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Food + Activism = Global Change
World-renowned chef Andrew Zimmern has explored the great global food scene and shares incredible stories from his journeys around the world with a powerful prescriptive message of sustainability, equity, and social justice. Zimmern believes you really can change the planet one meal at a time. His talks are enlightening and always entertaining as he inspires audiences to learn about the world and other cultures from the perspective of the board room and the dinner table.
Overcoming Adversity: Becoming a Resilient Leader
World-renowned chef and entrepreneur Andrew Zimmern shares his deeply personal journey with addiction and sobriety and how he found his calling to tell stories through food and travel adventures. Balancing personal and professional moments of adversity, Zimmern offers an inspiring of hope, perseverance, and how to become a better leader through resilience. From navigating uncertainty to “co-regulating before operationalizing” to learning how to “act your way into right thinking,” Zimmern’s message is a blend of personal experience and his own prescription for resiliency and success.
Virtual Interactive Cooking Demos with Andrew Zimmern
World-renowned chef Andrew Zimmern knows how to engage your virtual audience and create magical events from his professional cooking studio. He can even share the recipes in advance so guests can have the thrill of cooking along with Andrew. What separates Andrew, however, is all that he is doing outside of the kitchen to bolster the restaurant industry, and the insights he has gained as a passionate student of what food says about us as people, families and a country. While he cooks, he chats about these insights and the many projects he is working on to bring us closer together - in meaningful ways- through food.
Food: A Global Perspective on the State of our Food Life
Andrew Zimmern takes you with him for a whirlwind tour of his world travels, informing and entertaining as he connects the audience to both his "boots on the ground" experience and his philosophies of both food and life. His amazing stories cover everything from the great global food scene to how you really can change the planet one meal at a time, as he's experienced firsthand breaking bread (or other things!) with people from Syria and China to Cuba and the Kalahari desert. Inspiring, enlightening and always entertaining, Zimmern shows that the world is truly getting smaller, and that the best place to learn about it and other cultures, is at the dinner table, not in a museum.
The Adventure of Recovery
Stay far away from what William James called the evil of "contempt prior to investigation". Andrew Zimmern has used this motto as a bedrock of both his personal and professional life. While most people know him as the host of his own wildly popular TV show, they might not know that he is also a survivor of drug addiction, alcoholism, and homelessness. Now in his 21st year of sobriety, his inspiring and funny story is a prescription for hope that can be applied to anyone regardless of their life situation. Zimmern grew up on the upper east side of NYC, was a daily drug user from the age of 15, and lay dying in a hospital bed at age 21 of acute alcohol poisoning. He continued to abuse drugs and booze for another 10 years before going homeless and off the grid in 1990. Drinking himself to death in a flop house hotel in January of 1992, he had a life-changing experience that saw him check into rehab, sober up, and stay clean. Devoting himself to helping others, his life changed, and his show Bizarre Foods is a direct result of his channeling that life choice, telling his stories through food and travel adventures. Zimmern combines his personal and professional stories in an audio and video presentation detailing his fall and rise, his experiences in recovery, and how those lessons have informed his life as a husband, adoptive father and activist for the social issues he holds dearest. Zimmern believes that the best way to change the world is to share a meal with a stranger and his family, telling stories from the fringe as you seek to learn about the world and yourself in the global classroom of the traveler's universe. His funny and inspiring message spans both the personal and the professional, and he gladly exemplifies the necessity for a public face to be put on the private hell of addiction.
Activist Andrew Zimmern invited to the White House to feed the U.S.
Award-winning chef, TV personality, and anthropologist ANDREW ZIMMERN was tapped by the U.S. government to share his perspective at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. Zimmern is an outspoken advocate for solving hunger. He also serves as a Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N. World Food Programme. In this endeavor, Zimmern worked with policymakers to better serve vulnerable populations. Zimmern’s humanitarian impact can be felt at home and abroad as he works to create a more sustainable, delicious future.
