Anyone who yucked Xavier Legette's yum needs to reconsider ... 'cause celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern tells TMZ Sports eating raccoon is actually quite delightful.
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00:00I eat raccoon several times a year, especially when I'm down in communities in the southeastern
00:08United States or in some of the mid-Atlantic states, West Virginia, Tennessee, etc.
00:17There's still people in pockets of America that hunt in the evening for their breakfast
00:22and lunch and hunt in the morning for their dinner.
00:27Raccoon is absolutely delicious.
00:31It requires real cooking.
00:32It requires a certain wisdom that comes in field dressing it.
00:39But boy, oh boy, is it fantastic.
00:42Is there a way to describe the taste?
00:44Like, I know Xavier said it does not taste like chicken.
00:46It has its, quote unquote, only taste.
00:49Do you agree with him?
00:50Well, 100 percent.
00:51I mean, you are what you eat, right?
00:54And that includes the animal kingdom as well, which is why when I'm eating squirrel, I make
00:59sure to do so at the end of the fall season when the squirrels have fattened up on beach
01:04nuts or acorns or other fatty nuts that are abundant in the trees or on the ground where
01:12they live.
01:13Right.
01:14And they they taste sweeter and more delicious at that time of year.
01:17The same thing with raccoons.
01:20Raccoons are probably they're not benign like a lot of reptiles.
01:27They do have a pronounced flavor.
01:31You know, rabbit is very mild in flavor.
01:33Obviously, chicken is mild flavored.
01:35I would say raccoon is nuttier.
01:39It's on the mild gamey side.
01:43But it's it's no more unique in its own taste than than venison or squab or any of these
01:50sort of luxury game animals that we that we sort of have put up on a pedestal.
01:57I do think that there is a little bit of culinary elitism when it comes to not eating a broader
02:10diet.
02:12I think that people frown on folks like myself who regularly eat those animals, which is
02:21why I was so happy to see what, you know, you know, Xavier had posted, because, you
02:30know, even my friends are like, what are you doing eating that?
02:33And I'm like, well, you know, you're missing out.
02:36You know, not only is it good for our planet, but, you know, I quite frankly.
02:43I can cook chicken, pork, beef, lamb and all the other traditional animals as many ways
02:53as anybody I know.
02:56However, it certainly makes my diet more interesting to include game, both farmed and wild.
03:04And what we typically refer to as as critters these days, we have a lot of other things
03:10to worry about in this country.
03:11I say let people eat what they're going to eat.