Meet Lisa…
…the cook, photographer and executive dishwasher behind Garlic & Zest.
Hello and welcome!
I started my cooking and recipe website in 2013 and it has grown to include more than 850 tested recipes with nearly 100 videos.
My purpose is sharing yummy, do-able recipes along with helpful tips and advice, FAQs, swaps and substitutions to give you confidence in your cooking and make you hungry for more.
Where some people look at cooking as a chore, I see it as a fun, creative diversion with a tasty reward at the end of every recipe.
My cooking style
My cooking style is a hybrid of my diverse family background. My Mom was a Julia Child devotee and avid reader of Gourmet magazine. Her adventurous attitude towards cooking and eating set me on my path.
My maternal grandparents migrated to the U.S. from Martinique, an island in the French West Indies, in the 1940’s and brought with them a unique cooking style that straddles classic French and Caribbean influences. Those flavors are obvious in many of my dishes from their spicy poached mahi mahi to my grandmother’s chicken liver pâté.
Cooking with my paternal grandmother (a.k.a. Myne) was a focus on simple, delicious Southern cuisine and plenty of the local seafood from the Chesapeake Bay. Her angel flake biscuits with country ham are a wonder and her peach pie has always been a summertime favorite.
You’ll find those family recipes here as well as many of my own creation that are inspired by the tropical region of South Florida I call home.
A huge thanks to my husband, Scott, daughter, Emily and my entire family for their support and love… and for happily accepting countless casseroles, cakes and quiches that are missing a slice, so that I could photograph them for you.
Garlic & Zest has been featured in:
My recipes have been featured in Oprah Daily, Men’s Journal, BuzzFeed, Shape.com, Huffington Post Canada, Better Homes and Gardens, Today, MSN.com, BlogHer, One Green Planet, ChowHound, SheKnows, and Honest Cooking among other publications. For complete list of featured articles, see my Press Page.
Contributor to:
I’ve been a regular recipe and content contributor to SideChef and Southern Kitchen and a meal plan contributor to EatLove.
Interviews & Podcasts:
- VoyageMIA, 2019
- Dishing with Delishes Podcast, 2017.
Awards:
- Voted Best Recipe Blogger in 2016,South Florida Blogger Awards
- 2018 Semi-finalist Best Recipe Blogger, South Florida Blogger Awards
- 2019 Semi-Finalist Best Recipe Blogger, South Florida Blogger Awards
Education:
I have a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from Virginia Commonwealth University which helped me land my first jobs at two newspapers, The Richmond Times Dispatch and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. That degree also serves me well in the blogging world.
If you have a comment or question about a recipe, it’s best to leave it on that specific recipe page. If you have a question not related to a recipe, you can comment here, or send an e-mail to lisa@garlicandzest.com.
