Coffee and Conversations: Gary Mormino on Foods That Define Florida with a Tasting

The Old Courthouse Heritage Museum presents our free community lecture, Coffee and Conversations. This July, we’ll host Gary Mormino who will speak about Foods That Define Florida along with a tasting of related foods. What foods define the Sunshine State? Caldo Gallego, gazpacho, or black bean soup? Key Lime or sweet potato pie? Was the Cuban sandwich invented in Tampa but perfected in Miami? How does one explain the rise of the grouper sandwich? What has happened to our once vaunted oyster industry? Did Georgia, the Carolinas, and Texas simply export its barbecue here or does Florida have its own BBQ heritage? All these questions and more form the basis of a lively discussion on Florida Foodways. Gary R. Mormino is an American historian, author, frequent contributor to the Tampa Bay Times, the Frank E. Duckwall Professor of History Emeritus and past director of the Florida Studies Program at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.