‘Bizarre Foods’ Celebrity Chef Andrew Zimmern Wants You to Eat More Seafood

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

SMASH fish [salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines and herring] are often touted as healthy because of the omega-3s and low levels of mercury. They factor pretty heavily into the book. Why?

Seaver: It is my mission to get more people to eat more seafood. The radically improved public health outcomes that we would see are something that both Andrew and I actively campaign for. Those [SMASH fish] are simple, easy-to-prepare, easy-to-find species that are relatively inexpensive.

“It is my mission to get more people to eat more seafood,” says author, speaker and chef Barton Seaver, who coauthored “The Blue Food Cookbook.”

Greta Rybus

Zimmern: Part of the reason we have so many smaller fish in the book is because we want people to eat further down on the food chain. If we’re just eating big pelagic fish, if we’re just eating the same five species [including the shrimp that America tends to be obsessed over], that’s a problem. It’s an economics problem, it’s a jobs issue, it’s a health care issue. It is a climate crisis issue. The further we go down the food chain, not only is it good for your body, it’s also good for our oceans, our planet and for international economic development programs. Plus, they are delicious!

How can readers make seafood a central part of a wellness-focused eating plan while keeping sustainability in mind?

Seaver: We wrote this book to give people permission to fall in love with seafood. Seafood doesn’t have to be expensive. It’s simple to cook. Frozen seafood can bring all of the same essential health benefits that are so important as we age, especially with the omega-3s. 

Zimmern: Cooking seafood is something that’s done less in the home than any other animal protein of any kind, other than wild game. So it is of vital importance that people create a plan. 

How did you decide which recipes made the cut? 

Zimmern: We could have had 7,000 recipes in this book, keeping the sustainability function in mind, because there are so many different ways to cook and work with seafood. We have a message here which is to tell people it’s not hard [to prepare]. I truly think volumes two, three and four would not be difficult to do. 

What would be a go-to recipe from the book you recommend readers start with? 

Zimmern: It’s one of Barton’s recipes that we made the other night [John Dory Marinated in Sweet-Sour Caponata, essentially a highly flavored ratatouille with a kick from vinegar, raisins and sugar]. I make caponata every couple of weeks, and we keep it in the fridge. Everyone loves it. It’s great to smear on a deli sandwich. We use it a hundred different ways. Barton put his caponata over a sauteed piece of fish.

Seaver: I would say the linguini with clams. It’s a recipe that really walks you through getting very comfortable with bivalves, which are a very easy and accessible place to start with seafood. 

What are some lesser-known fish that are further down the food chain that Americans should consider adding to their diets? 

Zimmern: My favorite fish are the smallest mackerel that I can find in my seafood shop. And a lot of times I buy them frozen at my Asian market. They’re beautiful. 

Seaver: Bivalves, mussels in particular. I think the world would be a better place if we all ate more mussels. 

Andrew, you’ll celebrate turning 65 next year. Have your eating habits or health habits changed?

Zimmern: Your body changes, and you can feel it. I’m very active and play a lot of sports — if you can keep score, I want to play it. My father told me a long time ago, “Never stop moving.” I’ve added brain work as well, because over the last 10 years, as I’ve learned more about aging, it’s not just keeping my body moving, it’s keeping myself facile from a brainpower standpoint. 

Andrew, how, if at all, has your philosophy on food changed from Bizarre Foods to The Blue Food Cookbook?

Zimmern: It hasn’t. They’re both completely in lockstep with each other. A lot of people thought Bizarre Foods was a fat white guy going around the world eating bugs. Then there are people who saw it for the reason that I intended it: that we could practice tolerance and understanding if we could be interested in how people ate around the world. But for the vast amount of people in the middle, they understood that Bizarre Foods was about diversifying your diet. In The Blue Food Cookbook, it’s the same message: Diversify our diets, eat more seafood.

If you could get every home cook in America to make one small, easy, approachable change to their seafood habits, what would it be?

Zimmern: Think about your three, four or five favorite seafoods and then pick one of them. Make it tomorrow night. It’s the easiest way to start. And I believe that simple action can change someone’s life.

Andrew, if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Zimmern: Don’t pretend so much. The older I get, the more teachable I am. I did not use the words “I don’t know how to do this, can you help me?” until I was 30 years old. I’m not proud of it, but that’s the truth. It’s changed my life.