Florida Foodie

Shereece Mitchell-Sanchez has been working tirelessly since 2021 to help feed people living and working in the Pine Hills community.

Mitchell-Sanchez runs a weekly food pantry through her nonprofit, Butterfly Lifestyle. Since she started the weekly giveaway, Mitchell-Sanchez has seen the demand for her help grow.

“So on a weekly basis, we could do in our like, 300 and up families... we county by families,” she said. “In August, we almost hit 5000 individuals.”

Mitchell-Sanchez currently runs the pantry out of Rise Up Church, 4400 N. Powers Drive. She offers food to the community there every Friday.

“The line starts at 8 o’clock, even though we start at 11:30 (a.m.),” she said.

When Mitchell-Sanchez started handing out food, she was unable to partner with a larger food bank to provide meals. Despite that, she was undeterred and partnered with a church to provide a space for the pantry.

“The pastor said, ‘You know what, Second Harvest won’t work with us — they have too many partners or something like to that extent — but if you can find food, go for it,’” she said.

So, she went about finding the food. Mitchell-Sanchez ended up partnering with restaurants, coffee shops and convenience stores to source her food. It’s a laborious practice that she still does today. She drives around Central Florida filling her cargo van with donated food.

“I have a few Wawas that I pick up at,” she said. “I’ve had people in the line come and say, ‘Hey, you know, I come to this pantry because I heard you give out Wawas. ‘”

Mitchell-Sanchez has since been able to partner with Second Harvest, allowing her to provide more fresh fruits and vegetables for the people she serves.

“Thursday is the big day when we go to Second Harvest. I rent a truck,” she said. “I will get maybe, like, a 15-footer, and then use my van, you know, and then we distribute food that way.”

Mitchell-Sanchez has accomplished all of this with a completely volunteer workforce.

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, she talks more about her efforts to feed the community and the other services she provides. She also shares times when her ambitions to help people in need exceeded even her own expectations.

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Cows ‘N Cabs has raised more than $2 million for Central Florida charities since it got its start in 2011.

The event was co-founded by David Larue, Executive Vice President at ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, and John Rivers, the owner of 4 Rivers restaurant group.

“My wife and I were talking about how to use, like my ABC platform, because we have so many great contacts and the liquor business, and we’ve raised so much money for other things — but how to create something on our own? So we figured out, actually saw something on the Food Network called Pigs ‘N Pinot. I’m like, ‘Well, that is really cool,’” Larue said.

Larue had drinks covered, but he did not have the restaurant contacts he would need for the event. That’s when he was able to pull on Rivers and his vast network in Central Florida’s dining scene.

The pair wanted this event to be different from a typical charity event, more casual.

“We decided, let’s, let’s try to figure out if you are the person walking into an event and you’re by yourself. Would you have a great time being there for four hours by yourself? And so we kind of started with that mentality,” Larue said.

They settled on a Western theme, which the regular attendees have embraced.

“We got a guy that comes with, like, an inflatable cow costume. A lot of people just with cowboy hats, which we’ve actually given away a bunch of cowboy hats the last couple of years through one of our supplier partners. They’ve given away like, 700 hats,” Larue said.

Amid the sea of cowboy hats, chefs from 38 restaurants will be offering up bites and snacks to the hungry attendees.

“I would say 25 of the restaurants are coming back because they just love it so much and then we’ve got a couple of new ones,” Larue said.

The participating restaurants include Kaya, Hawkers, The Monroe, Otto’s High Dive, Bar Kada and Black Rooster Taqueria, among others.

Of course, the food may draw people in, but the charities helped by the event are the star of the show.

“It’s so much fun just to be able to make that list (of charities) and, more importantly, deliver the checks,” Larue said.

The charities helped by the event include 4 Roots Farm, After-School All-Stars, Central Florida Diaper Bank and Harbor House.

Cows ‘n Cabs is set to take place in Winter Park on Nov. 9. Tickets are available now.

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Larue talks more about the growth of Cow ‘n Cabs and its expansion with a new event, Burgers.Bubbles.Beer, which is taking place on Nov. 7. He also shares the family history behind ABC Fine Wine & Spirits.

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Mike Collantes started his culinary career inside Orlando’s Fashion Square Mall, but he now counts himself among the exclusive ranks of Michelin-starred chefs.

Collantes earned his Michelin Star in 2022 for his omakase restaurant Soseki in Winter Park.

