WATCH: Andrew Zimmern Reduces Anderson Cooper To A Blithering Man-Baby With Lamb Testicles

Andrew Zimmern is a patient man. If our PR Blitzkriegs involved having to serve wrinkle-nosed, squeamish, “ewwww”-ing talk show hosts culinary delicacies, while trying to encourage them to be open towards new things, only to have them take the tiniest non-bite of something, swallow without tasting (or chewing), and then immediately slam a glass of wine to wash it down…we’d be frustrated, to say the least.

Today, he stopped by Anderson Live to dish up chapulines (AKA, those seasoned fried crickets popular in Central and South America), beef tongue tartar, and lamb fries (AKA, testicles) to self-professed picky eater Anderson Cooper, and three “brave” audience members who were “big Andrew Zimmern fans.”

First of all, we’re pretty sure anyone who’s a big Andrew Zimmern fan (or, you know, has a palate) would be pretty excited to try these dishes when properly prepared. Anderson can be a big baby about it if he insists, but he has to live with food fear so crippling that he only orders off the kids menu, so we think he’s being punished enough.

Second of all, for being “good sports,” the audience members were treated to a night out at Alex Guarnaschelli’s Butter. Seriously, Anderson? This is not a challenge/reward scenario for anyone with taste buds! Getting to eat a beef tongue tartar canape is not a punishment for which free dinner at a trendy restaurant should be the prize. Getting to taste correctly prepared beef tongue tartar is the reward. You’re just giving out prizes on prizes on prizes! Which like, if you want to be Oprah and do that, that’s fine, but don’t frame it as a reward for bravery. (Props to those audience members for gaming the system, though.)

Also, Anderson’s skepticism towards Andrew Zimmern’s impassioned speech about how we, as Americans, in order to fix our totally fucked food system, must expand our protein spectrum just a little left us uncomfortably anti-Silver Fox. It’s not a position we’re used to taking.

Check out the clip below.

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