The Zest

New episodes drop on Thursdays, right here in your podcast feed. You can find previous episodes, recipes and more at TheZestPodcast.com .

Wintertime is when many Florida fruits and vegetables are at their peak. So we think it’s the perfect time to catch up with Gail Eggeman. She’s co-founder and manager of the St. Petersburg Saturday Morning Market , where each week thousands of visitors shop for produce, craft items and a lot more. Gail chats about the market's early days, her food heroes and why bargain hunters like myself should...

Florida is home to more Puerto Ricans than any other state. This week, we’re exploring how many of Florida's Puerto Rican communities celebrate the winter holidays. From pig roasts to all-night parties to Puerto Rico's answer to eggnog, you'll want to incorporate these traditions into your next holiday gathering, if you don’t already.  Our guide is Yanira “Yaya” Cardona of Jacksonville.  She owns...

When most people think of Florida, their mind conjures up images of beaches or Disney World—maybe alligators or the latest Florida Man headline. But there was a time when Florida was synonymous with one thing: citrus. Florida was the country’s leading citrus producer, outranking even California.  So, what happened? Yes, citrus greening is partly to blame. But that’s not the whole story.  For answe...

These days, it’s widely recognized that the real first Thanksgiving took place in St. Augustine in 1565—a full 56 years before the Plymouth, Massachusetts, event that you probably learned about in school.  That first Thanksgiving banquet in Florida consisted of foods like venison, bean stew and hard biscuits. And while corn and pumpkin had their place on the table, they hardly resembled the cornbr...

Mamey , which opened in August 2020, is an island-inspired eatery, with menu items like Jamaican short rib empanadas, Key West pink shrimp taquitos and key lime cheesecake flan. Orno , which opened in October 2021, focuses on New American cuisine; think wood-roasted summer squash, grass-fed ribeye and Alaskan halibut. The seemingly disparate menus have something in common. Both feature ingredients...

Here’s all you need to know about today’s show: On our website, one of the recipes that goes with this episode is titled Instant Ramen Upgrade Tips. Yep, today we’re exploring what it’s like to cook for yourself during college, or whenever you’re living on your own for the first time. Our talented and sweet intern, Lily Theisen, recently sat down with her fellow University of South Florida student...

Let’s start with a classic: The Cuban sandwich. A soon-to-be-released book will explore its history and popularity around the world. University of South Florida Professor Barbara Cruz is one of the book’s co-authors. She was born in Cuba. And she says the sandwich has always been part of her life.  Besides the Cuban sandwich, what other foods did Tampa’s early Cuban residents bring with them? For...

Grammy winner and Tallahassee native T-Pain is known for his collaborations, like All I Do Is Win with DJ Khaled, Good Life with Kanye West and Low with his fellow Floridian Flo Rida.  But T-Pain’s latest collab takes him out of the music studio and into the kitchen. It’s a book of cocktail recipes called… wait for it... Can I Mix You a Drink? 50 Cocktails from My Life and Career. T-Pain’s co-auth...

In season 3 of The Zest, we spoke with Dr. Frederick Douglass Opie about his book Zora Neale Hurston on Florida Food. In this week’s episode, Dr. Opie is back to shed light on the role food played in the life of another Harlem Renaissance-era Floridian, James Weldon Johnson . The Jacksonville native lived from 1871 to 1938. Dr.  Opie is an author and professor at Babson College outside of Boston....

Alain Lamaire is executive chef and co-owner of Sensory Delights Catering in Pembroke Pines. You may also recognize him from Food Network’s Cutthroat Kitchen and Chopped. In this conversation, he discusses foods that reminds him of home, why Haitians eat pumpkin soup on New Year's Day and how to be a better ally to Florida's Haitian community. Related episodes: Talking Seoul Food with Miami’s 2 Ko...

Most of the colorful lunches on Jenny’s Lunchboxmafia Instagram account are for her 12-year-old daughter, Jazzy. For a long time, Jenny traveled for work and wasn’t at home to prepare Jazzy’s lunch. So three years ago when Jenny changed jobs, she started making up for lost time by lovingly preparing lunches for herself, her husband and Jazzy. In this episode, Jenny shares tips for packing a better...

