The Zest

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...

Today, we get tips on cooking for a crowd from Edward Steinhoff. As executive chef at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Chef Ed oversees the property’s three restaurants, ensuring that hundreds of hungry theatergoers are fed before the curtain goes up. So he knows a thing or two about feeding the masses. Whether you’re gearing up for a graduation dinner, Memorial Day cookout or ot...

Today, we’re exploring vegetables native to China with Roland Yee. Roland is the third-generation co-owner of Yee Farms , which his grandparents started after they immigrated to New York City and eventually made their way down to Florida. Today Yee Farms sits on 1,000 acres in Boynton Beach. The family supplies bok choy, Chinese broccoli, winter melon and other veggies to Florida’s Asian and mains...

Toto, we’re not in Florida anymore. But we are talking about oranges—in the Sunshine State and across the Atlantic—with our guest Jamie Schler . Jamie grew up in Satellite Beach, on Florida’s Space Coast. After college, she moved to New York City before settling in France, where she and her husband own a small hotel. Jamie balances hotel ownership with being a food writer and cookbook author. Duri...

In July 2019, Dave Matthews Band was coming to Tampa to perform a concert. Word got out that the band was searching for locally grown food to eat, as they do for every show. (They call it farm-to-stage .) Nichole Dube worked a corporate job at the time, but she had recently attended a community gardening conference, so she set out to source the band’s food herself. She pulled it off. That’s how th...

Today we’re salivating over Mexican food and culture with Claudia Johnson. The Mexico City native is general manager of Grand Hacienda , a Mexican restaurant with a handful of Tampa Bay locations. Her latest project is Seaglass Tavern , which features elevated comfort food in Tampa’s Citrus Park neighborhood. Dalia recently met up with Claudia inside Grand Hacienda’s 4th Street location in St. Pet...

Meet dairy farmers Sutton and Kris Rucks of Milking R Farm in Okeechobee. They discuss how the industry has evolved over the years, the challenges of being dairy farmers in a world full of milk alternatives, and how they got engaged in a milking parlor. Related episodes: Writer Heather McPherson on What You Don’t Know About Florida Food Why You Should Stop Haggling at Florida’s Farmers Markets Con...

This week, Emmanuel Washington Jr. answers our burning questions about life as a firehouse chef. Better known as Chef Manny FD (for fire department), the Miami native works for the Orlando Fire Department. In addition to being district chief, he’s also the resident chef at station 8, near Orlando International Airport. He’s demonstrated his culinary skills on cooking competition shows including Cu...

Get the buzz on beekeeping from St. Petersburg resident Derek Lewis. The South African native and third-generation beekeeper is active in the Pinellas Beekeepers Association . Derek explains the importance of bees as the world’s population increases, offers advice for new beekeepers and suggests ways to make any lawn more bee-friendly. Related episodes: The Buzz on Florida’s Honey Bees What’s Thre...

In this conversation, Natasha Samreny shares stories from her multicultural upbringing; describes her favorite Ecuadorian, Italian and Lebanese foods; and offers advice for parents of budding comedians. Related episodes: Halal Food 101 with Florida’s Halal Food Guru Zak the Baker Keeps It Kosher “Latino Orlando” Author Dr. Simone Delerme on the Rise of Florida’s Hispanic Restaurants & Markets