Welcome to Biscuits and Jam from Southern Living.

I'm your host, Sid Evans, and today I'm talking to someone who may not be from the South,

but over 20 plus years as a TV host, he spent plenty of time there. Andrew Zimmern grew up in New York City, where he learned his love of food from traveling with

his parents and spending weekends with his grandmother.

He got his first job in a restaurant on Long Island at age 14, and after some difficult years

with substance abuse, he eventually moved to Minnesota, where he got

sober and gained attention as a chef, radio host, writer, and TV personality. In 2006, he started

hosting Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel, which earned him four James Beard Awards and made him

one of the most successful hosts in the history of food TV.

We'll talk about his life and career, his thoughts on the South,

and his current show for the outdoor channel, Andrew Zimmern's Wild Game Kitchen,

all on this week's Biscuits and Jam.

Andrew Zimmern, welcome to Biscuits and Jam.

Good to be here.

Where am I reaching you?

I'm sitting in my office in Minneapolis.

So, all right, I've got to get this out there right off the bat, that you are probably one of the least southern people that I've interviewed on this podcast.

I mean, you're born in New York, you live in Minnesota.

But I also know that you do love the South and have loved your time down here.

That's true.

Also, my family came in from Germany into the Port of Charleston in the 1840s.

A storm blew the boat off course, and instead of going to New York, they went to Charleston.

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