We’re lucky here in Charleston, says celebrity Chef Andrew Zimmern.
“In your part of the world, you have access to some of the freshest and most beautiful fish on Planet Earth,” Zimmern said.
Zimmern, known for his Bizarre Food franchise on the Travel Channel as well as other award-winning television shows and culinary books, will be in Charleston this weekend as part of the Food & Wine Classic. He will lead two seminars promoting the use of fish.
It won’t be Zimmern’s first time in the Holy City.
“l’ve probably been to Charleston about 30 times, making television, taking vacation, going fishing, going hunting or just driving through and spending a night or two because I like the city,” Zimmern said in an exclusive interview with Charleston City Paper.
He is a firm believer that one of the solutions to a healthier planet is to eat more fish, which, he says, also happens to be the way to get healthier humans.
“If you want to solve climate crisis issues, eat more seafood. Hunger? Eat more seafood, the water has a glut of it. If you want to combat factory farms that are raising hogs, beef, chicken, eat more seafood. For health and wellness, eat more seafood,” Zimmern said.
A philanthropic life
Eating seafood — in fact, eating, period — was the root of his philanthropic work, which started with his first passions for ending hunger and enabling better access to mental health care.
“Anything to do with children, hunger, any food issue, was my litmus test (for getting involved),” Zimmern said. “If you hop into the barrel on the hunger issue, invariably as you’re rolling in this barrel down the street, you bump into food waste, climate crisis, health care, gender and pay equity, regulatory issues, domestic economic development. You can’t talk about hunger and not talk about all the other things that play into it. Now all of it is what I spend the majority of my time working on.”
He has first-hand experience with the mental health part. Zimmern talks openly about his own experience as a “formerly homeless, formerly incarcerated, formerly street junkie-suicide survivor” and says he has been sober for 34 years, showing that access to affordable treatment works.
“Sprinkle in dignity and respect. I’m proof positive that it works,” he said.
That experience drives his need to give back not only to mental health causes, but to the environment. He has recently co-written a book, The Blue Food Cookbook, with 140 recipes and a primer on how to eat more seafood and purchase sustainable seafood. He will present a seminar Nov. 16 at the Classic called, “Hope in the Water: Seafood for a Sustainable Future.”
In fact, hope is something Zimmern said he still has for the planet. Despite the dangers facing the environment, he said there is still time to fix things.
“You remember Covid? I remember seeing the news and seeing all these pictures of the River Seine in Paris, the Thames in London, the Venetian lagoons. They were crystal clear. Just two years after things looked dead, now they were vibrant, alive and working. Nature is very resilient. We’re in trouble and we have to act immediately, but it’s not dead yet,” he said.
Although Charleston is lucky enough to have easy access to fresh fish, Zimmern said even frozen fish is a good bet because large grocery chains have gotten on board with providing sustainably-raised seafood.
“People will buy frozen chicken at the store, but (frozen) fish is presumed guilty,” he said.
“Whether it’s wild or farmed, fresh or frozen, the biggest question is whether it was reasonably sourced and how it was handled. You can go to the dock and buy sustainable fish that hasn’t been handled well, and you can go to the supermarket and buy frozen farmed fish that was handled immaculately.”
Zimmern said consumers should take advantage at large grocery store chains of seafood experts who can answer questions about where the fish came from, how to cook it or what to substitute if the fish in a recipe is unavailable.
Zimmern also will present a Nov. 15 seminar alongside Chubby Fish owner James London on cooking crudo for the home cook.
“I think James London is one of the most talented chefs working today. We’re going to teach people that you can use the meat you scrape off the bones after a filet and the meat behind the head. Add some acid, some fat and some crunch, and you have a delicious crudo,” he said.
But Zimmern says his philanthropic work is what nourishes him.
“I’m addicted to making change. I like the action,” he said. “Once you help pass a law, once you help to make someone’s world a little bit better, guess what, you realize it’s a pretty powerful drug in and of itself. Helping people is in and of itself the most vital and important reason we are put on Planet Earth.”
More: foodandwineclassicincharleston.com
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