“After the Michelin Star, we’re seeing international clientele and guests, as well as our local guests, but really put us on the map for what we’ve been doing here in Winter Park,” he said.

The same year he won his Michelin Star, Collantes closed his first restaurant Taglish, a fast-casual Filipino concept that had three locations at its height.

“As we got busier with the fine dining restaurants and other restaurants, our lease came up, and we decided to close that venture down, never to really open it again,” Collantes said.

However, with the success of his fine dining restaurant, Collantes has had the ability to open several other restaurants around the greater Orlando area, including Sushi Saint, which was awarded a Bib Gourmand by Michelin. The award highlights high-quality food at reasonable prices.

“Last year, November, we opened up our doors (to Sushi Saint),” he said. “There (was) no hand-rolled temaki bar in town. So it’s a different way to eat sushi, utilizing still the same quality that we do at our fine dining and just making it a little bit more casual.”

In addition to Soseki and Sushi Saint, Collantes is rapidly expanding his culinary empire. He recently opened a sake speakeasy, Bar Kada, next to Soseki. He is also planning to reopen Taglish inside the food hall that used to be The Hall on the Yard, which is now under new ownership.

“Taglish is Tagalog in English — so good representation of not just traditional Filipino food. It’s really the upbringing of everyone who’s migrated to America and I would say it was my connecting point back to my culture, which, you know, I grew up here in the States,” Collantes said.

Collantes also plans to open a French restaurant there as well, Chez Les Copain. The chef said it is something the area is lacking in.

“We saw a big decline in French restaurants (in Orlando) in the past couple years. A lot of them have just closed up shop,” he said.

In addition to all of his work in Orlando, Collantes is starting to work on some international ventures.

“I’ve been doing consulting for the past year, year and a half, with other brands, and it brought me to this new concept called Kaimana, which will be opening this fall in Dubai,” he said.

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Collantes talks more about the opportunities he’s gotten since earning a Michelin Star. He also talks about the struggles that many restaurants are dealing with now as costs rise.

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Amid the pandemic and Orlando’s ongoing growth and development, Jason Lambert has been striving to keep his businesses running while also being a force for good in the community.

“So 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic and trying to survive through the pandemic, I thought were the roughest years we’d ever have to face,” Lambert said. “And then we got into 2023 and we were finally stable, and kind of had gotten caught back up from that two years of craziness and then in October of 2023 is when all the construction started in Ivanhoe Village, and it has just been just detrimental to the whole neighborhood.”

Ivanhoe Village, the historic community where the Hammered Lamb sits, has seen substantial growth since the restaurant first opened in 2013. That growth has led to the need for improvements to the area’s sewer system.

Those improvements have caused issues with parking and navigating the area, keeping potential customers away.

“There’s been so much construction there, and it’s always moving around, that people are just over even trying to — just avoiding the area, because they don’t know how to get in to support local businesses,” Lambert said.

The problem has gotten so bad that Lambert recently held a fundraiser to help keep his first restaurant, The Hammered Lamb, open.

“In 2023 we were having a record year — busiest year we would ever had, setting monthly records — and then the construction started, and now we’re down anywhere from 30% to 50% a week from where we were last year,” he said.

The problems at The Hammered Lamb are starting to affect his other business, Jack & Honey’s in Thornton Park.

“We are now closed at Jack & Honey’s on Mondays and Tuesdays, and we’re closed at Hammered Lamb on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which were just our slower days,” he said. “We’re hoping that it’s temporary and it could just kind of help us, but those days we just — we weren’t making even enough money to pay the people that were there, so it was just costing us money to be open.”

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Lambert shares more of his experiences in trying to keep his businesses running. He also talks about his activism and how he likes to use his businesses to support the community.

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Yao’s Modern Kitchen is all about family.

The restaurant is run by three siblings, George, Edward and Diane Yiu, along with their friends and past Florida Foodie guests Chris Chen and Phil Nguyen.

The siblings grew up in Central Florida and wanted to combine their traditional family recipes with the flavors of the Sunshine State.

“All of our family recipes — like our dumplings, our fried rice — and then also an integration of, like Central Florida’s big Spanish influence. So this, these dishes are in a marriage of both of them,” said George Yiu, who also serves as chef for the restaurant.

Yao’s had been operating as a pop-up for a few years, but it recently opened a brick-and-mortar shop in Oviedo, 15 Alafaya Woods Blvd.

