Dissecting Steven Rinella’s MeatEater Show, Family Ties and Other Sources of Income

Quick Facts

Steven Rinella is a renowned American outdoorsman who, according to him, views himself more like a “hunter-conservationist” rather than just a conservationist. In addition to having a successful career in the outdoor industry, Steven Rinella is also a cook, TV and podcast host, as well as an author of ten books, out of which six centers on his outdoor career.

Interestingly, he is among the few personalities within the hunting industry that are taking the lead in sharing the lifestyle of hunting and fishing to a large number of diverse audiences. Doing this through his groundbreaking television show, MeatEater, Steven has made hunting and nose-to-tail cooking of wild game gourmet well-received from the city of New York to Hollywood.

Overview Of How Steven Rinella Fell In Love With The Outdoors

Steven Rinella’s career journey began several years ago. The hunter was born on Valentine’s Day in 1974, and he is a native of Twin Lake, Michigan. Growing up, Steven was raised around hunting and fishing and this makes it not surprising that he decided to build a life along that path. He caught his first squirrel when he was 8 years old, shot his first deer at the age of 13, and started reading materials on historical narratives and tall tales about the American wilderness as a very young boy.

Steven’s interest in outdoor writing was kindled when he was in high school, Reeths-Puffer School District, from where he graduated in 1992. At that time, there were two things he wanted to do, one of which was to be a professional commercial fur trapper. He worked hard towards making this dream a reality and trapped for ten years, selling the hides of animals such as beaver, Muskrats, otter, coyote, fox, raccoons, etc. However, he eventually gave it up at the age of 22 after it dawned on him that he could not make ends meet as a professional trapper because fur prices were very low.

Consequently, Steven decided to go with his plan B, which had always been to become an outdoor writer as he loved spending a lot of time outside. As a result, he went on to acquire an undergraduate degree at Grand Valley State University, graduating in December 1996. Thereafter, the outdoorsman also went to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana, from where he got a Master of Fine Arts in creative non-fiction writing.

Not long after his graduation, Steven Rinella began selling hunting, fishing, and wild food-related stories to magazines, with his first story sold to Outside in 2000. He wrote for the magazine for a while, and also wrote for Field and Stream and Trapper and Predator Caller, as well as many other publications that focus on hunting and fishing. A few years down the line, he started writing about other subjects, which later took his heart away from writing about trapping.

Within this period, Steven published his first and second books after which he landed a television opportunity. Even though it was not something he set out to do, he embraced the opportunity because it was something he was interested in and could do alongside writing. He worked on several TV shows, including hosting The Wild Within, which ran for a very short time on Travel Channel. Steven Rinella would later begin his show titled MeatEater.

Understanding The Idea Behind Steven’s MeatEater Show

MeatEater is an American non-fiction television show based on the hunting adventures of Steven Rinella in and outside the United States of America. The hunt occurs in places such as California, New Zealand, Arizona, Mexico, Alaska, Montana, and many other locations. The show debuted on Netflix on the 1st of January 2012 and has aired for eight seasons. Each episode of the series embraces everything that the writings of Steven Rinella are acclaimed for, including his enthusiastic analysis of the basic information about hunting, his strong principle and hunting ethics, and above all, his cooking knowledge and skills.

The Netflix show does not only let you in on the art of hunting the game, but it also helps you to know about the game itself. While many shows of this nature will sometimes focus on presenting a montage of successive killing shots, Steven makes MeatEater different through not just his mastery of cooking the game but also the wealth of captivating and enriching information he shares while doing the cooking.

Produced by Zero Point Zero Production, MeatEater is the first hunting series to be featured on Netflix, and it is counted among the top “reality” shows both within the outdoor media and across all media put together. This, to a large extent, is thanks to Steven Rinella’s wittiness and vast knowledge of history and anatomy. In 2012, the weekly half-hour series earned a nomination for Best New Series, Best Host, Best Hunting Show, and Best Educational Show for Sportsman Channel’s Sportsman Choice Awards.

What Are His Other Streams Of Income?

Following the success of the MeatEater show, the adventurer started a MeatEater Podcast, where different groups of guests share their expert knowledge about the vast world of the outdoors as they discuss outdoor topics on fishing, hunting, wild foods, and conservation of wildlife. This discussion is often flavored with humor, some sort of ‘disrespect,’ a lot of conflicting viewpoints, and unforeseen trivia.

In addition to the podcast, Steven Rinella also makes money from his books. He has authored over ten books six of which centers on fishing, wildlife, hunting, and cooking of his wild game. Some of these include the multiple award-winning American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon (2009), and the bestseller titled MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook: Recipes and Techniques for Every Hunter and Angler (2018).

Steven’s other books are The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine (2007), Me, Myself And Ribeye (2011), Grand Theft Cattle (2011), Buy The Seat Of Their Pants (June 2011), Meat Eater: Adventures from the Life of an American Hunter (2013), The Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game: Volume 1 & 2: Big Game & Small Game (2015), and The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine (2015).

Apart from putting his writing skills to good use in his books, Steven Rinella also works as a contributing editor for The Oprah Magazine Grand Theft Cattle, Glamour’s How I Fell For My Complete Opposite, Outside Magazine’s Go Big Or Go Home, New York Times’ Down, Boy, and other top magazines.

Details About Steven Rinella’s Family

Steven Rinella is the son of Rosemary Johnson and Frank J. Rinella, who passed on in 2002. Growing up, Steven and his two older brothers- Daniel and Matthew Rinella- were taught to hunt and fish by their father and this made him develop a passion for outdoor life at a very young age. The brothers share a very close relationship and this is seen in the second season of MeatEater: Mountain Hunting. According to Steven, Matthew is a force that cannot be stopped on the hunting ground, while Daniel possesses adventurous fishing skills.

Steven also has an amazing family. He got married to Katie Finch in a ceremony that took place on the evening of Saturday, 12th of July 2008, in Fennville, Michigan. The hunter’s marriage inspired Genevieve Field’s article titled “” on Glamour magazine on January 20, 2009. Meanwhile, Steven and Katie met at a time when Steven was selling his first book and went to New York City to meet his editor for drinks. As fate would have it, the editor came along with her company’s new director of publicity, who happened to be Katie. The couple’s union has been blessed with three children.

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