Celeb chef Andrew Zimmern returns with a mission beyond the plate

A familiar face at the Food & Wine Classic, Andrew Zimmern returns to Aspen as one of the event’s marquee culinary personalities — a true celeb chef fans have grown to know.

The four-time James Beard Award winner and Emmy-Award winning celebrity chef is a global food advocate and television personality. Best known for “Bizarre Foods,” he has traveled the world highlighting unique eats. Ultimately, his career reflects his longtime dedication to culinary storytelling, and demonstrating how food can change the world.

“I love teaching. I love the Aspen Classic. I’ve been going for over the course of 30 years,” he said. “I’m slowly, but surely, getting to be the senior player on the circuit.”

For 2026, Zimmern is turning his attention to fish and the role seafood consumption could play in reshaping global food patterns. Throughout the weekend, he will share those insights during multiple culinary demonstrations.

He started with a cooking demonstration, “American Classics: Iconic Dishes from Restaurants in that Defined an Era” on Saturday, June 20 at St. Regis 1, with a tasting of the dishes that inspired him throughout the years.

“I’m doing one on lost foods that have fallen out of favor or previously existed somewhere else that you now can’t get — classics that I think are really important. I’m doing it with seafood,” he said. 

He did a real Oysters Rockefeller and a Lobster Thermidor emulsified with egg yolks. 

“Classics are coming back in style, and I think in some restaurants it’s going to be more popular over the next couple of years. I’m excited about that because classics are classics for a reason. It’s great to see new chefs reinterpret them. I’m using original recipes in both cases from over 100 years ago,” Zimmern said.

He also led the cooking demonstration: “Hope in the Water: Seafood for a Sustainable” on June 21 at St. Regis Tent 1. The seminar focuses on globally-inspired seafood dishes from “The Blue Food Cookbook” that celebrates sustainability and the future of ocean-friendly fishing.

Zimmern released “The Blue Food Cookbook: Delicious Seafood Recipes for a Sustainable Future” in October 2025 — with his social media referring to it as “the ultimate seafood Bible for home cooks.” It features 145 recipes. 

“I co-authored the book with Barton Seaver, in collaboration with Fed by Blue. It was one of the great projects of my career,” he said. 

There are an additional 125 pages in front of the recipes, which he hopes will demystify and empower consumers to make better choices. It looks at topics like what sustainability means and the differences between farmed and wild, and fresh or frozen, options.

“Hopefully, we have empowered the consumer to buy and cook more seafood,” he said. “If we ate one or two more meals a week from the blue world, we would drastically do better things for our planet and its health and for our own health.”

When Zimmern returns to Colorado, he loves being outdoors, flying fishing, fishing for trout and being on the water. At the 2026 Food & Wine weekend, he sees many people he knows.

“I love seeing friends that I don’t have a chance to see in other places. I love spending time with my Food & Wine family. It’s so great. It feels like coming home,” he said, who has served as a contributing editor and frequent contributor of FOOD & WINE magazine over many years.

He is a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme and a founding member of the Coalition for Sustainable Aquaculture. He also works extensively with food and environmental non-profits, serving on the Board of Trustees for AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles.