The five meals Andrew Zimmern will never forget

The celebrity chef and lifelong traveller has eaten it all, but these are the five meals that he'll remember for the rest of his life. Just by looking at a plate of food, Andrew Zimmern believes you can see a place's history. "Food is the way to understand another culture," says the chef, TV personality, author and lifelong traveller. "If someone from outer space came down and said, 'Show me your hometown', I wouldn't take Mr Spaceman to the museum. If you want to understand a human being, sit down and have a meal with them." Andrew Zimmern is a television host and food system advocate who has won four James Beard awards and an Emmy. The creator of the Bizarre Foods franchise, he now hosts Curated Journeys, intimate travel experiences focusing on hyper-local food cultures and rare culinary traditions. We asked Zimmern to choose the five meals that have shaped him – no small feat for a man who has been everywhere and eaten literally everything; no organ ever unturned. The result is less a list than an autobiography, tracing a life savoured through food. From the savoury French bite that cemented his destiny, to meeting a culinary hero, here are the five meals Andrew Zimmern will rem