The Crab Cake Snack Andrew Zimmern Absolutely Loves

Celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern believes New York is the world's best food city, but when it comes to one of his favorite snacks, he's all about Baltimore's famous crab cakes. The former "Bizarre Foods" host loves having them in a particular way reminiscent of cold pizza or cold fried chicken, straight from the fridge. His treat is a cold crab cake on toast with sliced tomato and slathered-on Russian dressing.

Zimmern makes double batches of his Baltimore-Style Crab Cakes, keeping leftovers for the snack he calls a "religious experience" (via Instagram). He doesn't like crab cake fillers, so his recipe simply blends jumbo lump crab with crushed saltine crackers, mayo, eggs, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce.

Russian dressing is a sandwich spread and dip as well as salad dressing, and is famously part of Reuben sandwiches (one of the under-the-radar dishes that define American cuisine). It's made with mayo and ketchup or chili sauce, and ingredients that often include Worcestershire sauce and spicy horseradish. However, Zimmern's homemade version doesn't use either, mixing mayo and Heinz chili sauce with sweet pickle relish, herbs, lemon juice, and hot sauce (per YouTube).

The sweet flavor of the pickle relish and chili sauce in Zimmern's Russian dressing and of the ripe tomatoes help bring out the sweetness of the crab. That's balanced by the sandwich's spicy bite from the hot sauce in the crab cake and dressing. He doesn't specify what kind of toast he uses, but a slice of soft yet toasted crispy brioche would bring buttery flavor and richness to the snack's texture and temperature contrasts.

Andrew Zimmern has said his Baltimore-style crab cake is his favorite crab cake recipe, but he didn't actually create it himself. He got it from his best friend's Baltimore-native wife, who passed on her mother's secret recipe. Food & Wine magazine first published it from Zimmern in 2012, and in 2018 named it one of its 40 best recipes ever. It was still in the updated "40 Best" list the magazine published in 2025, and remains one of its most popular recipes with readers.

As rightly celebrated as Baltimore is for its crab cakes, two other places in the U.S. with blue crabs abundant off their shores have their own regional variations. Louisiana's crab cakes often have shrimp or crawfish (which is different from lobster) mixed with the crab. They also have stronger seasonings in line with Cajun and Creole traditions, and can include the "holy trinity" of onions, celery, and bell pepper. In the Carolinas, meanwhile, they sometimes blend meat from different types of crab and use a little more binder. The crab cakes may have peppers and onions, Old Bay, fresh herbs, and cayenne or hot sauce.