How Andrew Zimmern Really Feels About Crumbl And Viral Restaurant Dishes

Chef and TV personality Andrew Zimmern has established a reputation for being a fearless eater, as evidenced by his show "Bizarre Foods." (In case you want to relive the culinary adventure, here's our ranking of the absolute best episodes.) While Zimmern keeps an open mind about cuisine from other cultures, he's not a fan of viral food phenomena. Mashed caught up with Zimmern at the Food Network NYC Wine & Food Festival, and he certainly didn't hold back in our exclusive chat.

We asked Zimmern what he thinks of Crumbl's wildly popular cookies, a brand whose popularity has been attributed to its use of TikTok for promotional purposes. While Zimmern emphasizes that he doesn't want "to yuck on someone's yum," he describes Crumbl offerings as "a big, fat, commercially made cookie that's super gross tasting." The chef holds the same opinion of restaurants that become famous for wild viral dishes, and his ire is based on the fact that, in his words, "There are starving people in the world."

While the TV show host doesn't name specific viral dishes, anyone familiar with TikTok (or social media in general) has certainly come across a few. Just consider Salt Bae, the Turkish chef who can easily be considered the progenitor of the viral restaurant movement. Known for serving up gold-encrusted tomahawk steaks, Salt Bae is the perfect example of decadence and exorbitance, as illustrated by the extravagant prices charged at his restaurants.

While the correlation between viral foods and food insecurity may not be fully clear at first glance, Andrew Zimmern's statements highlight the problematic nature of fetishizing food. "I think that is bad global citizenship ... We fetishize food while ignoring the fact that there are so many hungry people on planet Earth," the chef explains. Food insecurity is a major issue, as it's estimated that roughly 2 billion individuals around the world experienced significant levels of food insecurity in 2023 alone.

Zimmern's stance also makes sense when you consider the decadence of Crumbl cookies. A single milk chocolate chip cookie from the brand contains 720 calories, 28 grams of added sugar, and enough saturated fat to fulfill a person's total daily allowance at 20 grams. Other TikTok famous foods are pretty problematic when it comes to food waste. Consider the adorable yet wasteful viral Marry Me Burger, which requires cutting components into heart shapes, thereby leaving lots of scraps. While these examples really hammer home Zimmern's point, he is aware of the role he plays in viral food culture. As stated by Zimmern, "I fetishize food as much as anybody."