About Us
Good eating, made simple.
Whether you're a novice cook trying to add a little excitement to your meal prep or an experienced home chef looking for fresh inspiration, we’re here to equip you with the tools and expertise to approach your cooking with zest: enthusiasm, excitement, and energy for life.
Our experienced staff are here to guide you to the tools and knowledge that will make your cooking both more flavorful and more enjoyable to prepare. Serving Billings, Montana, central Montana, and Northern Wyoming communities.
Our Story
The seed for Zest was planted forty years ago when my parents Robert and Cheryl were given a pasta machine as a wedding gift. On pasta nights, our kitchen was barely controlled chaos, much like the rest of our lives. Flour covered the black and white checkerboard floors and steam billowed out of the pasta water. My dad made the dough, my sister Dominique turned the crank and I caught the silky strands of pasta as they came out of the machine before handing them over to my mom who would toss them lightly in flour before dunking them into the pot. Everyone was home, everyone had a role, no one was in a rush, and we'd eat together at the table. Even as a child, I knew that our pasta was so much better than the stuff we bought at the store—chewier, saltier, with a slightly bumpy texture which the sauce would stick to like magic, allowing me to slurp up more of my favorite basil pesto cream sauce with every bite. The warm memories of pasta nights sustained our family through the difficulties of, well, being a family. Those nights taught us, through the simple act of cooking together, how to approach the simple tasks of life with zest.
Pasta nights with my family made me fall in love with both the process of cooking and the food itself. So when the opportunity came to start a business as a family, kitchen and cookware just seemed natural. Every member of our family is in someway involved in this business.
We also have an incredible staff without whom Zest wouldn't be the same. Every staff member has contributed to a special area of our business with their unique skills and expertise!
Be sure to introduce yourself when you come in - we love meeting our customers because it's you who truly makes this business successful!