It’s that time of year again, time for our annual celebration of food and food lovers and everything and everyone in between. We hope you’ll hold onto this issue as a sort of reference guide. It’s loaded with tasty info, including a few must-try recipes. There are a couple for Jell-O salad (pg. 30) and, in celebration of Afroman’s trial victory, one for pound cake and its glaze. If you don’t know the whole story, go to pg. 39. It’s insane, but when cops busted down the rapper’s door on the hunt for contraband, all they found was some delicious-looking pound cake.
Speaking of wild tales, the one-woman show at Amphibian Stage is a real treat. In Did You Eat?, food and family come together in at times funny and other times poignant moments (pg. 20).
What we eat and the stories we tell go way back, and on pg. 37, we offer a look into Hollywood’s relationship with cuisine through the decades.
Zest 2026 also serves up an in-depth feature on how food affects our moods (pg. 11), a takedown of the new MAHA Food Pyramid (pg. 9), a list of spring foodie events (pg. 14), and so much more, so grab your apron and pull up a chair. It’s Zest 2026. — Anthony Mariani, Editor
What’s inside Zest 2026? Glad you asked.
Metro // Cold Drinks, Bold Stances
While the tariff battle played out in Washington and at the Supreme Court, its consequences — and its reversal — are felt close to home. Beloved Texas-based manufacturer YETI wasn’t having it. Read about that here.
Metro // Pyramid Scheme
In a bid to “Make America Healthy Again,” the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans contain some confusing recommendations. Read about them here.
Feature // The Food-Feeling Connection
The way to a person’s brain is through their stomach. That’s the conclusion of a growing body of scientific studies that look at how what we eat can affect the way we think and feel. Research in recent years has found that consuming more fruits and vegetables can help stave off depression. Increasing fiber reduces anxiety. And the popular Mediterranean diet helps with both of these mental states while also improving cognition. Read more here.
Books // Slice of Life
In their newish cookbook, the guys at award-winning Goldee’s BBQ reveal their secrets. Their journey isn’t one of special circumstances but more of a reflection of lifelong friendship molded by determination and sheer grit — all of which can be reinforced by going through hefty obstacles together and celebrating tiny victories along the way. With the assistance of James Beard-winning author Lisa Fain, they decided to bestow their story upon fans, friends, and strangers with a self-titled cookbook published by UT Press. Read more about it here.
Stage // Did You Eat?
Born at the Amphibian Stage troupe’s annual SparkFest for new works, the hit one-woman show “Did You Eat?” enjoyed a long run in New York and is now coming home. The production features Fort Worth talent in acting, choreography, and direction, blending profound sensory concepts of food, generational trauma, and family love. Read more about it here.
Night & Day // Trail Mix
With our annual magazine-style Zest issue to keep throughout the year, this calendar column also extends beyond this week with events happening now thru early summer. Along with the broad-reaching dates, we’re also expanding geographically, covering events up and down the bluebonnet-lined highways of North Texas. Start the journey here.
Big Ticket // Scarborough Renaissance Festival
Raise a Glass (or a Turkey Leg) to Scarborough Ren Fest! Set within a 25-acre recreation of an English village celebrating the 1545 visit of King Henry VIII and Queen Katheryn Parr, the festival blends history, pageantry, and playful fantasy with strolling performers, artisan shoppes, human-powered rides, and dozens of live performances. Read all about it here.
Eats & Drinks // A Little Giggle
Chances are, living in the South, you’ve at least heard of it. “Pink Lady Salad.” “Pink Fluff.” Simply “Pink Salad.” It’s apparent that the word “salad” is being used very loosely. Whatever you want to call it, it’s essentially a cold, sweet Southern side dish or dessert that’s been served by many grandmothers at family gatherings for generations. Feeling nostalgic on a recent visit to her parents’ house, one writer got the scoop on the pastel hues of traditional Southern Jell-O salad, just in time for Easter. Read about it here.
Screen // Tickets Up
People say that film is a universal art form, and while cinema can do much to communicate across cultural and religious lines, it still can’t compete with food. Moviegoers who find Japanese anime too weird and violent will sit down to a sushi lunch, perhaps chased by some cold sake, and diners who quail at the prospect of an Arabic-language film will happily order hummus and döner kebab. Thus, movies have depended in large part on food for decades. Read about how filmmakers use food as a way of hooking audiences and/or indulging their own love of food by clicking here.
Music // Talking ’bout Pound Cake
Joseph Foreman, the artist known as Afroman, won a major victory in an Ohio courtroom. In 2022, Adams County deputies raided his home searching for suspected drugs and potential kidnapping victims and found nothing except for some tasty-looking pound cake. Afroman used his home surveillance footage of the incident to make some music videos, including “Lemon Pound Cake,” “Will You Help Me Repair My Door,” and others. The videos went viral, and the sheriff’s deputies got their little feelings hurt and sued him for defamation and invasion of privacy. They lost. Per Afroman, “Freedom of speech! Right on!” Read more about his victory and a yummy recipe for some Lemon Pound Cake here.
Living Local // How Does Your Garden Grow?
Did you know that Tarrant Area Food Bank (TAFB) has a Community Garden Program? Through this project, TAFB helps community members and organizations create thriving gardens by teaching effective tending techniques and supporting the growth of nutritious fruits and vegetables for distribution to those in need. To bridge learning and hands-on impact, volunteers are invited each week to help plant, harvest, pull weeds, and develop new gardening skills. Learn more about it here.
The End
Did you miss your chance to pick up Zest 2026 in the stands? No worries. We’ve got you covered. To see this annual issue in a flipbook, cover-to-cover format, click here.
