The French Pastries Andrew Zimmern Can't Make To Save His Life

Despite the fact that he's a professional chef with a long list of culinary accolades, it isn't too often that you actually see Andrew Zimmern cook. He is perhaps better known for hosting the show "Bizarre Foods," where he travels the world and introduces audiences to different cultures, cuisines, and regional specialties. In the Paris episode of "Bizarre Foods" spinoff "Delicious Destinations," viewers got to see how croissants and macarons are made. And as usual, we didn't get to see Zimmern participate in the baking.

As it turns out, however, Zimmern doesn't even make croissants and macarons in his own time. As the celebrity chef revealed in a Q&A video posted to his YouTube channel, the two French pastries are two of his least favorite foods to make. While he has no trouble making other desserts known to be technically challenging, such as baked Alaska and soufflé, he admitted that macarons and croissants tend to give him a tough time.

Andrew Zimmern has nothing against French pastries. However, he is a self-proclaimed perfectionist. "There are some specific things that I completely suck at because of the time and precision required," he explained in his YouTube video. "I'm a perfectionist when it comes to food." As you might imagine, this makes the process of making macarons incredibly frustrating for Zimmern, especially because the outcome of the recipe relies on visual indicators, such as the ribbon stage.

Pastries like croissants, which involve lamination — the process of layering dough and butter over and over again to create a flaky end result — are challenging for Zimmern for the same reason. "The entire world of laminated pastry is something that I just can't do well," he admitted. "It's not that I can't do it and haven't, I'm just lousy at it." (It's safe to say, therefore, that sfogliatelle is out of the question, too.)

While Andrew Zimmern established that he'd prefer not to make croissants and macarons, he has no problem eating them. He once shared on Instagram that croissants are one of his favorite things to eat for breakfast, adding in a post on his blog that his office is close to a bakery called Honey & Rye that makes them well. Instead of getting plain croissants, however, Zimmern says he typically opts for almond croissants and ham and gruyere croissants.

When it comes to macarons, Zimmern doesn't settle for any less than the best; his favorite macaron shop is all the way in Paris. As Zimmern shared in an Instagram post, he loves the black licorice macarons from Maison Ladurée. Though this flavor choice raised a few eyebrows in the comments section, fans should expect nothing less from the adventurous TV personality.