AT HOME WITH

Andrew Zimmern

The chef’s broad collection includes kitchenware, guitars, art and wishbones

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Chef Andrew Zimmern, wearing a blue chore jacket, stands in front of his kitchen island.

By Abbie Kozolchyk Photographs by Ben Brewer

Oct. 30, 2025

Ask the chef Andrew Zimmern when he arrived in the Twin Cities, and he’ll respond with unsparing detail: “The night of Jan. 28, 1992. I had tried to kill myself four or five days earlier, and I was at the end of my rope, a horrible user of people and taker of things and an active addict and alcoholic.”

Chef Andrew Zimmern, wearing a blue chore jacket, stands in front of his kitchen island.

By then, he had no home, so he’d found room at a flophouse in New York where he woke up days after “eating a fistful of barbiturates” and drinking a bottle of vodka, he said. He managed to call a friend and try something new: “Ask for help.”

Chef Andrew Zimmern, wearing a blue chore jacket, stands in front of his kitchen island.