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Tracy Kuch (center), founder of Wandering Palm Adventures, brings strangers from around the world together to explore local food, culture and history within Orlando\u2019s Main Street districts. (COURTESY OF TRACY KUCH)<\/p>\n
Orlando is one of the most captivating and artistic cities in Florida, buzzing with diverse communities and a vibrant culinary scene. Yet visitors often only associate the city with the Disney-themed parks. For this reason, Tracy Kuch, founder of Wandering Palm Adventures<\/a>, has made it her mission to teach locals and travelers just how special Orlando really is. As a Disney-goer herself, she strives to highlight some of the city\u2019s underrated but equally magical destinations, one food tour at a time.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe have so many cool local businesses, whether they\u2019re shops or restaurants,\u201d Kuch said in an interview. \u201cI\u2019m taking it on as my job to show as many people as I can that Orlando is so much more than Disney.\u201d\n<\/p>\n For Kuch, the desire to connect with others over food comes naturally. Raised in an Italian American family based in Chicago, food has always been her family\u2019s ultimate love language. Kuch recalls understanding the value of hospitality from a young age.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cMy mom, the ultimate food-pusher, showed love through her cooking, and I learned early on that feeding people was one of the most meaningful ways to care for them,\u201d Kuch wrote on her website.\n<\/p>\n Kuch grew up frequently visiting Disney World with her family, and between the warm weather and the fond memories, she fell in love with Orlando and has called it home for the last 15 years. It was her passion for food that led her to launch Wandering Palm back in 2020.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWandering Palm Food Tours is a blend of my family\u2019s food-filled legacy and my love for this city,\u201d she wrote on her website. \u201cIt\u2019s my way of sharing the stories, flavors, and community that make Orlando such a unique place to visit \u2026 and an even better place to call home.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Within Wandering Palm, Kuch offers six specialized food tours around some of the Main Street districts in Orlando, including Ivanhoe Village<\/a>, the Milk District<\/a>, the Packing District<\/a>, and a Mills 50<\/a> tour, which she launched in January. She also offers a Brews & Bites tour featuring local breweries and a Sip & Shop tour during the holiday season, where guests can shop at local stores in Ivanhoe Village for discounted prices.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n In addition to their food tours, Wandering Palm Adventures also offers hands-on cheese and charcuterie classes at Maffrey\u2019s in Ivanhoe Village and The Ancient Olive Gourmet in Winter Park and Winter Garden. (COURTESY OF TRACY KUCH)<\/p>\n Each walking tour takes a group of around 10 to 15 guests to various local restaurants, bars, food halls and cultural spaces where they have the opportunity to \u201csample small bites and craft drinks, meet passionate chefs and makers, and get to know the neighborhoods that give Orlando its creative flavor,\u201d as described on her website. On her Milk District food tour, she takes guests to Bull & Bush Pub<\/a>, Primrose Lanes<\/a>, Bad As\u2019s Sandwich<\/a> and Swine & Sons<\/a>, while sharing history about the city\u2019s districts and the nearby T.G. Lee Dairy<\/a> factory.\n<\/p>\n Beyond the tours, Wandering Palm also partners with Visit Orlando<\/a>, United Arts of Central Florida<\/a> and numerous small businesses to host tastings, rooftop sunset tours, cheese and charcuterie board classes, and private group experiences. Before launching her business, Kuch managed The Ancient Olive Gourmet of Winter Park<\/a> for seven years, where she became a cheesemonger. Now, Wandering Palm partners with the shop to offer olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and cheese and charcuterie board classes using The Ancient Olive\u2019s products.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Kuch acknowledged the challenge of maintaining a small business, but she also expressed how fulfilling it is to see how her tours impact others.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m still learning every day \u2026 This was the hardest thing that I\u2019ve ever decided to do but it\u2019s also been the most rewarding,\u201d Kuch said. \u201cI\u2019m bringing people together that don\u2019t know each other. I\u2019m connecting people from literally all over the world. I think that that\u2019s pretty significant in our little, big world here.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Looking ahead, Kuch hopes to offer international cuisine tours, similar to Epcot\u2019s \u201cAround the World\u201d experience but within downtown Orlando, featuring the local individuals and families who immigrated here and are sharing their cultures with Orlando.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Ultimately, Kuch\u2019s goal with Wandering Palm is to continue introducing people to local businesses, teaching them about Orlando\u2019s rich history and culture, and inspiring connections across different walks of life over food.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cFood brings people together. A lot of times people [on the tour] start off super shy. By the end of the tour, everyone is chit-chatting and laughing, and they all feel really comfortable with each other,\u201d Kuch said. \u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019re all family. We\u2019re all sharing a meal together, and everyone is happy.\u201d\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tracy Kuch (center), founder of Wandering Palm Adventures, brings strangers from around the world together to explore local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-175703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cheese-class-at-Maffreys.jpg\")
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