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 and hanger steaks); his fresh Florida seafood (black grouper with citrus-peppadew gremolata, pan-seared sea bass with walnut-kalamata tapenade, scallop caprese); crowd-pleasers like the all-Wagyu smashburger that jumped from lunch to dinner; and a few home-cook tips along the way (dry your scallops, and yes to Old Bay on nearly everything). Larry and Dave build a full imaginary meal from cocktail to dessert, landing on the showstopper carrot cake and a Dubai chocolate cake — because, as Dave puts it, the first and last things you get are what you remember about a restaurant.

In This Episode:

• 00:43 - Deep Dive: Marketing for Tourism & Hospitality
• 02:11 - Seafood: Chef Dave's Signature Dishes
• 06:14 - From Hotels to Blue Halo: The Chef’s Journey
• 11:07 - Transition to Lunch: Menu and Crowd
• 13:50 - Entrées — Main Courses & Steak Selections
• 18:21 - Outro: Closing Remarks, Resources & Call to Action

Key Takeaways:

• Rising prices, smarter cuts. With meat and produce costs climbing, Dave leans into creative, lesser-known cuts (teres major, bistro steak, hanger steak) to deliver a "wow" without breaking the bank.
• Fresh, every day. Seafood is called in and processed fresh daily — black grouper with citrus-peppadew gremolata, pan-seared sea bass with toasted-walnut and kalamata tapenade, and a pan-seared scallop caprese finished with Parmigiano Reggiano.
• A Mediterranean backbone. Dave's flavor profiles draw from Italy, Greece, and Turkey — capers, garlic, onion, olive oil — elevating simple ingredients.
• The smashburger nobody can resist. An all-Wagyu, made-to-order smashburger with garlic aioli and house pickles got so popular it moved onto the dinner menu; sided with truffle-Parmesan shoestring fries.
• Signature and staple dishes. The 10-year-strong Blu Halo chop, braised beef tenderloin tips, spinach salad with truffle vinaigrette and Plant City strawberries, bikini prawns, pan-fried burrata ("an adult mozzarella stick"), and a Wagyu pastrami smoked just for them in New York.
• Save room — it's what you remember. A carrot cake big enough for two, hot beignets with bourbon caramel, triple chocolate cake, and a pistachio-filled Dubai chocolate cake.
• Chef's home-cook tips. Dry your scallops before searing, Old Bay on almost everything (just not lobster — keep the butter), and simple wine pairings by dish.
• A deep kitchen résumé. From Hyatt and Two Roads banquet kitchens to time under chef Sam DeMarco and a Maryland pasta concept, Dave brings serious range to Blu Halo.

Welcome to Aqua Talks, where marketing meets bold game changing ideas.

Join your hosts, Larry Aldrich and Maddie Dudley as they explore the art and science of cutting through the noise, capturing attention and fostering meaningful connections with your audience.

Whether you're a destination marketer, government contractor, or simply passionate about the transformative power of marketing, Aqua Talks offers engaging discussions, fresh insights and actionable strategies designed to inspire and inform.

Welcome back to Aqua Talks, where we do a deep dive into the world of marketing.

Whether you're a seasoned pro or just getting into tourism, hospitality, destination marketing, we have the insights to help you elevate your campaign and grow your your audience.

Today we're back here at Blue Halo.

We're with David Smith, the executive chef.

This is a guy that makes the magic happen in the kitchen.

How are you, Dave?

I'm good.

How are you?

Good, good.

Glad to have this conversation.

Glad to have you here.

So we usually start off our episodes, we talk a little bit about trends or what's hot topics, something popular.

So what's a hot trend or something popular going on in the world of food?

Oh, here's one big thing.

Meat prices, produce prices, especially everything going on at the FDA are going up and up and up and up.

So especially as a chef, I make sure my clientele are offered the best I can give them without breaking their bank.

Correct.

So offering not lesser cuts, but different cuts that maybe you never heard of.

Like a terrace major, a bistro steak, a hanger steak, something different that has another wow effect to it while being able to execute that properly to our guests.

Okay, that sounds pretty good.

