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Thanks to creating and subsequently hosting the hit TV show "Bizarre Foods" for 13 years, Andrew Zimmern, a man who has , is one of the most well-known celebrities in all of food media. Since the show went off air, his star has continued to rise. Zimmern has created and starred in , including "What's Eating America," and has authored several books.

He's known for being a philanthropist and regularly works with charities and organizations to address global hunger, addiction, and homelessness. By these metrics, he is an incredibly successful person. The problem with listing a person's achievements is that it removes all context.



Read the above and you'd assume that Zimmern's life consisted of him skipping happily from one major milestone to the next. Of course, the reality is far different; Zimmern's parents divorced when he was young To better understand what happened later in Andrew Zimmern's life, it's important to first examine his childhood. By his own reckoning, Zimmern did not want for much as a child.

He was born into a privileged family in New York and materially had anything he could wish for. However, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. After the divorce, Zimmern's father moved to New York's West Village with his partner, Andre, where they developed a friendship with American food luminary James Beard.

Zimmern recalled how happy it made him to see his father and step-father relax in this safe space. However, these experiences were relatively few, and Zimmern spent t.

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