Legends
By Andrew Zimmern
Tonight is the final episode of Bizarre Foods. I am a mess.
The episode is my Survivor Show, shot on location in the Mexican jungle, where I was left to fend for my myself for 48 hours after two days of training with Myke Hawke, one of the world’s great survivalists and Special Forces guru. I lived to tell the tale. Don’t miss tonight’s show.
My new series, Bizarre World, starts in September.
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My pal Dan Buettner is applying his Blue Zones longevity secrets to an entire town and measuring the results. As he told me over breakfast last week, he is giving Albert Lea, a statistically average American city, an extra 10,000 years of added life expectancy. Here is the front page story running in the USA Today Life Section. If all goes according to plan, I will join Dan one day in August to cook a Blue Zones lunch for the whole town.
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Brasa in St Paul on Grand Avenue is finally open . . . thank god!
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Tim McKee is working on his new restaurant, Sea Change, in the Guthrie (formerly Cue) and will be formally open in July. Until then, the restaurant is open with McKee’s staff running the show before the formal change. Molly Mogren wrote a great pre-pre-pre-view based on her chance to sit in on a staff meal tasting. This new eatery should set a new standard for fish and shellfish in Minnesota.
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Two years ago, I was in Virgin Gorda walking down the beach with the family, and we met some cool folks with kids of their own. The lady looked oddly familiar, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. Each day on the beach, all our kids would play together, and every afternoon, the other mom would play guitar with the kids. After a few days of this, we realized it was Jill Hennessey of Crossing Jordan fame. Well, Jill and her husband e-mailed me to say her first album will be available as of today through iTunes, Amazon, and in stores at Borders. You can also hear some music and get information at Jill’s website. Her new career is not the typical vanity project you find some celebs doing these days (see Eddie Murphy’s “Party All the Time”); it is amazingly good.
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Last week, I logrolled with three-time world champ Shana Martin in Madison; hit Solley’s in Milwaukee for a butter burger; ate in the kitchen with Homaro Cantu at Chicago’s Moto; played guitar at Legends with Buddy Guy; toured Ben and Jerry’s in Waterbury, and sampled the 2010 secret flavor they are working on; ate chowder and lobster at Newport’s Black Pearl; cooked with Ken Oringer at Boston’s Toro; ate a 22-course meal at Oya; and conducted the Boston Pops. All of this was for my web series Appetite for Life. The first six shows are up on the site; the ones I shot last week roll out next month.****
My pal Bill Gurstelle has a new book and the NYT loved it. I think you will, too.









Congrats Andrew on a great show and I wish nothing but the best for Bizarre World.
Posted by: Chad Bartz on June 16, 2009 at 8:16 PM
Thanks for doing the live chat last night. It was a pleasure to meet you in Milwaukee last week with my husband (Brewers jersey) in the parking lot next to Usingers. The pictures turned out great!
Posted by: Lori Suleski on June 17, 2009 at 4:05 PM
Anyone catch this show getting mentioned on The Soup last week making fun of what "Myke Hawke" sounds like if you say it fast. Funny stuff.
I'm guessing that is why he's referred to as Hawk on his companies web site.
In any case, great show Andrew and I look forward to the new show this fall.
Posted by: Jeff D on June 21, 2009 at 12:36 PM
You were Souped! That was hysterical. Now I need to have another child and name him Mike because our last name sounds like Hawk. I suppose I could just rescue another dog and name it Mike.
Posted by: Kathy on June 21, 2009 at 4:20 PM
Congrats on the new show. I hope it really takes off for you. Good luck
Posted by: rob barrett on June 28, 2009 at 11:01 PM