The Zest

The holidays are a great time to gather family recipes, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tell you about the City of Tampa’s Soulwalk Community Cookbook . Tampa’s Soulwalk is a trail linking historic sites that tell the story of the city’s communities of color. The city is creating a companion cookbook, and they need your input. You have until the end of the year to submit recipes online a...

Picture a time when there was no barbecued pork in Florida—when there weren’t pigs at all. That was the scene more than 500 years ago. It wasn’t until Spanish settlers disembarked from their ships, along with the pigs they’d brought on board, that our state’s indigenous people ever laid eyes on hogs. Kevin Kokomoor, Ph. D. , details this history in his book La Florida: Catholics, Conquistadores, a...

It’s one thing to know how the sausage gets made. It’s another thing to buy the pigs that become the sausage. But that’s what former Zest guest Andrew Tambuzzo recently did. Andrew is the founder and owner of The Boozy Pig Butchery & Kitchen in Tampa, which has locations in South Tampa and Davis Islands. In addition to selling pork products to the public, Boozy supplies meat to dozens of resta...

Foraging food can be exciting: searching for provisions, maybe discovering some sweet berries or nutty salad greens you’ve never tried before. Eating wild plants is fun… but if you’re not careful, it can kill you. So when we wanted to learn the basics of foraging in Florida, we called Roger L. Hammer . He’s an award-winning naturalist, botanist, nature photographer and survivalist instructor for t...

A new exhibition at the Tampa Bay History Center explores what our state was like a century ago, from music and fashion to politics and social movements—including the banning of alcohol. It’s called Decade of Change: Florida in the 1920s , and it’s on view from Nov. 4 to July 14. Dalia spoke with the exhibition’s curator, Brad Massey, Ph. D. Related episodes: History of Beer with Rodney Kite-Powel...

When Huey Howard got into cattle ranching in 1963, JFK was president, the Beach Boys’ Surfin’ USA topped the music charts, and a white landowner could refuse to sell property to a Black man. But that didn’t stop the Leland, Mississippi, native from becoming one of Florida’s few Black cattle ranchers. Today, Huey and his family raise more than 400 head of cattle, and they’ve earned respect in Flori...

Tampa’s historic Ybor City district is known for its nightlife. But just a few blocks away, you’ll find a bar that’s reminiscent of another time and place. Bastet Brewing pays homage to the beer culture of ancient Egypt. And that’s the vibe you’ll get when you step inside, from the mural on the wall down to the smallest details. Friends Huston Lett and Tom Ross opened Bastet in November 2020. Desp...

Stone crab claws are big business in Florida, worth an annual $34.4 million, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission—and that’s in an industry that works just half the year. Few people understand the ins and outs of stone crabbing better than Kelly Kirk of Goodland. It’s a small fishing village in the southeast corner of Marco Island. Kelly and her family run Kirk Fish C...

This week, we’re getting a lesson in cooking with booze. No, we’re not talking about enjoying a spirited beverage while you cook, although that can be nice, too. We’re talking about using a splash of alcohol to enhance a dish. As chef and owner of three Tampa restaurants, BT Nguyen has found plenty of creative uses for beer, wine and spirits. Dalia recently sat down with the celebrated chef in the...

Orlando is stepping up its game. To outsiders, Central Florida might just look like a bunch of turkey legs and Mickey ice cream bars. But in the past decade, O-town has become home to some pretty top-notch eateries. And the powers that be are starting to take notice. In 2022, the prestigious Michelin Guide began awarding stars to Florida restaurants. Among the first was Soseki Modern Omakase in th...

What if whisky didn’t make your throat burn? What if, instead, it tasted comforting and slightly sweet, like a candy your grandma might keep in her purse? That’s the idea behind Duke & Dame Salted Caramel Flavored Whisky . It’s the brainchild of Chima Burey and Amani Macaulay, friends who met in New York and later moved to South Florida to see if their idea had legs. Spoiler alert: It did. The...

Whether you’re just learning to cook for yourself or you’ve been staging elaborate dinner parties for years, you can always learn something from America’s Test Kitchen . The long-running PBS television show features recipes, equipment reviews and taste tests to help make cooking at home more efficient and enjoyable. On Sept. 20, ATK co-hosts Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison will be in St...

