Here's Why Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods Was Canceled

for 13 seasons andrew zimmern's show bizarre foods took viewers on a weekly journey outside their culinary comfort zones the chef and writer who co-created the show for the travel channel traveled the world in search of the most unusual things that people eat a curious and enthusiastic eater zimmern gladly tucked into insect-filled nuggets in amsterdam and sampled stuffed lamb spleen in jerusalem zimmern was on a mission to share different cultures and appetites with the world using his signature slogan if it looks good eat it then in december 2018 the show was taken off travel channel's prime time roster and parent company discovery inc moved it to a less viewed saturday morning slot the sudden change in programming for bizarre foods came with speculation that discovery was reacting to a controversial video filmed for fast company and posted on november 20th 2018 in which zimmern discusses opening a chain of chinese restaurants throughout the midwest called lucky cricket i'm saving the souls of all the people from having to dine at these porsche restaurants masquerading as chinese food that are in the midwest zimmern's comments about the quality of chinese restaurants in the midwest received immediate backlash writer ruth tam wrote in the washington post zimmern is trying to make money in america except he has the noble cause of saving white people from eating bad chinese food when chinese people make americanized chinese food for white people zimmern calls it horse but when he does it it's unique zimmern issued an apology for the interview on his facebook page on november 26 2018 writing in part i am completely responsible for what i said and i want to apologize to anyone who was offended or hurt by those sound bites food should be for everyone and yet culturally there is a terrible and centuries-old history of white people profiting off of other cultures in food music and elsewhere according to eater the flagship lucky cricket restaurant closed in july 2019 for renovations minnesota monthly reported that it reopened in september 2019 though many thought that zimmern's controversial interview was the cause of discovery's decision to relegate bizarre foods to a less desirable time slot and ultimately cancel it a few years later that wasn't the case at all as it turned out discovery had a more supernatural reason for making the change the washington post reported that bazaar foods was finally cancelled in 2021 when discovery shifted travel channel's programming quote to focus on ghosts monsters and the paranormal an incredible stomping sound captured on the camera's audio this causes jay to fall back out of his chair the final episode of bizarre foods aired on march 29 2021 classic episodes of bizarre foods can be found on the discovery plus streaming service meanwhile zimmern's career continues to flourish despite the demise of bizarre foods in early 2020 the chef hosted an msnbc series called what's eating america which tackled subjects such as immigration climate change addiction voter suppression and health care additionally during the covet 19 lockdown zimmern hosted cooking tutorials on instagram sporting a beard and entertaining viewers while teaching valuable skills from his home kitchen the demise of bizarre foods might not have been the worst thing ever from zimmern's perspective in any case it wasn't exactly the kind of show he would have made as he revealed in a 2014 interview with asia life magazine the idea to call the show bizarre foods was not mine i still don't like it i think it gives people the wrong impression after all one person's bizarre food is another person's family dinner speaking of family dinners in march 2021 the magnolia network released a new zimmern show that seems personally meaningful to him with family dinner zimmern is sticking to the united states not because he wants to sample what some americans might label not bizarre foods for a change but because he wants to spotlight the unique and diverse family cultures that exist within the nation's borders in the show zimmern shares meals made in the creole cuban or italian traditions of the families he visits just to name a few check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more mashed videos about your favorite celebrity chefs are coming soon subscribe to our youtube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one [Music]

Channel: Mashed

Views: 563,590

Keywords: mashed, bizarre foods, andrew zimmern, travel channel, tv show

Id: EcS47FVweR0

Length: 4min 13sec (253 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021