The Zest Podcast
New episodes drop every Thursday
From food halls to fad diets, café con leche to coffee punch, we call on Florida’s experts to give us the dish. We get a lesson in making mojitos from a fifth-generation owner of Florida’s oldest Spanish restaurant; and learn how to make the best peach cobbler from a Junior League officer. And we track down the best cookbook authors and culinary thought leaders from around the country, because great food stories deserve to be told with Zest!
All Recipes | Appetizers | Entrees | Desserts | Cocktails
Previous Episodes
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As part of a 2019 series on honey, Dalia visited owner Jennifer Smurr at her wildly popular Born & Bread Bakehouse in Lakeland. She checked in with Jenn again in June 2026. -
As if we ever needed an excuse to eat tacos, Sept. 16 is Mexican Independence Day. -
Labor Day weekend is upon us, and you’re definitely invited to the cookout. -
Cameron is the executive director alongside his mother Ellen, a professional chef who works her magic in the kitchen to turn random ingredient donations into delicious meals. -
In 2020, St. Petersburg Deputy Mayor Kanika Tomalin released a cookbook called St. Pete Eats. Today she is the president and CEO of Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. -
Dalia first spoke with Chef Marques when he visited the WUSF studio in 2024. She caught up with him again in June 2026. -
Dalia caught up with him at a picnic table at his René's Mexican Kitchen food trailer on Tampa’s bustling Nebraska Avenue, adjacent to Southern Brewing & Winery. -
“Retro food” can mean different things to different people. For today’s kids,it’sthe Jell-O Pudding Pops and vintage Pizza Huts of their parents’ childhood. -
When our elders pass, so do their recipes. Actor and restaurateur Billy Dec traveled to the Philippines to find his last living maternal elders and learn his ancestral recipes. -
A hotel bar is much more than a place to grab a drink while you’re on vacation or traveling for work. A really good hotel bar will even attract the locals. -
Torres offers advice for entrepreneurs and explains how owning a coffee business is like playing the classic video game Tetris. -
Karen Two Shoes of the Seminole Tribe of Florida lost 80 pounds, became a registered dietitian and now helps others eat more like their indigenous ancestors did.