“Like any business, there are its own obstacles; however, Oviedo has been so welcoming,” Edward Yiu said. “We’ve been received with open arms, and they can feel the authenticity that we bring.”

The siblings said they saw Oviedo as an opportunity for their business.

“Oviedo is a thriving community, one that we felt lacked a lot of staple, family-owned restaurants. There are a lot of corporate restaurants out there, but with that, you know, becomes kind of the monotony of it. So we’re bringing something more refreshing that’s awesome,” Edward Yiu said.

While George Yiu runs the kitchen, Edward Yiu serves as general manager and Diane Yiu is “everywhere, all at the same time,” according to the brothers. The trio have also pulled their significant others in to help with the restaurant. Even their mom helps out in the kitchen, making dumplings and folding wontons.

“This really is a family operation. You know, it’s a lot of work, but we love what we do,” George Yiu said.

The siblings grew up around restaurants, with their grandparents running businesses in New York and their mother opening kitchens after her move to Central Florida. Of course, they also have a lot of help from their college friends, Chen and Nguyen.

“We were just hanging out Christian, Phil and I... we were mentioning on a concept (my siblings and I) were thinking of,” Edward Yiu said. “Couple years flew by, and then it really got serious. They became more interested that we really wanted to hone in and chase our dreams.”

The siblings said Chen and Nguyen’s experience with Viet-Nomz has been invaluable to them.

“It was pivotal, for sure. I think without them, we couldn’t be this far in, I would say,” George Yiu said.

The restaurant is currently in its soft opening. The grand opening is set for Sept. 10.

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, George and Edward Yiu share more of their family’s history in the restaurant industry. They also share some of their favorite dishes with Candace Campos.

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Glen Providence wears many hats as the leader of a nonprofit, the publisher of a small newspaper and the owner of his own ice cream company.

In his day job, Providence is the head of Hebni Nutrition — an organization that offers help to underserved communities, giving them access to and education about nutritious meals. In his entrepreneurial endeavors, Providence is spreading joy with Smile Ice Cream Company.

“It was a passion project,” he said. “I wanted to do something food related and ice cream popped into my head.”

Providence had made some ice cream as a kid and he wanted to recapture some of that nostalgia.

“There was a magic moment when you’re with your kids, you’re with your family, you’re out and you say, ‘You know what, let’s go get some ice cream,’” he said. “And in that moment, when you get there, it’s a feel-good moment.”

Providence “went to ice cream school’ to hone his craft, but the equipment he needed to produce ice cream on a commercial level was a little out of his price range.

“God is good. About a month later — when you graduate from the course you get enrolled into an ice cream Facebook group, and someone was selling one of these machines — again, brand new $15,000 — he was selling for $6,000,” he said.

Providence then took a road trip to South Carolina to pick up the machine.

“I left at two o’clock in the morning — didn’t tell a soul because people (would say) ‘You’re crazy,’” he said. “Drove up, picked up that machine, was back in Orlando at 6 p.m. that evening and that was the beginning of the ice cream journey.”

Providence then spent 2019 perfecting his flavors. Through the pandemic, he would provide catering orders with Smile, offering single-serving containers for events.

“I was doing great. I really was not looking for a location. I wasn’t actively looking but I knew when the right opportunity presented itself I would know,” he said. “I was doing all these ice cream catering and people always ask me, ‘Where can I buy this?’ I didn’t have an answer.”

Eventually, the opportunity presented itself. A friend working in real estate had an opening at a shopping center near the intersection of Fairbanks Avenue and Edgewater Drive in Orlando.

“I went back and it was like, ‘This is it. I can make you go at it,’” he said.

Smile Ice Cream Company opened its brick-and-mortar location on May 3.

“Everything is made right in-house. It’s not being trucked in from a factory, you know, and it’s great. I love the connection to the community,” he said.

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Providence shares some of his favorite flavors with Candace Campos and Lisa Bell. He also talks more about his work with Hebni and his paper, The Midtown Press.

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Marie Mercado had no plans of becoming a “professional ice cream lady.” She had her sights set on the stage.

“I wanted to be an opera singer,” Mercado said. “I did perform. I did shows in New York. I moved to Japan, I did a couple of performances there. I was there for a year and then I was going to move to Germany, but then I’m like, ‘OK, let me pay down some student loans. Let me figure out my life, get everything settled, get everything squared away before I move.’”