Watch Andrew Zimmern’s keynote at U. of Minnesota here >>
Watch Andrew Zimmern host a fundraiser at Second Harvest Heartland here>>
Andrew Zimmern fights global hunger with the U.N. World Food Programme as a Goodwill Ambassador
You will want to hear from the man that Fast Company and AdAge called “…one of the 50 most influential people in food.”
Award-winning chef, TV personality, and anthropologist ANDREW ZIMMERN fights food waste and global hunger as a Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian organization. Zimmern challenges audiences everywhere to take action in cultivating a food system that's sustainable and equitable. He speaks on domestic and global hunger solutions, food systems, trends, why smart food policy is good for big food, and more. Upon his appointment, Zimmern said, “I am so grateful to the World Food Programme for asking me to help in their global effort to fight hunger and food waste. We have it within our power to reverse the ravages of our own ignorance, inefficiency, and selfishness.”
Zimmern believes you can change the planet one meal at a time. In his enlightening, entertaining conversations, he inspires audiences to address global food culture from the perspectives of the board room all the way to the dinner table.
Watch Andrew Zimmern in conversation at SXSW here >>
Watch Andrew Zimmern host a fundraiser at Second Harvest Heartland here>>
Andrew Zimmern on Community: Sharing Food is Sharing Culture
Award-winning chef, TV personality, and anthropologist ANDREW ZIMMERN looks at food as more than nourishment; to him, food is the best lens for studying culture. From that learning comes ways in which we can change our planet and our communities for the better. Zimmern explores what food represents — the ideas shared and connections cultivated over a meal — in over a hundred countries and applies those to our current existential problems today, from feeding a hungry planet, to climate change, from building bridges to using new and old science to eradicate food waste.
Zimmern has dedicated his life to driving change and promoting cultural exchanges through food. His 350-episode tenure as the creator and host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods franchise, and his Emmy-nominated The Zimmern List all intended to encourage patience, tolerance, and understanding of other cultures through sharing food. By showcasing the human element of eating, Zimmern encourages audiences to respectfully engage with diverse cultures to learn more and problem solve.
Watch Andrew Zimmern in conversation at SXSW >>
Watch Andrew Zimmern speak at Google >>
Celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern hosts memorable live cooking demonstrations
Legendary chef, traveler, and TV personality ANDREW ZIMMERN teaches audiences how to travel on a plate. When he's not trying foods from around the world, Zimmern is helping the home cook broaden their palate with dishes inspired from his travels. Zimmern is an advocate for cultural literacy, sharing essential meals from cultures around the world through his storytelling about how we are all connected through food.
Zimmern’s cooking tutorial content lives on his YouTube channel, where he hosts independent series on cooking and culture. Zimmern is founder and CEO of Intuitive Content, a full-service television, commercial, and digital production company. Named by Realscreen for 3 years in a row as one of the “Top 100 Production Companies in the World,” Intuitive Content produces much of Zimmern’s cutting-edge digital content. A master of both the kitchen and the boardroom, Zimmern engages audiences with his creative approach to food education.
Watch Andrew Zimmern speak at Google >>
Watch Andrew Zimmern’s YouTube channel here >>
Celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern on sobriety, resilience, and leadership
While most people know ANDREW ZIMMERN as a beloved TV host, celebrity chef, and anthropologist, they might not know that he is also a survivor of drug addiction, alcoholism, and homelessness. Zimmern combines personal and professional stories detailing his experiences in recovery, and how he found the resilience to build back a life of creating meaning for others through doing what he loves. He shares how those lessons have informed his life as a husband, adoptive father, and activist for the social issues he holds dearest.
Over 3 decades into sobriety, Zimmern’s inspiring and humorously delivered story is a prescription for hope that can be applied to anyone. He has been invited to speak on resilience and sobriety with CNN, People, Mashed, and more.
