Andrew Zimmern

“I will tell you flat out that I continually find Yelp and products like it to be increasingly worthless to me as a consumer.”

“I think Yelp is neither good nor bad for the food industry. I find it useless.”

“I love eating in San Francisco, Chiang Dao, China, Tokyo, Hanoi.”

“You can tell the history of people on a plate.”

“I grew up in a time when we didn't have the Internet, and we didn't have smartphones and things like that.”

“Having been in the restaurant business, our job in the restaurant business is to be responsible for our customers' happiness. It's the nature of the hospitality business. You need to take care of people. You take care of customers above all others. Customers are your lifeblood.”

“People forget that in early 1970s, there were 3 sushi bars in New York City. Three. Three. Think about that. Now, there is sushi in... I've eaten it - there is sushi at gas stations in Middle America.”

“After attending The Dalton School and then Vassar College, I began cooking in New York City restaurants helmed by Anne Rosenzweig, Joachim Splichal and Thomas Keller.”

“I'm into exploring the fringes of a culture.”

“The greatest food city in the world is New York City, just in terms of depth and breadth, variety, size, infrastructure.”

“A well-seasoned and properly cleaned wok will always have micro-pores in the metal that hold some oil or food particulate, etc. - that's a good thing.”

“The corner of the 'food media' that I think is troublesome to me is the shows on TV that don't really have a point or don't have a lesson to be learned. If you don't have a point, or if there's not some part of it that is meaningful and can change someone's life, in my old age, I'm just not into it.”

“I use vinegars to deglaze saute pans for sublime sauces.”

“I am grateful to have my life back and for the friends and family who never gave up on me, for a God who was there when I was ready to find him. I am grateful for so much, that every day, one day at a time, is Thanksgiving.”

“I love the Minnesota State Fair, and I go with my family every August for nearly all 12 days.”

“Sometimes I have to shake my head at how much work it can take to track down a handful of food. Perfect example: I spent a whole day in the Amazon rainforest, in Ecuador, scouring the trunks of dead palm trees for grubs.”

“Everything happens in the kitchen. Life happens in the kitchen.”

“Good vinegars come in all shapes, sizes, strengths, and viscosities and are probably my most often used seasoning agent in the kitchen after the other major acids we use in solid form: sugar and salt.”

“It might seem strange to feast on Guinea pig, but Ecuadorians love to eat cuy. Personally, I think it's a phenomenal alternative to pork or chicken. High in protein, low in fat, cheap and easy to raise. Oh, and cuy tastes great, much like roast pig. You might call it a pet, but I prefer to call it dinner.”

“For wok cooking, use oils with a high smoke point and low polyunsaturated-fat content: grapeseed oil, peanut oil, etc. Sesame oil and olive oil will burn and taste bitter. Oils with high polyunsaturated-fat contents like soybean oil will also make your food texturally unpleasant.”