The 11 Absolute Best Tips Andrew Zimmern Has For Home Chefs

Knowing how to cook is a very important skill for any individual to have. While you can always order takeout or visit a restaurant, there’s something very intimate and wonderful about making food for yourself and getting to share it with the people that you care about. And no one knows that better than Andrew Zimmern. While he has traveled the world as the host and creator of “Bizarre Foods” and gone into nature with his newest venture, “Wild Game Kitchen,” which is available on Tastemade, he has always arguably had a soft spot for home cooking and the opportunity to turn it more than just something done for sustenance. 

We had an opportunity to chat with Zimmern about some of the most important tips he has for budding and experienced home cooks, as well as how to revitalize classic meals with bold new ingredients, cooking methods, and more. So sharpen your knives and grab your recipe book because it’s time to get cookin’! 

An experienced chef like Andrew Zimmern has worked with tons of kitchen gadgets over the years, both on television kitchen sets and in his own personal cooking ventures. Like all cooks, he has his favorite gadget, and his answer for what it is may honestly surprise you with its simplicity.

That tool is the classic mortar and pestle. “I love mine and use it every day for grinding spices, making sauces, mayo, and more,” he says. Mortar and pestles can come in several different materials, so you can easily find one that suits your needs if you want to heed his advice and purchase one for yourself. And once you add it to your kitchen, you may find yourself, like Zimmern, using it for more things than you ever could imagine. For one, you can use a mortar and pestle to crush garlic; it’s not only effective, but it also alleviates the need to clean off pesky, sticky cloves from your knife. 

Space is a hot commodity in the kitchen, and you won’t realize that you don’t have enough of it until every surface is covered entirely with baking pans, plates, cutting boards, and more. Andrew Zimmern admits that even he has to work in a small home kitchen, and he shared some words of advice for maximizing that space and ensuring that there is more than enough room to cook. He explains that he stores tabletop appliances away in cupboards and cabinets until he needs to use them. “Everyone takes their table space and covers it with things they don’t need every day,” he says. So before you start cranking out the mise en place, consider making a visual sweep of your kitchen to see what you tuck away until a later time.

Zimmern also shared another kitchen organization tip with us: It’s that size matters. He uses large pans for cooking, rather than opting for several small bowls or pans. “I don’t have small pieces of anything because I don’t like to crowd pans or spatter when mixing,” he says. It’s always better to have too much room than not enough of it, right? 

Learning to season your food properly is something that certainly comes with time — and experience. Andrew Zimmern explains that the most important thing to keep in mind when you’re deciding how to balance and season a dish is to look at contrasting elements, including temperature, texture, and flavor. He explains that “all great food has contrasting elements — typically several of them.” It’s all about learning how to master those intersections and allow for certain elements to be expressed at the right time. For example, he shares that elements like acid and salt can help “bring those flavors into focus.” 

However, Zimmern also expresses that there has to be some intentionality when it comes to cooking. “Why have shallots in a sauce if you can’t taste their contribution to it?” He says. So, the next time you’re cooking up your favorite dish, or something a little newer, consider the purpose and intent of every ingredient you’re using to ensure that it is both expressed to its fullest ability and achieves maximum utility in your recipe. 

Skimming over the recipe is something we’re all guilty of — experienced cooks included. Andrew Zimmern recommends reading over the recipe twice before you start cooking: “99% of all mistakes can be resolved by understanding the process,” he says. This means that before you think about turning your stove on or chopping up your onions, give your recipe an extra once over to make sure that you have all of the ingredients and tools that you need to make it a resounding success. 

Not only will this approach save you unnecessary and panicked grocery runs, but it will also make sure that you understand each step of the instructions as the creator intended. That way, you won’t miss when something is supposed to be minced versus diced or if an ingredient is meant to be added earlier or later on in the process. 

Overachievers, step to the front. When you’re first learning to master cooking, you can easily fall into the trap of taking on a recipe that’s a little too advanced and then fall into inevitable despair when you realize it didn’t come out as the photos in the recipe suggested it would. So, there’s something to be said about going back to the basics — and it’s something that Andrew Zimmern himself recommends for home cooks. 

Zimmern explains that “cooking should be a part of everyone’s life” and notes that the idea of mastering a couple of different techniques is “a must when it comes to life skills and personal wellness.” These can include things like steaming vegetables, grilling fish, making eggs, and roasting chicken. Once you master the basic techniques for these, then you can always move on to more complex dishes and recipes — many of which integrate those fundamental skills into the recipe instructions. 

On the subject of skills that we don’t practice enough, it’s time for our favorite: knife skills. This is a safe place to admit that your chopping looks a little worse for wear at times. Lucky for you, Andrew Zimmern has some advice for how to improve your knife skills, and it’s in line with everyone’s favorite adage: Practice makes perfect.

