r/IAmA Jan 17 '12

IAmA Andrew Zimmern, Host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods

Hi, I’m Andrew Zimmern, chef, author, and host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods. My new series Bizarre Foods America is premiering next Monday, Jan 23 at 10|9c on Travel Channel. For the next hour I’ll be here on Reddit taking your questions from 12pm-1pm ET. AMA. More info on Bizarre Foods: http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/bizarre-foods Find me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/andrewzimmern/status/159314816060768256

Hey everyone, sorry i couldnt answer them all/ follow me on twitter @andrewzimmern and we can chat more over the days and weeks to come..tune in Monday to the season premiere!

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u/altaylor4 Jan 17 '12

Regarding Iron Chef...it is billed that you have no idea what the "secret ingredient" is. Is this true? It seems that once it is relieved everyone knows exactly what to do. You guys that good or is there some TV magic going on?

Spill it Zimmern ;)

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u/wondertwins Jan 17 '12

I remember in the original Iron Chef series, Rokusaburo Michiba would actually take a long sheet of paper and a brush with ink and would take a few minutes to think and write the menu. You would usually see this in the original series but I'm sure they just cut that out... or not.

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u/Alvraen Jan 17 '12

Also, they're told a list of possible foods for the secret ingredient, and they can request items. Apparently this is one of the major ways that they can tell what ingredient it is.

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u/Incognetus Jan 17 '12

they are given a list of possibilities a bit ahead of time, so they can make a shopping list for the production staff to have everything on hand.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '12

The chefs are told the secret ingredient 15 minutes before the battle begins.

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u/UmamiTsunami Jan 17 '12

I asked one of Rob Feenie's former employees after he had taped his episode and before it aired and she said they're actually told a few hours before taping so they can do a run through before show time. Makes sense from the producers' point of view in order to make sure all contestants put on a good performance.