Harrison Holditch has heard the jokes: Florida Man, Redneck Riviera. The Sunshine State, and the Panhandle in particular, are an easy target. But Harrison and his brother-in-law, who own Distillery 98 in Santa Rosa Beach, wanted to make something their town could be proud of. (The distillery’s name is a nod to U.S. Highway 98, which hugs the Emerald Coast.) So during the glass shortage of 2021, th...

Every family needs someone to take charge. Whether it’s planning a vacation or organizing the holiday gift exchange, somebody’s gotta take the initiative. And that’s certainly true when it comes to creating a family cookbook. Janet Keeler thinks a lot about cookbooks. In addition to being a journalism professor at Eckerd College in St. Pete, Janet spent decades as food editor for the Tampa Bay Tim...

In this age of digital everything, sometimes it’s just nice to work with your hands—bake a loaf of bread , knit a sweater, curate your cottagecore aesthetic. In that vein, we at the pod have been curious about canning food. And we’re not alone. We recently reached out on social media to learn what listeners wanted to know about canning. For answers, we turned to John Barbie, owner of Tip Top Canni...

Shayla Daniels knows all about the sweet life. The Tampa resident is pastry chef and owner of Shay Chez’s Sweets , and she nearly always has something in the oven, from specialty cakes to French-style macarons. She even showed off her baking skills on season 8 of the Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship . But for Shayla, life hasn’t always been sugar and spice. In this conversation, she also...

Here in Florida, we enjoy year round warm weather. But we Floridians still tend to change up our meals in the summer. From barbecues to beaches to boat rides, summertime lends itself to a different way of eating—and drinking. Dalia recently visited Rococo Steak in St. Petersburg to chat with the restaurant’s sommelier, Will Howard. In this conversation, Will shares advice for summer food-and-wine...

Every August, while the rest of Florida retreats to air conditioning, breezy Key West is gearing up for one of its signature events: Key West Lobsterfest . The four-day event includes a street fair, concerts, pool parties and of course lobster dishes galore. This year’s festival is Aug. 10-13, 2023, at venues across Key West. Erik Adams is show manager for Lobsterfest. He chatted with Dalia about...

Today, we’re exploring a brief yet important chapter of America’s culinary history. Between the 1940s and 1970s, most major American newspapers had a women’s page. Among the sections devoted to sports, business and so on, there was a section devoted to so-called women’s issues: family, fashions, furnishings and of course food. University of Central Florida journalism professor Kimberly Voss, PhD ,...

Kenny Gilbert is a busy guy. On top of being chef/owner of Silkie's Chicken & Champagne Bar in Jacksonville and vice president of culinary operations for Grove Bay Hospitality Group in Miami, he’s author of the new cookbook Southern Cooking, Global Flavors. Between his book tour and overseeing multiple restaurants, the Top Chef alum is always on the go. Dalia caught up with Kenny via Zoom at—w...

When you hear the term baseball foods, you likely conjure up visions of hotdogs and popcorn, peanuts and Cracker Jack. But those stadium treats won’t exactly fuel the players on the field. That’s where Courtney Ellison comes in. As dietitian for the Tampa Bay Rays , Courtney is responsible for fueling the players on and off the field. That means offering plenty of options for pre-and post-game mea...

The new season of The Zest launches on Thursday, July 13. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at TheZestPodcast.com .

This week, we’re getting the dish on some of Florida’s best places to eat, according to Yelp —you know, the website and app where real people leave reviews of local businesses. You’ll find everything from dry cleaners and locksmiths to hair salons and gyms. And of course, restaurants. Yelp recently released its list of the Top 100 Florida Restaurants 2023 , as determined by users’ rankings and rev...

As the weather heats up, it’s the perfect time for tapas. Spanish-style small plates are unfussy, sharable and can be served hot or cold. Dalia recently visited Ceviche Tapas Bar & Restaurant in St. Petersburg to chat with co-owner Lee Karlins and sommelier/beverage director Jackie Eash. In this conversation, Lee and Jackie describe how tapas are traditionally served in Spain, explain how tapa...

Today we’re getting a crash course in Florida’s cottage food industry from two people who’ve learned the ins and outs. Sharlay Smith is the owner and founder of the Lentil House . It’s a Jacksonville-based snack food company that she started after taking a class about cottage food businesses offered by the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences ( UF/IFAS ) in 2017. And...