So with the way that, let's just say that meat prices are right now, where meat, just talking about beef, so to speak.

Seafood, where we are, seafood, it's a, we're at a great location for that.

Do you want to just jump into a little bit about some of your dishes that seafood dishes.

Seafood's my favorite.

I love seafood.

I love fish.

The one thing that's always inspired me, if you go out to the west coast, there's fresh dock, the table movement going out, lobsters caught on the boats that morning or on the menu that afternoon.

There's a lot of stuff like that going on around here, especially even on our menu, our group, where I get called in fresh every day, bring it in, process it, and then I make sure my guests get the freshest product possible.

Bringing in some of my flavor profiles, which I really love and I appreciate are different profiles coming out of the Mediterranean, Italy, Greece, Turkey, that area.

I love that the flavors of capers, garlic, onions, and different preservatives in between that olive oil, that's another big one.

How can you take those out, those just modern ingredients, those very basic ingredients and elevating your dishes.

Speaking of grouper, I love grouper blackened is my favorite on your menu here.

Can we see grouper sandwich or is it more of a grouper entree?

That's not sandwich.

No, no, no, of course, of course.

So I run a grouper entree on my menu.

I get fresh black grouper in every day I do it.

It's a citrus gremolata, a papadou gremolata.

So it's like a pickle.

You get pickled peppers, fresh Florida citrus, cilantro, parsley, and it all brings like a nice fruity sweetness to it.

And then I do it with also I blacken it, of course, and with a nice fresh grilled asparagus, Grilled lemon.

In your experience, when it comes to grouper, is it yellow grouper or black grouper?

Well, I'm black and it's.

I like, I like the thickness of the fish and it's more of a depth of flavor.

The other popular grouper you can get on a lot of different menus is red grouper.

That's another popular one, especially in these Florida waters.

Okay.

Wasn't familiar with that.

So when it for me, I'm a big fan of grouper and I like the thick white fishes, grouper and sea bass.

You mostly hear Chilean sea bass, but there's also another sea bass out there.

So I could sit here and talk about eating seafood forever.

So I want to stick to kind of what's on your menu.

I love sea bass, so I'm going to put that on.

I offer sea bass on our menu here.

I pan sear and I do with a toasted walnut and kalamata olive tapenade.

I serve it simple with a grilled lemon.

So you get the really bare essence of the fish.

The tapenade really actually hits the flavors of the nice, flaky, buttery fish and gives it a little bit more flavor.

Raises up a little bit back to that Mediterranean aspect.

That sounds good.

So from a non experienced cook, I was not even going to use the word chef.

I'm going to get grouper.

I'm going to get scallops.

Whatever seafood I get.

Me personally, the first thing I grab is old bay.

Is that a thumbs up or thumbs down?

I'm a Maryland guy.

Okay, you're talking old bay crab.

Crab cakes on a menu.

I make Baltimore style Crab cakes.

That's.

I love old bay all day.

Okay.

Now, there's certain things I don't put obey on.

Like, I wouldn't put it on.

Like I say lobsters.

I don't put that on lobster.

You put.

Because it's.

You want to keep that butteriness to it.

Yeah, I wouldn't put it on.

Yeah, you put on everything else.

Okay.

Yeah.

So me, I'm just going.

If I see seafood, I'm grabbing old bag.

You're going the right way for the most part.

What about butter, though?

I mean.

Oh, butter.

You can't go wrong with butter.

No, no.

Can't go wrong butter out whatsoever.

Someone told me that when you get your scallops, you're supposed to let them dry.

Me personally, I take them out the bag and just dump them in the pan.

So that's wrong.

Right.

And you want to dry them off a little bit because there's so much water.

Especially when you buy like you go to grocery store, whatever, Publix, Winn, Dixie, wherever you're going to buy the scallops of the bag frozen.

Well, there's so much water still in the packs, you got to let them dry out a little bit.

I offer scallops on my menu.

I do a pretty.

Not basic, but a pretty elevated, like easy home cook can do it.

Pan seared scallop caprese.

Okay.