That decision brought the South Florida native to Orlando. Mercado said she met her partner in the City Beautiful, who introduced her to the idea of running her own business.

“When you’re a musician you work 90% of your time alone, right, actually. So I like the idea of building my own community,” she said.

Mercado looked to her childhood when she decided to start her own business. Growing up in South Florida, she said her neighbors would give her family a glut of mangos every year.

“My dad one day was like, ‘Hey, why don’t we turn this into ice cream so we can enjoy this for a couple more months instead of trying to eat this all in one day,’” she said.

Mercado said she was always dabbling in the kitchen as a child, so her parents thought making ice cream would be a perfect fit for her.

“I started my career as an ice cream lady at 7 years old,” she said.

This ultimately led her to open the Greenery Creamery in downtown Orlando in 2018.

“I consider myself a professional ice cream lady and I have a very important job,” she said. “I have to provide ice cream options for people in the community.”

Mercado takes the job seriously. She tries to make sure that everyone can have something in her ice cream shops — offering vegan and allergen-friendly options.

“People don’t realize consciously that ice cream is a way to create core memories. So people don’t think ‘Oh, it’s baby’s first steak.’ They think, ‘Baby’s first ice cream,’” she said.

Greenery Creamery offers a wide variety of flavors, some familiar and some that are a little more outside the box of traditional ice cream. In 2023, Mercado took her passion for ice cream in a different direction. She opened Sampaguita in Orlando’s Mills 50 District.

“I say Greenery Creamery is a journey of self-expression and Sampaguita to is an exploration of self-identity,” Mercado said.

Sampaguita is focused on offering Filipino-American-inspired flavors, a nod to Mercado’s Filipino-American heritage.

Sampaguita is the Filipino name for the Jasmine flower, which is also the national flower of the Philippines.

“Jasmine flower means love and purity, guidance and truth and so it just has so many layers to it. So I said, ‘Yes, this is the name that fits everything,’” Mercado said.

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Mercado shares more of her journey from opera to ice cream. She also talks about some of her experiments with ice cream flavors and shares some frozen treats with Candace Campos.

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Mike Webber and Steve Nichols did not originally plan on becoming moonshiners.

The pair saw it as an opportunity when Florida decided to relax some of its craft distilling laws.

“Florida changed their craft distilling laws in 2020 and relaxed them a little bit more in 2022 to match those of Tennessee,” Webber said. “Today, there’s a very popular 13 Moonshine craft distilleries in a five-mile stretch in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. In 2002, there were none. (Tennessee) changed (its) craft distilling laws to allow craft distilling in a public place like Orlando Vineland Premium Outlet Mall, just like Florida did, and we wanted to be on the front end of telling the story.”

The pair decided to call the business Caribbean Moonshine as a nod to history.

“Moonshining was actually born in the Caribbean and was way popular for centuries before it was ever done up in the hills of Tennessee and Kentucky,” Webber said.

Of course, the pair had a lot to learn before they could set up shop. They managed to find an expert from Tennessee to teach them the trade.

“Steve had a friend that introduced us to a shiner up in Tennessee called Shine Girl. Her name is Danielle Parton. She’s actually Dolly Parton’s niece,” Webber said.

That was their foot in the door. The pair wanted to take the process back to its roots, using cane sugar in the fermenting process.

“We use Florida cane sugar, and we distill that to 185 proof,” Webber said. “Then we go to a distillery that has access to the Zephyrhills Springs in New Port Richey, and we blend our 185 proof with Zephyrhills Spring water, which is smooth and ultra-purified, we’ll add more Florida cane sugar in the flavoring to flavor it.”

The flavors are nods to the Caribbean and Florida, including banana, coconut, marmalade and peanut butter and chocolate, which is their No. 1 seller.

Caribbean Moonshine opened its doors in the Orlando Vineland Premium Outlet Mall, right in the heart of Orange County’s tourist district. This has allowed them to have people from all over the world taste their product.

“A lady come in and she says I’m from Barbados, and I want to try the rum,” Nichols said. “So she tried our flavor. She said, ‘This is amazing.’ She called her husband over. Well, her husband’s a rap artist named Etcetera and he come over after a long day at Disney with the kids and he was tired. He didn’t want to move but he did and when he come over here, he was blown away. So much so that he invited Mike and me out to the Grammys for the release of his album, Sagittarius.”