Watch Andrew Zimmern’s keynote at U. of Minnesota here >>
Watch Andrew Zimmern present at the Welcome Conference >>
An Emmy-winning and four-time James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, writer and teacher, Andrew Zimmern (andrewzimmern.com) is regarded as one of the most knowledgeable personalities in the food world. As the creator, executive producer and host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods franchise, Andrew Zimmern’s Driven by Food and Emmy-winning The Zimmern List, he has devoted his life to exploring and promoting cultural acceptance, tolerance and understanding through food. In 2020, Andrew returned to television with the MSNBC series What's Eating America. His latest series, Family Dinner, airs on Chip & Joanna Gaines’ new Magnolia Network and streams on Discovery+.
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, and at the same time was also an 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 six-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. A full-service operation that develops and manages content, Food Works oversees his digital, print and social initiatives, including podcasting, his website (andrewzimmern.com) and publishing projects.
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 dynamic original television and broadcast specials, while partnering with companies to create brand-driven series and digital content. In 2021, Intuitive Content was named one of the top 100 production companies in the world by Realscreen.
In 2020, Intuitive Content created the MSNBC series What’s Eating America, which explores the most provocative stories of our time told from Andrew’s singular perspective with his passion for politics, people, food and travel. In their latest series, Family Dinner, Andrew visits families across America to explore how the cultural, regional, and historical facets of who we are inform what and how we eat. Family Dinner airs on Chip & Joanna Gaines’ new Magnolia Network and steams on Discovery+. In 2022, they will premiere Andrew Zimmern’s Wild Game Kitchen on the Outdoor Channel.
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 in cities across the country. In 2020, the show won a Daytime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Travel and Adventure Program.” Other Intuitive Content series include 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 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 shutdowns. The ad was awarded a silver Telly. 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, and instructional cooking classes for Food Network Kitchen and workshops for the Magnolia Network app.
Innovative Culinary Concepts and Partnerships
In 2015, Andrew founded Passport Hospitality, a restaurant and food retail development company that provides consulting services and creates unique culinary concepts inspired by his travels. Licensed at Target Field in Minneapolis, Andrew Zimmern’s Canteen is a quick service concept serving globally-inspired takes on familiar favorites. His first brick-and-mortar restaurant, Lucky Cricket, opened in 2018 in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.
Passport Hospitality has partnered with Robert Montwaid and Gansevoort Construction to develop experiential food halls and markets in Atlanta’s recently opened Chattahoochee Food Works and in the historic Dayton’s building in downtown Minneapolis, projected to open in 2022. Andrew has also collaborated with Minneapolis chef Gavin Kaysen to create KZ ProVisioning, a unique catering company for professional sports franchises. KZ ProVisioning works with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild and the NBA’s Timberwolves to provide healthy meals to the team’s players, families, coaches and locker room staff.
Delicious Life
In 2020, Andrew 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 annual Taste Awards created a new special achievement award, The Andrew Zimmern Discovery Award, that honors his mission to discover new cultures and flavors. Andrew was one of the inaugural honorees. In 2016, Andrew was 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.” In 2017, Andrew won the award for Best Host at the Cynopsis TV Awards. 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 has appeared as a contestant on Iron Chef, and as a guest judge on episodes of Chopped, Top Chef Masters, Iron Chef and Top Chef. In 2016, he co-starred as a mentor for Season 2 of Food Network’s All-Star Academy.
Andrew hosted the three part 2019 Conversations at Copia in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America as a way 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. 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, Project Explorer/EXPLR, Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project and Soigne Hospitality. He serves on City Harvest’s Food Council, is the International Rescue Committee’s Voice for Nutrition and was named a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme in 2021. He is a founding member of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, fighting to save restaurants affected by Covid-19. Other charities Andrew works with include Lovin’ Spoonfuls, ONE, Food Policy Action Committee, No Kid Hungry and Giving Kitchen. In his rare downtime, Andrew relaxes in Minneapolis, spending time with family and his dog Luca the Lagotto.
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