Dalia Colon

This week on WUSF's food podcast, The Zest, we’re talking to some of Tampa Bay’s favorite food personalities.

WUSF's food podcast, The Zest, celebrates cuisine and community in the Sunshine State. Here's what's on the menu for this week's episode...

Many people may not realize that wine making in Florida is a billion-dollar industry. There are dozens of wineries across the state employing nearly 100,000 people, and university research departments dedicated to viticulture.

Spiny lobster season in Florida lasts from Aug. 6 to March 31, and the state's wildlife commission has rules in place to ensure that it's not a free-for-all. WUSF's food podcast, The Zest, spoke with Tampa blogger Danielle Rose about the "do's and don'ts" of lobster fishing.

How can a simple sandwich ignite such controversy? Well, when it's the Cuban sandwich, and we're in Florida, there is a bitter battle for the title of who had it first and who makes it the best.

Subscribe to The Zest podcast! This week, we’re living the sweet life. We visit with the Junior League of Tampa to test out a peach cobbler recipe from The Gasparilla Cookbook. We chat with the authors of The New Pie about ideas for updating the classic dessert. And edible cookie dough arrives in Tampa!

Dough Nation is a cafe in downtown Tampa that specializes in edible cookie dough. It's owned and operated by Metropolitan Ministries, a nonprofit organization that helps poor and homeless families in Tampa Bay, and the proceeds from cookie dough sales help fund its mission. Dough Nation is also a culinary job training program for some of the people that are served by Metropolitan Ministries. For WUSF's The Zest podcast, producer Dalia Colón spoke with Dough Nation Chef Cliff Barsi about the popularity of social enterprise restaurants, and the safe consumption of cookie dough.

Bourbon is having a moment. Not only does the spirit pair well with summer barbecue, but a bottle of the good stuff makes a great gift idea. 

Whether you’re interested in politics, music, crime, technology or just about anything, there is likely a podcast for you. But while millions of people enjoy listening to podcasts every day, others still don’t understand this relatively new form of media.

This week on Florida Matters: Podcasting 101.

What was once a vacant lot is now an urban oasis. WUSF's food podcast, The Zest, takes you behind the fence of the St. Petersburg EcoVillage. It's a community garden whose mission is to reconnect people with nature.

Before Armature Works and Sparkman Wharf, there was The Hall on Franklin. Its 2017 opening in Tampa Heights brought the food hall concept to Tampa, with items ranging from poké bowls, to fried chicken and waffles, to something called the Sleazy Sundae. 

When Dan Bavaro packed up his wife and kids to move from New Jersey to Florida, he didn’t have his sights set on opening a New York-style pizzeria. Instead, Bavaro’s Pizza Napoletana and Pastaria serves up Neapolitan-style pies, bringing a taste of Italy to its four Tampa Bay locations.

We’re entering Florida’s sweltering season, and if you can’t stand the heat, you’d better be ready with some hot-weather recipes. WUSF's new food podcast, The Zest, is up to the challenge.

Food writer Laura Reiley spent years closely observing Tampa Bay’s food and dining scene. 

She says there’s a reason that the area is exploding onto the national consciousness—affordable real estate.

The Columbia Restaurant has been a fixture in Tampa’s Ybor City neighborhood since 1905, making it Florida’s oldest family-owned eatery.Now with locations throughout the state, the restaurant is known for its storied past, live flamenco shows and of course its menu of Spanish and Cuban favorites.

Brewing has a long history in Tampa: cigar maker Vicente Ybor made Tampa the site of Florida's first commercial beer brewery, the Florida Brewing Company, founded in 1897 at the site of an ancient spring.

And the Tampa Bay area wasn’t the least bit interested in Prohibition.

You may expect a lecture at cannabis college to sound like a scene from the stoner movie Half Baked.

Instead, it sounds like a lot of talk about light bulb wattage and ducting systems.

Major buzz kill.

The Winter Olympics get underway today in Sochi, Russia, and more than a few Olympians trained in Florida. But how do Disney World and the beach help athletes prepare for ice and snow?

Strange as it sounds, there actually is a connection.

For Jim Shirley, WUSF Public Media is a work of art.

Victor "Joseph" Doxa was a successful businessman with a six-figure salary and 7,000-square-foot home.

Then came the Great Recession.

You’re probably familiar with the sounds of downtown Sarasota -- traffic, birds chirping by Sarasota Bay. Now there’s a new sound in the mix: pianos.

Earlier this month, the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County debuted the Sarasota Keys Piano Project.

Hi, I'm Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of The Splendid Table. WUSF brings you the news you need to know -- and the stories you want to hear. Some of this station's most memorable stories are about my favorite subject: food and drink.

Even casual listeners of WUSF Public Media have probably heard the name Trenam Kemker. The law firm has been supporting the station since its debut in 1963. Now, on behalf of Trenam Kemker, attorneys Stephen Tabano and Chris Brown wish WUSF a happy 50th anniversary.

Clearwater Mayor George Cretekos spends a lot of time in his car, and WUSF is there to keep him company.

Paul Tash, chairman and CEO of the Tampa Bay Times, knows quality journalism when he hears it.