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Webber and Nichols share more of their story about opening their distillery. They also talk about tours of the distillery and mixology classes offered there, along with some of the products they still have in the works.

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Edward Colón has been working in his parent’s business, Melao Bakery, since they first opened it in 2008, shortly after moving to Kissimmee from Puerto Rico.

“The first years, we slept inside the store,” Colón said. “We had those foldable beds. We folded the beds, we put them in storage and we opened up.”

Colón was in his teens at the time and his younger brother had just been born, adding to the challenge of churning out authentic Puerto Rican cuisine daily.

“I did a lot of (making) bread while I was trying to finish school and college,” he said. “So I was making bread and I would go to college and then come back and forth. So it was not easy.”

The family started renting a small building on a quiet road in Kissimmee.

“We struggled,” Colón said. “There was no Spanish places around at that point — not like now, obviously. We knew we had a great product at that point, So, we took the risk.”

The gamble ended up paying off for the family. They now own the building they first opened in and have a second just outside of Orlando. The family also employs more than 150 people.

Despite the success they have seen, the family still puts many hours on the business.

“I work basically seven days a week,” Colón said. We work around the clock. It’s an everyday thing. I got employees that come in at three in the morning. And I have employees that get out at (midnight).”

That dedication has turned Melao Bakery into a destination spot within the Kissimmee community.

“Most people come straight from the airport,” Colón said. “People get there and get to eat every type of food that you find in Puerto Rico.”

Colón said the goal was always to give people a feel and taste of the island territory, but making it accessible to everyone.

“We don’t just have Puerto Rican clients, obviously, we have all kinds of clients — specifically in the Kissimmee store,” he said.

The bakery is located just outside of Heritage Park. Many people stop by after various activities at the park or the Silver Spurs arena.

The family is now looking to expand their business and get their products into more places.

“We’re working on mass production,” Colón said. “We’re growing our kitchen area, and our bakery area — everything’s, gonna be double of what it was.”

He added that the family wants to make sure they can maintain the same quality as they increase the quantity of their product.

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Colón shares more of his family’s story and the challenges they faced. He also gave Lisa Bell a sample of some of the delicious food available at Melao Bakery.

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David Hackett has spent most of his professional career working in resorts across the country and around the world, but he said Caribe Royal Orlando is his “home.”

“I’m staying there. I mean, I love the property. I love the culture that we have there,” he said.

Hackett has been at the boutique resort for about four years now. Before that, he had done stints at resorts such as the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Trump National Doral in Miami and even spent a few years working at a resort in Dubai, among other locations. In all, Hackett said he has been an executive chef at various resorts for about 25 years.

Of course, his culinary career started well before that.

“I started the business when I was 12 — at a ripe young age just by pure accident,” he said.

His brother was supposed to go into a restaurant for a job interview, but couldn’t make it due to a broken ankle. So his mom offered up his services instead.

“I went and washed bar glasses on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at the age of 12. You know, shagging ice and booze and things like that,” Hackett said.

Despite his early exposure, Hackett said he really wanted to be an architect when he was younger.

“Then I realized, ‘Wow, food as so many different mediums besides pen and paper. Why not go be a chef?” he said.

His first exposure to working at a resort was at Walt Disney World.

“Disney was — it was a great opportunity for me especially to open MGM Studios,” Hackett said. “When I got there in ‘88, Disney was strong in their culinary program.”

The “great opportunity” led Hackett down a path that eventually led to Caribe Royal.

As the executive chef of Caribe Royal, Hackett is in charge of eight different dining options at the resort, including a brand-new, two-story sports bar, Stadium Club. Hackett said he tries to make sure each dining option is unique.

“We don’t like menu bleed. So granted a burger we have to have in a couple different areas,” he said. “But it’s all about what’s on the burger.”

Hackett said he prefers to buy his ingredients from Central Florida farmers and producers whenever possible.

“I think great food comes with a great start — a great product to work with — then we do minimal to it,” he said. “I think a lot of chefs have lost their way where they’re trying to do so much to food. I think that food needs to speak for itself, you know, salt and pepper, basic preparation to kind of bring you back to how we all grew up.”

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Hackett shares some of the challenges of managing all of the venues at the resort. He also shares more of his travels in the industry, as well as a bounty of food for Candace Campos and Lisa Bell to sample.

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