Andrew Zimmern

I log 250 days a year on the road. I need pants that are versatile, easy to clean, and dry in my hotel room if necessary.

I think we have cultural bias and practice some ethnocentrism when it comes to ethnic food in America.

In tribal Botswana, I received some woven necklaces and a handmade bow with three poison arrows. It's framed and hanging on the wall in my living room and is, without a doubt, one of my favorite possessions.

I love the Mexican chapulines. These little crickets are beautifully roasted with salt and lime.

Like many other chef-entrepreneurs, I am convinced that fast food does not mean bad food.

The biggest thing that I learned is when you're building something - especially a project that requires partners - you have to make sure that there is a lot of overlapping desire and a lot of overlapping alignment with the people that you're doing work with.

I like to talk to media.

The people who are afraid of talking to press are people who have something to hide.

I think a lot of chefs are afraid of media outlets, and especially web outlets, because they're afraid there's some 'Borat' situation going on.

Copper is a superb cooking metal, conducting heat so evenly it has unparalleled control, especially at low temperatures.

Everyone seems to ask me the same 10 questions, and high on the list is, 'What pans should I be cooking with and why?'

I use vinegars to deglaze saute pans for sublime sauces.

Good vinegars come in all shapes, sizes, strengths, and viscosities and are probably my most often used seasoning agent in the kitchen after the other major acids we use in solid form: sugar and salt.

We will, as Americans, inhale another culture on a fork before we try their music or their art or even, God forbid, hang out with the actual people.

In the frequently-asked-question category, the question I get asked almost as much as 'What's the worst thing you've ever eaten?' is 'What's the best pair of pants to travel in, work in, trek in, and use on the road for the most activities possible?'

The summer after college, I got a job as a chef at Conscience Point Inn in Southampton. I spent the summer on the water and cemented my expertise with seafood. I've always gravitated toward places that do seafood.

Even as a kid, I ventured out to ethnic restaurants all the time.

My parents divorced when I was six but stayed close.

I was born and raised in New York. My family has been in New York City since the Civil War. I have a ton of N.Y.C. in my DNA, from both sides of my family. I had a wonderful childhood in the city.

I rest my proteins in their liquid when I am done with the heat braise.

A five-pound boneless rolled-and-tied breast of veal, like any other piece of meat fit for braising, can come in many shapes and sizes. So recipe times aren't uniformly applicable. A long and thin tied roast will cook more quickly than its stouter, football-shaped cousin.

Don't ripen picked tomatoes in the sun. Put underripe tomatoes and stone fruits in a paper bag in cool, dark place, and magic happens. And never, ever store them in the fridge: they turn mushy and flavorless.

Don't pile your tomatoes in a container that doesn't breathe. I like my baskets or grass mesh plates, and I layer them single deep, stem end down to prevent bruises and premature rotting.

Never use an aluminum pot, pan, or utensil when cooking tomatoes - or any other soft metal items for that matter. The acidity in the tomato doesn't do well with them; they create a chemical reaction that can turn cooked tomatoes bitter and fade the color, and the food will absorb some of the aluminum!

Be aware of what you cook tomatoes with. The high acid content of the tomato slows down the cooking process of some other foods. Dried beans cooked with tomatoes added to the pot can take up to 20 percent more cooking time than beans without tomatoes added.

Any decision that I make, anything that I do, every single consideration of my day goes through the prism of what my former experience has been.

I can tell everything about a restaurant through their mussels. You have to work so hard to keep them perfect.

In 2012, I launched Andrew Zimmern's Canteen. Inspired by visits to street stalls and markets around the world, Andrew Zimmern's Canteen reflects the intersection of food and travel.

After attending The Dalton School and then Vassar College, I began cooking in New York City restaurants helmed by Anne Rosenzweig, Joachim Splichal and Thomas Keller.

As a teenager, I spent my days at the beach and nights cooking in Long Island restaurants.

Thanks to my parents, who had me traveling around the world mouth-first, I knew from a young age I wanted a career in food.

When I go into a steakhouse and order a steak, I'll order the cut of my choice, and I'll order it black and blue. And I'll ask them to bring it with my first course, and I'll just let it sit there.

The big mistake people make is eating their grilled beef hot. I prefer room temperature or cool. When the meat rests and starts to get cool, all of that fat goes back into the muscles and becomes much more tender.

My life gets better every year.

When I was 13, I came back from summer camp - summer of '74 - and my mother had had an accident during surgery and was in an oxygen tent in a coma. It was so traumatic. My parents had been divorced for six or seven years at that point, and it was sort of the seminal event of my life.

I'm no saint, and I don't want to come across like one, but there is not a day that goes by that I'm not doing something for someone else with a very large chunk of my time.

You can tell the history of people on a plate.

I lost an apartment. l became homeless for 11 months and squatted in a building on Sullivan Street in lower Manhattan.

Surrounded by a sweltering state known for its staunch conservatism, Austin is an oasis. It's home to the University of Texas, which continuously fosters a well-educated youth culture who have been funneling their collective creative energy into building a vibrant music, film, and technology scene for decades.

I consider a perfect hot dog on the street to be as valid a food experience as dinner at Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

As I famously said before, I don't like to waste meals. I'm no one's food snob.

I will tell you flat out that I continually find Yelp and products like it to be increasingly worthless to me as a consumer.

I don't like being at food festivals and have someone from some weird cable access show that's all about lifestyle get in my face with a microphone and wants to know which party I'm going to later... That just is pointless kind of stuff to me.

The corner of the 'food media' that I think is troublesome to me is the shows on TV that don't really have a point or don't have a lesson to be learned. If you don't have a point, or if there's not some part of it that is meaningful and can change someone's life, in my old age, I'm just not into it.

The restaurant industry in New York in the '80s was a good place to hide out if you had issues.

I'd rather be a good guest in someone's home than tell them I don't like their food or make fun of them.

Way back in the day, I used to cook for Thomas Keller at Rakel in New York City. Keller is a down to earth, kind, supportive person. I wish people could see that.

In everything I do, I want people to get the message of acceptance, to learn not to practice contempt without investigation. I have an obligation to do it.

In a world that is defined by what separates us, sharing a meal with someone from a different country, showing what we have in common with the people, it's very powerful and important.

I grew up in a time when we didn't have the Internet, and we didn't have smartphones and things like that.