The Zest has international flavor this week! We take you to Hawke's Bay, the fruit basket of New Zealand, with an international cheese expert.  We’ll taste-test a recipe for 5-minute hummus from the Israeli Soul cookbook. And Bavaro’s Pizza brings Italy to Tampa Bay. It’s wheels up on The Zest. No passport required.

Southern storyteller Rick Bragg talks with host Robin Sussingham about food, family, and his new memoir, “The Best Cook In The World: Tales From My Momma’s Southern Table.” Food, Bragg says, represents “our finer nature.” And he tells us why he takes the cooking of grits so personally.

Plus, on a humid evening in April,The Zest attended WUSF's signature event, Longest Table, an outdoor foodie feast in downtown St. Petersburg that offered a chance for Robin and producer Dalia Colón  to ask local chefs what they like to serve when the weather heats up.

On today's podcast, producer Dalia Colón gets a lesson in mojito making from the fifth-generation owner of Florida oldest Spanish restaurant, the Columbia. We'll also hear from prominent food writer Laura Reiley about the Tampa Bay area's burgeoning food scene -- and how relatively cheap real estate makes it all possible. Plus, our cookbook reviewer, Janet Keeler, talks about the indispensable charms of a real, physical cookbook. And as the weather warms up, we do have adult beverages on our mind, as an historian takes us through the fascinating history of beer and brewing in Tampa Bay. Robin Sussingham hosts The Zest, which is a production of WUSF Public Media.

From food halls to fad diets, café con leche to coffee punch, host Robin Sussingham calls 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 Cuban restaurant; and learn how to make the best peach cobbler from a Junior League president. And since we’re always hungry for more, we track down the best cookbook authors and culinary thought leaders around, because great food stories deserve to be told with Zest!