So it's fresh local tomatoes, basil, aged balsamic, olive oil.

You can't really go wrong with that.

But the catch is I finished mine with a Parmigiano Reggiano.

So it gives a nice little, like, bite to it.

You sound really experienced.

Tell us a little bit about your background as a chef.

And when we're coming to the Blue Halo, what can we expect knowing that there's an experienced chef in that kitchen?

So before.

A lot of my background originally was coming from hotels.

So I started off at Hyatt Hotels actually.

Then it was two roads hospitality.

I started off as Komi, working in banquet kitchens, doing anything from parties for 50 people to 5,000 people.

And I grinded that day in, day out, day in, day out.

Worked my way up the ladder, worked my way up the ladder.

And eventually I was banquet chef.

From there, Covid hit.

I left hotels.

I went to the private industry.

I worked with Chef Sam DeMarco.

He opened up a Bellagio hotel in 98.

I worked under him for four years.

He took me around the country.

Jersey, Texas, New York.

He took me around.

And I learned a lot from him.

After that, I worked at Another little place in Maryland, 100% as a pasta company concept, no red soil.

So from Amelia Romana, it was kind of the whole concept idea.

And from there, I came down here talking back and forth with ownership, just casually networking on LinkedIn.

How long have you been with Blue Halo here in the St. Peter?

I been down here for same as I've lived in St. Pete.

Okay.

January of last year.

So when.

When we come in as customers in the Blue Halo, we know that there's a really experienced chef in the back that looks at his food as artwork.

Right.

If something's not right, I pull it right back before it can even go to our expediter.

So what kind of experience?

Not that it's a test, but can you go over your menu a little bit?

Yeah, of course.

Of course.

And some of the appetizers we have or some of the menu items we have in our menu.

Excuse me.

Are staple items we have at our other location as well.

Like our Blue Halo chop.

It's been selling like crazy over our other store for 10 years.

We decided to bring it down here or adjust the tips as braised beef tenderloin tips.

You can't go wrong with beef tips.

Yeah.

And our spinach salad, the truffle vinaigrette, kind of makes a salad with the fresh spinach, those bright Plant city strawberries.

You can't go wrong.

That sounds good.

And there's a few other odds and ends of the albumeni that I like.

Like.

Going back to appetizers, I run a couple different ones.

Like the scallop I was talking about.

I do bikini prawns, which I have a fishmonger who brings me these really nice jumbo prawns.

I just want to keep it basic.

I want that prawn to shine.

So you get a key lime aioli and a chipotle mayo.

Just.

Do you have a little dipping sauce?

But it's a fun little appetizer.

Pan fried burrata, I always call it like an adult mozzarella stick because you have a golden tomato coulis or golden tomato, like a gold golden marinara sauce with pita chips.

It goes really nicely together.

Okay.

So I grew up in the Northeast, where it can get really cold, really snowy.

And this is how I picked my wines.

Okay.

White wine in the summer when it's warm because it's refreshing.

Red wine, it seems you drink in the winter.

So that's about as basic as you can get when it comes to drinking wines.

Would you.

How would you look at that with your dishes?

When it comes to certain wines.

What type?

Or to me, I'm very, very low level educated when it comes to types of wine.

So to me, it's red and white.

I mean, if you and I were sitting out, sit down, having a nice date, we're both eating steak.

I would like a nice willamette cabernet.

That's what I would like.

But if we're having, let's say, grouper, I want something brighter like a white wine or rose.

What about Chilean sea bass?

Oh, Chilean sea bass.

We're gonna have Prosecco.

Probably some Prosecco.

Yeah, some a little bit brighter.

Okay.

We're having a good time.

This is.

Prosecco's a bubbly wine, right?

Okay.

Yeah.

There's a little party going on in the glass there.

So if I wanted to save room for something, I'm a base again.

I'm, I'm a basic dessert guy.

I like, I like, like a warm apple pie or warm brownie with a vanilla ice cream on top or cookies and cream ice cream.

And that's me.

I got a couple fun ones on my menu.

Two staples I have on my menu right now are carrot cake.

It's.

It's massive.

