Minneapolis, spending time with his family and his dogs Luca and Clemmie.