Andrew Zimmern Apologizes for Remarks on Midwestern Chinese Cuisine – Twin Cities

Less than two weeks after the opening of his new Chinese restaurant in St. Louis Park, celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern really got down to it.

In a video interview with the economic magazine Fast Company, Zimmern, while discussing the reasons for his opening of the Lucky Cricket, compared some restaurants in the Midwest Chinese faeces of the equine variety.

"I think I'm saving the souls of all people from having to dine at these horseshoe restaurants pretending to be Chinese food that's in the Midwest," Zimmern said.

Zimmern, who has spoken over the phone with Pioneer Press from the office of this new restaurant, now apologizes profusely for these remarks, stating that he was referring to restaurant chains in the shops. shopping malls and airports, not to the Sino-American Mom-and-Pop stores. around the twin cities and the rest of the Midwest. But the initial statement created a firestorm, starting with the social media outcry and an online publication by Hillary Dixler Canavan, editor-in-chief of Eater Restaurant.

Canavan has asked aloud why Zimmern, a white man, was qualified to translate Chinese food into American customers.

"This act of" translation "on behalf of a supposedly white audience – the idea that American customers need something unknown to" make them more acceptable "in order to get them to the table – evokes a strange cultural elitism more and more outdated, "she wrote.

Zimmern is, and has been, painfully aware of this conversation and says he has done everything in the past to be sensitive to it. The chef is disappointed not to have clarified his words.

"I was expecting the issue of cultural appropriation to come up," Zimmern said. "What I did not expect, in this interview, is that someone with the experience I have when speaking and presenting these ideas is as careless and irresponsible and so vaguely speaks of such an important issue. "

Zimmern adds that the interview was conducted over a period of five to six hours and was revised within 15 minutes. Yet, he says, there is no excuse.

"I'm 57, not 27, and I know words are important and that I should have been a lot more responsible and more careful," Zimmern said. "And I am deeply, deeply personally hurt by the fact that people I have supported and helped for nearly 20 years … I have let down those people and hurt a lot of people."

One of these people is Ruth Tam, who wrote a scathing editorial in the Washington Post.

"I am an American of Chinese origin who grew up in Illinois. I do not agree with his statement about the Midwest, which in Chicago would be the only Chinatown in the country to grow rather than shrink. His restaurants are an important part of this momentum.

"But what could happen to Zimmern? More spicy, more fun, more daring? Zimmern fails to recognize that for various reasons these tastes could only be generalized recently. Imports of Sichuan pepper, the fiery and floral flavoring agent present in some of its dishes, were banned for nearly 40 years until 2005. In addition, bolder Chinese dishes have long been relegated to the rank of "weird" and "exotic", and Zimmern played a role in that. "

Tam refers to Zimmern's long show, "Bizarre Foods," which has evolved over the years to contain fewer insects and more meaningful cultural exploration. All of this is partly explained by the national debate on cultural appropriation – the idea that borrowing ideas or objects from a culture when you are not part of that culture is offensive.

Many on Twitter and Facebook wondered if the TV host, who is certainly not Chinese, had a business opening a Chinese restaurant.

Zimmern partially answers this question in the original video.