It's for two people.

It's one of those wild pieces.

You sit down.

I want the guests to experience that last.

Holy cow.

Because there's two things you remember at a restaurant when you walk in.

The first thing you see you get when you walk the door and the last thing you get when you leave.

Oh, those are the two things you remember about a restaurant.

You know, most guests, at least you don't remember too much in between.

I didn't know that.

Interesting.

And then the other, another dessert that I do, I don't do at other store, but we do at this store are beignets.

Beignets.

So back to that hot dessert.

Yes, they're hot, hot fried beignets.

We toss in powdered sugar and we serve with a house made bourbon, caramel sauce and chocolate sauce.

Okay, so let's, you know, we've talked about entrees and dinner, which all sounds really good.

Let's transition that to lunch.

Let's just say, you know, in, in this area or somewhere around the bay between St. Pete, Clearwater, Tampa, if you're traveling, if you're working here, you want to go for a really, for lunch, you come in with a nice shirt, jeans on, or working boots and a hard hat.

You know, how.

What can we expect for lunch?

What can we expect to see on that menu?

That's really Going to.

Other than the.

I know the food tastes great.

I've eaten here a few times.

What are some of the reasons why we really want to increase that lunch visitor at the Blue Halo?

What are some of the things on that menu that we really want to bring in the people walking by?

Well, a few things that are on the menu.

I can tell you one thing that I can't keep in stock are our smashburgers.

Yeah, 100% all Wagyu beef patty.

We do everything all to order.

Grill the onions, smash the patties, nice thick brioche bun.

We serve the garlic aioli and house made pickles.

They're addictive.

I'll be honest, that's what I'm gonna eat for dinner tonight.

I like a good spot.

Yeah, people like them so much, I had to put it on the dinner menu.

What do we put on the side?

We do our shoestring fries.

So we toss them like nice truffle oil, finished with parmigiano Reggiano.

So, you know, like a little best of both worlds.

What kind of salads do we have here?

I have a couple interesting salads.

One, if you want to sit down, have a full entree salad.

We offer southwest Cobb blackened chicken, house made corn salsa, avocado bacon, chipotle ranch.

Finish it off with some tortilla crisps.

Tortilla crisps.

If I wanted to come in and have a full course dinner, can you go over a recommendation?

So starting with a drink, a dessert, or.

Excuse me, a drink, an appetizer, an entree, and then a dessert.

Are you having steak?

Are you having steak, chicken and fish?

Let's say I am here with a good friend of mine.

I'm having the fish, my friend's having the steak, and my son's having the chicken.

Okay, well, I.

How old is your son?

My son is 23.

All right, so now I can give him a cocktail.

Yes, but he doesn't drink.

But we'll give him one.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, you can't go wrong with the smoked old fashioned.

Okay.

Yeah, especially when the server brings it out.

They'll smoke coming off your glass.

You can't go wrong.

Oh, that.

Yeah, that's my favorite.

Oh, yeah.

He's not driving home.

Okay.

That's what they got.

Uber, right?

Yeah.

We have fun.

I. I would set us.

I would share probably a couple different appetizers.

Maybe two.

Two for the table.

One order le prawns or.

And then one order of maybe those beef tips.

The juice tips.

Yes.

Next I would go into entrees.

So I would go into.

If you're going to order, what do you say?

The fish.

Fish, yes.

Well, you're going to get sea bass.

I'm getting sea bass.

Absolutely.

You're getting the sea bass.

If he's getting the steak.

Every day we're offering a different butcher's cut, so it's different dry age options.

He likes a good ribeye.

He us a good ribeye.

Well, I do.

I.

We get a mean killer ribeye.

Big.

A big, thick, 14 ounce ribeye.

Serve a la carte with a.

You can order a side of mashed potatoes.

That goes.

Or a three cheese smash.

Excuse me.

That goes along with it.

While we're still talking ribeye, they used to also call it.

Do they still call Del Monaco?

Del Monaco?

Yes.

Yeah, they still call it Demonico.

Okay.

It just depends on the.

The.

How short of an eye you get.

Yes.