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month , today we’re celebrating Florida’s Latin-American food cultures. We’re sharing an excerpt from a conversation titled Food Memories of Latin America. This Zoom discussion was part of Conversations in the Neighborhood: Let’s Talk about Food , a discussion series presented by Florida Humanities, the University of Florida’s Center for the Humanities and the Public...

If you’re a longtime Florida foodie, then you can probably rattle off the names of some James Beard Award winners from the Sunshine State. The James Beard Awards started in 1990, to recognize the country’s best restaurants, chefs, food writers and others in the culinary world. A sprinkling of Floridians have been honored recently. But in the big categories like Best New Restaurant and Outstanding...

When you’re in Miami, it’s easy to find a Cuban sandwich… and wash it down with a cup of Cuban coffee. But Jennifer and Michele Kaminski were craving something different— more along the lines of the Korean food they grew up eating. So the sisters started a ghost kitchen. That’s a restaurant that’s available only for delivery and takeout. They called in 2 Korean Girls , and it’s generating big buzz...

Over his career, Greg Baker worked his way up from teenage dishwasher to a six-time James Beard Award nominated chef. Greg is perhaps best known as the chef behind The Refinery, a popular farm-to-table restaurant in Tampa’s Seminole Heights neighborhood that he owned from 2010 to 2019 with his wife, Michelle Baker. He loves how a plate of food can make someone happy.  But for Greg and countless ot...

Dalia chats with Stephanie Bailes, president and executive director of Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville. The museum is named for the late Dr. James Robert Cade , a nephrologist (a.k.a. kidney doctor) at the University of Florida and the lead inventor of Gatorade . Dr. Cade and his team developed Gatorade in 1965 as a carbohydrate-electrolyte beverage designed to keep Gator f...

With COVID variants looming large, many of us are back to cooking at home. Some of us never stopped. And while we’re all for supporting local restaurants, ordering takeout everyday isn’t always in the best interest of our wallets—or our waistlines. So friend of the pod Wendy Wesley is here with some guidelines for stress-free cooking. We're talking no-recipes, use-whatever-you-have-on-hand cooking...

And she always looks fabulous. Her Instagram account, @OutdoorsyDiva , is worth a follow for the outfits alone. We  figured someone so glam probably enjoys some pretty amazing meals, even while she’s roughing it. So we recently spoke with Lauren about how she got into adventure blogging and how we can all eat better in the great outdoors. Related episodes: Fresh Florida Oysters The Ultimate Beach...

In Miami’s artsy Wynwood neighborhood, there’s a colorfully painted building that has people lining up around the block. Customers wait patiently for bagels, guava-cheese pastries and other treats. But not on Saturdays. The bake shop known as Zak the Baker is a kosher bakery that closes every week for the Jewish Sabbath. But the owner, 36-year-old Zak Stern, is not as religious as you might think....

The Zest and Florida Matters podcasts are produced by WUSF Public Media .

You might call it the most magical food blog on earth. Disney Food Blog , along with its accompanying YouTube and social media channels, is the uber-popular destination for Disney food news. Want to know the best Disney World restaurant for vegetarians, or how to get a birthday cake delivered to your room at a Disney hotel? DFB’s got you covered. In fact, the blog offers news, reviews and photos o...

New episodes drop every Thursday, beginning Aug. 5. Listen in your favorite podcast app or at TheZestPodcast.com .

It’s our season 3 finale, and unlike most of this season’s conversations, today’s episode was not recorded from Dalia’s bedroom closet. We bring you a fascinating look into the role food played in Salvador Dalí’s life and work. We’re sharing a recording of a presentation by Peter Tush, who is curator of education of the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg. Peter gave the talk in April via Zoom as part o...

In 2018, Chef Edouardo Jordan took home two James Beard Awards, including Best New Restaurant for his Seattle eatery JuneBaby. He was the first African-American ever to win in that category. But before Edouardo was history-making chef, the St. Petersburg native was a member of Boca Ciega High School’s class of 1998. He studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Orlando and got his start at Mise en Place Restaur...