Exclusive behind-the-scenes shots of a Bizarre Foods America: Miami segment at Michael's Genuine

By Lesley Abravanel | Lank@aol.com7/19/2012

It was no secret when Andrew Zimmern came to town last winter that he was filming an episode of Bizarre Foods America in Miami. Though some of his locations at the time were sort of hush hush (a Cobaya dinner at Azul, among a few others), thanks to Zimmern's penchant for Twitter, everyone who was looking pretty much knew where to find him. Especially some groupies, who followed his every move. Welcome to South Beach, Mr. Zimmern. Don't say we didn't warn you. But more on that below.

While this writer did have the excellent honor of participating in a segment at Red, The Steakhouse with the omnivorous Travel Channel host, we're still not sure what will end up on the actual episode, which may also star some Everglades, er, delicacies, Michelle Bernstein and Michael Schwartz, among others. Speaking of Schwartz, we have some exclusive behind-the-scenes shots of his segment with Zimmern as well as an amusing little anecdote from a very observant fly in the soup.

"There were two chicks not in the crew who were Andrew's groupies. They were following him around on his various shoots. Let's just say they were of a certain type, tight, short outfits, flirty. You get the picture? Eye candy for the cooks, who were saying some things about how lovely the ladies were while [chef de cuisine] Brad [Herron]'s mic was on so everyone could hear. The cooks didn't know [the mic was hot], so Brad tricked them into thinking one of the groupies was Andrew's wife and he could hear what they were saying. Neither were, of course, but they thought they had big hearty portion of foot In the mouth."

Meanwhile, before the show airs, check out the pix below. Groupies not pictured.