MINNEAPOLIS — Chef and television host Andrew Zimmern has a new show coming out next month on MSNBC that will marry political issues with the subject of food.
It’s called What’s Eating America, and so, today Jana asked Zimmern a few questions – the first, what’s eating America?
“A lot of things. What's really eating America is talking about the issues that we care most about in a way that everybody can understand, neither red or blue, left or right but forward,” Zimmern said.
Zimmern is going to talk about voting rights, health care, climate change, and immigration thru his very specific lens of food.
How the impact of those political issues affect what you and I eat.
But Zimmern also was candid with Jana about what he has learned or still thinks about, as it pertains to the controversy surrounding something he said in November of 2018.
In an interview with Fast Company, Zimmern was talking about his then new restaurant, Lucky Cricket – which was his take on Chinese cuisine.
The controversy in that chat, was this comment:
“I think I’m saving the souls of all the people from having to dine at these horseshit restaurants masquerading as Chinese food that are in the Midwest.”
Fast and furious the criticism and hurt came from all over the world.
So today Jana asked if that comment, and the backlash that followed changed him or taught him anything.
“Sometimes famous people, people in the public eye say dumb stuff. It was stupid it was hurtful it was not what I meant,” Zimmern said.
“What do you do when you let people down, what do you do when you say something stupid, you have to go make amends.”
He apologized back then, online and publicly - then listened and held public forums about issues of inequity in the food world.
Which brings us back to now.
“I don't think there is a day that goes by that I don't try to take a positive action step that has come out of that moment of hurt and misunderstanding,” Zimmern said.