The Zest

What do you get when you put two foodies in the same room with a microphone? Tampa’s Table ! It’s a podcast produced by Visit Tampa Bay and hosted by friend of the pod Jeff Houck . The show explores Tampa Bay’s food scene with chefs, restaurant developers, food influencers and—recently, Dalia Colón. So take a seat at the table, and enjoy this bonus episode. 

On the season 12 finale of The Zest Podcast, the team offers their hot takes on holiday foods. Executive producer and host Dalia Colón is joined by editor Andrew Lucas and brand manager Alexandria Ebron. From traditional family favorites to which holiday dishes are overrated, things are heating up in the Zest kitchen.

Picture this: you roll through a bright blue gate onto a sprawling property lined with ancient oaks, lush gardens bursting with color and a quiet pond where a few friendly farm animals wander by. Live music drifts through the air, tropical flowers spill across the outdoor tables, and before you is a Caribbean-inspired feast that looks almost too beautiful to eat. Welcome to Spice Society Supper Cl...

Once the holiday hoopla fades, we all need something delicious to look forward to. Luckily, we’ve got just the thing: the Tampa Oyster Festival . Happening Jan. 10, this event checks all the boxes. It’s outdoors during Florida’s best weather. It’s packed with fresh seafood, live music and the kind of friendly crowd that makes you glad you came hungry.  Bonus: It all supports a great cause— Framewo...

A table for one can be fun! This holiday season, we’re doing things a little differently around here. While everyone else is stressing over 20-pound turkeys and complicated side dishes, we’re celebrating the joy of cooking for one. Kerstin Decook is the author of several cookbooks, including Dinner for One: One Pan, One Plate, One Happy Belly . She’s here to show us that a solo meal doesn’t have t...

For many folks living in the inner city, meal options are limited to what they find in nearby convenience stores and fast food joints. But imagine if every city block contained a community garden teeming with fresh vegetables. That’s the vision of Asha Walker. She’s the founder of Health in the Hood . It’s a Miami-based nonprofit that’s tackling food insecurity with urban gardens, food distributio...

It’s one of the highest-ranked food shows on Apple Podcasts. Nope, we’re not talking about The Zest —although we hope we’re first place in your heart.  The podcast in question is Walk-In Talk , founded and hosted by Carl Fiadini of Lithia. Coming from a foodie family and having spent decades in the food industry, Carl pivoted during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Now, instead of selling food, he sells st...

Call it the best of both worlds. Cheeky’s is a seafood restaurant and raw bar that opened earlier this year in St. Petersburg. It has the convenience of the city’s walkable Grand Central District, with the breezy vibe of a beachfront eatery. The restaurateur behind Cheeky’s—a.k.a. Cheeky himself—is Nate Siegel. He also cofounded the popular Willa’s restaurant and adjoining Willa’s Provisions coffe...

Many of us would like to eat more farm-fresh foods, but we don't have the time, space or expertise to produce it ourselves. That’s where FarmPixie comes in. FarmPixie is a free online marketplace that steers you to fresh, local products like meat, eggs, bread, honey, bath items and more. Founder Kim Kenney owns a small family farm in Dade City. She visited our studio at WUSF Public Media on the US...

Home cooking without the hassle. If you’re longing for a taste of home but you find yourself ordering takeout again and again, then this conversation is for you.  Get ready to meet Ciji Castro, founder and executive chef of Domestic Gourmet . It’s a food and lifestyle brand inspired by the Palm Harbor resident’s Cuban and Puerto Rican roots. Domestic Gourmet’s oils, spices and recipes are designed...

Today we’re catching up with the co-hosts of America’s Test Kitchen . It’s the PBS cooking show that teaches us which cooking equipment and recipes are worth our time and money. Two years ago, ATK co-hosts Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison came to Tampa Bay for something they’d never really done before: a live on-stage event full of cooking tips, stories from the show and audience partici...

Vivian Aronson isn’t a regular mom. She’s a cool mom. As in, millions-of-social-media-followers cool. She’s also appeared on Good Morning America , The Drew Barrymore Show and in People magazine. Known on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook as “Cooking Bomb,” the Orlando resident gained fame sharing recipes that she learned growing up in Chengdu, China. In 2021 Vivian released The Asian Market...