Like the ones I serve on the menu.

If you order Ms. Delmonico steaks, that's what you're gonna be expecting.

Okay.

And she's getting chicken.

She's getting chicken.

I do a killer stuffed chicken with a mushroom risotto.

A mushroom risotto?

Yeah, yeah.

A wild mushroom risotto.

We finished with parmigiano, Reggiano and fresh cracked black pepper.

And what are we having?

I'm having the shoestring.

No, actually, with my sea bass, I'm having a broccoli or a spinach.

What do you recommend?

I'll tell you what.

I make some killer Brussels sprouts.

Sprouts?

Brussels sprouts?

Yeah, Brussels sprouts.

I pan fry them, toss them in a garlic cream and finish it off with a peach balsamic.

Okay.

And she's having the three cheese potato mashed potatoes.

Three cheese smash.

Yeah.

With roasted garlic, smoked gouda cream.

With cream cheese.

Actually Makes it real creamy.

Yes.

A little hit to it and then grated parmesan.

And he's having shoestring fries.

He's having shoestring fries.

So again, those.

Those truffle that.

Those truffled fries with the parmesan cheese.

You can't go.

Okay.

And for dessert, they're going to try to make me eat something different.

I still want the hot brownie with the vanilla ice cream on top.

But if I had to try something else, what would you want?

Or if you want something like a little bit chocolatey.

Yes, I do a triple chocolate cake on our menu that I serve housemade chocolate sauce, white chocolate.

We finish it off with macerated fruit.

Or if you want.

I do A Dubai chocolate cake.

It's a little bit different.

Okay, what's the Dubai chocolate cake?

So it's.

Think of it like a chocolate torte with a Dubai filling.

And we finish it off with fresh cracked.

Fresh cracked, fresh crumbled pistachios.

Oh, that sounds really good.

What is she having for dessert?

What would you recommend?

I think she might want cheesecake.

She'll get a lemon blueberry cheesecake with chocolate sauce pecan praline, and then fresh blueberries over top of that.

Lemon blueberry cheesecake.

Wow.

Okay.

And what is another dessert we can have for him?

Well, he might want the carrot cake.

The carrot cake.

He's not.

He's.

He's not.

He's not full yet.

He's gonna want the character.

Yeah, he's a growing young man.

He's a growing boy.

Yeah.

Ah, that sounds really good.

Wow.

Good thing it's lunchtime.

Almost here.

Well, for lunch, you can.

I mean, I.

We have a couple different.

We have a couple different options that you don't see everywhere.

Like, we do a wagyu pastrami.

I got a guy in New York who smokes up, makes pastrami just for us, 100% all Wagyu brisket.

We slice the order.

Let's talk about specials before we finish up.

So I know we have the lobster trap.

Is that one of your favorite specials?

And let's throw in a couple other specials.

I'll tell you what, the lobster trap's kind of cool because I get to talk to the fishmongers.

I've got one of my representatives out of Tampa.

He has.

He gets fresh lobsters and put in his tanks every day.

When I.

When I get them, I know they're the freshest, the best quality.

Okay.

Any other specials you want to bring up?

So we do a butcher's cut here.

Butcher's cut?

Yeah.

So it's.

We offer a different variety of dry age or cool different cuts if you want something that's off the menu as our off the menu option.

Okay.

Thanks for.

Thanks for talking with us.

Of course.

Of course.

It's.

Everything sounds really great here, and we really look forward to.

We look forward to eating every time we come here.

You're looking thin.

You should eat something.

Yeah, I know.

I got to gain some weight.

Just my stomach.

Not my stomach anymore.

I got enough weight there.

And the seafood.

I love seafood.

So I'm looking forward to having something here soon.

But thanks.

Dave.

You seem really experienced.

Like I was saying earlier, I mean, the kitchen of the Blue Halo is the epicenter.

It's.

It's your territory.

I think you hold it down quite well.

Oh, thank you.

It's not just me.

It's my guys and your team.

Yes.

Yeah, my team.

We train them up very nicely.

Do a really good job.

All right.

Thanks for talking.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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