He recommends practicing your knife skills at least once a week and notes that if you do it for a whole month, you can cut your future prep time in half. It’s a pretty good tradeoff if you ask us. Not to mention, you’ll also get much cleaner cuts that you can feel more confident about. Zimmern recommends dicing, finely dicing, and julienning a whole bag of carrots and onions to improve your knife skills, though it may also be worth it to practice more technical cuts, like batons and the brunoise cuts, as well. Not to mention, you’ll end up with a ton of fresh veggies that you can use to meal prep for the week. Toss your chopped onions and carrots into a soup or use them as a filling for crunchy homemade veggie potstickers.

When you’re first getting the hang of things in the kitchen, it can be easy to only resort to bland and Americanized foods — like mashed potatoes, chicken noodle soup, and more. But we all know that variety is the spice of life, and coloring in the lines won’t help make you a more confident cook. “Our culinary exclusionism is killing growth, learning, and creativity,” Andrew Zimmern explains. He questions why so many home cooks rely on over-simplified recipes published on blogs and by “no-talent TV cooks” and notes that there should be more to cooking than just “[Western and European] spices and seasonings.” 

Instead of relying on these “safe” choices, Zimmern recommends taking inspiration from other places. For one, he suggests looking globally. Recipes from other regions of the world are accessible on things like Instagram or YouTube and can help inspire a home cook who’s feeling a little “stuck.” Things like Mexican mole, comforting Ethiopian doro wat, and Indian sweet and sour pickles are recipes that should be just as approachable as the classic turkey dinner; you just have to take the jump and seek out opportunities to try new recipes. 

There’s an old adage that “mistakes are inevitable,” and there are plenty of ones to make while cooking. Everyone, at some point in time, has burned caramel sauce, forgotten an ingredient, or mutilated a beautiful cut of fish in an attempt to filet it. That being said, you can’t always prevent those mistakes from cropping up or occurring; you can just reframe your mindset and use them as a chance to grow, learn, and become a more confident and competent home cook. 

There’s also the idea here that mistakes are not something that you should take too close to heart. Andrew Zimmern would say the same. “We have all survived 1,000% of our worst days, so throw the burnt chicken in the garbage and order in some Thai food,” he says. “It’s not a big deal.”

It wasn’t long ago that sous vide machines started cropping up everywhere. While it might seem like a gimmicky kitchen tool, you can use your sous vide machine for so many different things. And Andrew Zimmern would agree that this is one tool that is anything but overrated. “It makes all cooking almost foolproof, saves money, saves time, and multiple dishes/meals can be cooked at the same time,” he says. 

Plus, Zimmern notes that there is very little buy-in required for this tool. The immersion circulator, tub with a lid, and vacuum sealer may cost around $350 total — which is comparatively less than a new, high-quality kitchen knife or a sturdy pot. Plus, you can access a lot of information about how to properly use this appliance on blogs and other outlets. “Why isn’t everyone in America cooking this way especially when so much wisdom is online for free?” Zimmern says. “I am shocked that no one is doing this at home.”

The core of good meal prepping is being able to utilize a bunch of different ingredients across several dishes, and its a practice that Andrew Zimmern endorses wholeheartedly. Not only can you buy your groceries in bulk, but you’ll also learn how versatile ingredients can be across different cuisines and styles of cooking.

Zimmern explains that he’ll roast two whole chickens every week. Besides eating it as-is, he will repurpose the meat for things like salads, sandwiches, and more. He will also switch up this routine by cooking the chicken in different ways, like braising it in an Asian-inspired seasoning with star anise, soy sauce, and sesame oil, dredging it and deep frying it, or stuffing it with Thai fried rice and roasting it. The same idea — switching up the flavors and repurposing the protein for other things — can be applied to fish, poultry, and even vegetables. You’ll quickly find your grocery list shortening and your knowledge growing. 

One of the most challenging parts of cooking is getting out of your comfort zone and wholeheartedly embracing the joy of cooking. Andrew Zimmern recommends cooking at least two meals a week that are “new to you,” as it will help keep things interesting. Not only will this help you find the flavors and ingredients that you like to work with, but it will also help you grow your technical skills in the kitchen. Then, he recommends cooking another two meals a week with someone else because, as he puts it, “that’s how you share the tasks and connect with others.” He even suggests downloading and playing music and just finding ways to enjoy the process — it’s a practice that he himself has employed every week. 

Another trick that Zimmern has to embrace change and to try new things is to approach cooking with a “Why wouldn’t you?” approach. “Try it — what do you have to lose?”