Aqua Talks stays at Blu Halo for a second helping, trading the dining room for the kitchen with executive chef David Smith — the guy making the magic happen. A Maryland native who came up through Hyatt and Two Roads Hospitality banquet kitchens (grinding from commis to banquet chef, cooking for parties of 50 to 5,000), Dave brings a Mediterranean-leaning, seafood-loving sensibility and a fresh-every-day philosophy to Blu Halo's St. Pete location, where he's been since it opened.
The conversation is a food lover's tour: how rising meat and produce prices push him toward creative, lesser-known cuts (teres major, bistro an...