Emmanuel Dunbar grew up hating coffee. Now, coffee is his life. Emmanuel owns Royal Diaspora Coffee Company , a cafe and community gathering place in Tampa. While Royal Diaspora is a proudly Black-owned business, Emmanuel’s customers are as diverse as the way they take their cup o’ joe. The Zest team visited Emmanuel at Royal Diaspora. In this conversation, he breaks down his love-hate relationshi...

She pours wine, and she pours into people.  Denise Marsh is a sommelier and certified wine specialist at Society Wine Bar in Tampa’s Ybor City historic district. And vino isn’t the only thing that brings her joy. She’s also passionate about empowering people—women in particular.  Denise does this through speaking engagements, international retreats and her book, Do It For Your SELFIE!: A Guide to...

Are you ready for some... spaghetti?

Supermarkets and big box stores are great. But nothing beats the feeling of shopping in a bodega . These small, often family-owned convenience stores are a fixture in New York City’s Latinx neighborhoods. In them, you’ll find everything from milk and lottery tickets to hot foods like empanadas and chicken with yellow rice. New Jerseyan Ivette Rivera wanted to bring the spirit of bodegas to her ado...

What does it take to grow confident, successful kids? To grow successfully, kids need a good foundation, nourishment and a lot of care—kind of like a garden. So when Tampa community activists Jeanette Bradley and Diana Kyle wanted to positively impact local schools, they decided to get their hands dirty. In 2018, the two founded SEEDFOLKids After School Garden Experience . The free program is the...

No gators on this menu. The writer Carl Hiaasen is best known for his satirical crime novels set in Florida. His 1993 novel Strip Tease was adapted into a movie starring Demi Moore. And the Apple TV+ series Bad Monkey is based on his 2024 book of the same name. Carl has written dozens of books for both adults and young readers. His latest, Fever Beach, involves “dark money and even darker motives,...

Where there's smoke, there's the Station Chef. Firefighters are heroes. And how do we honor our heroes? Often, it’s by baking for them. There’s just one problem: All those well-intentioned cookies and cupcakes we drop off at fire stations are adding up to less healthy firefighters—putting all of our lives at risk. That’s why Martin Lemay is on a mission to help our heroes stay healthy while enjoyi...

Plant-based picadillo? Say less! When Ellen Kanner went vegan in the 1980s, she couldn’t imagine buying oatmilk or plant-based cheese in a grocery store. Today, she says being vegan is easier than ever, thanks to restaurants and mainstream supermarkets accommodating the plant-based lifestyle. And the food writer is herself helping folks lean into eating vegan with her cookbook Miami Vegan: Plant-B...

For many of us, food is one of life's great pleasures. But what happens when that joy gets taken away, and can we get it back? When Mallary Tenore Tarpley lost her mother at eleven years old, she wanted to stop time. If growing up meant living without her mom, then she wanted to stay little forever. What started as small acts of food restriction soon turned into a full-blown eating disorder. Malla...

It’s our steamiest episode yet. But get your mind out of the gutter. We’re talking about cooking with steam. Earlier this year, The Zest teamed up with Adalay Interiors to host a cooking demonstration. Adalay is a kitchen and bath showroom in Tampa where you can see and even test out your dream appliances, countertops, flooring and wall coverings. Note: Adalay is a sponsor of The Zest.  One of the...

Florida’s official hurricane season is June 1 to Nov. 30. But things really ramp up during peak season , which is between mid-August and late-October, according to the Florida State University’s Florida Climate Center. So if your hurricane kit isn’t quite ready for a major storm, fear not. There’s still time to stock up on supplies. And when it comes to food, this week’s guest can help you think o...

Today, we’ll get alfresco dining tips from Lauren Gay, better known online as Outdoorsy Diva . On her popular blog and social media channels, the Florida-based travel influencer shares her adventures, from hiking and horseback riding to kayaking and swimming with manatees. Since we first spoke with Lauren in 2021 , she has contributed to the Lonely Planet book Women Travel Solo , which even got a...

Beach season is also book season. So we're revisiting Dalia's conversation with Terra Dunham, owner of Book + Bottle in St. Petersburg. It's a combination bookstore and wine bar. Whether you're relaxing on the beach with a juicy celebrity memoir or getting lost in an audiobook as you chill by the pool, you'll get some great recommendations for book and wine pairings. This conversation was recorded...