Emmy Winner, International Acclaimed Journalist, Executive Producer, Food & Travel Lover, and Creator of the Beloved show "Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives" David Page takes us deep into the world of chefs, restaurateurs, and everything "foodie" from the nationally and internationally awarded to the locally loved on
Culinary Characters Unlocked
New episode every Tuesday.
David Page
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Marisa Baggett had never seen sushi, never tasted sushi, when a customer asked for it at her Starkville Mississippi café. And that launched her quest to master the age old Japanese culinary tradition, graduating from the California Sushi Academy, and championing creativity that remains true to the fresh and local soul of sushi, such as her southern influenced sushi made with ingredients including pickled okra, catfish, and collard greens. She says anyone can learn to make their own sushi at home, and she’s written the cookbooks to help people make it happen. She’s also writing about Japanese food — sushi and much more — in a Substack column called Dear Sensei at dearsensei.substack.com.
All Episodes
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 46
CHEF MARISA BAGGETT ON SHATTERING EXPECTATIONS AS A FEMALE, BLACK, JEWISH SUSHI CHEF, AND REDEFINING SUSHI HER WAY EP 46
Marisa Baggett had never seen sushi, never tasted sushi, when a customer asked for it at her Starkville Mississippi café. And that launched her quest to master the age old Japanese culinary tradition, graduating from the California Sushi Academy, and championing creativity that remains true to the fresh and local soul of sushi, such as her southern influenced sushi made with ingredients including pickled okra, catfish, and collard greens. She says anyone can learn to make their own sushi at home, and she’s written the cookbooks to help people make it happen. She’s also writing about Japanese food — sushi and much more — in a Substack column called Dear Sensei at dearsensei.substack.com.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 45
CHEF ERIC LEVINE ON TURNING BROOKLYN FAVORITES LIKE HOT DOGS AND KNISHES INTO ELEVATED CULINARY MASTERPIECES— AND ON ACHIEVING CELEBRITY AND SUCCESS WHILE REPEATEDLY BATTLING CANCER . EP45
Chef Eric LeVine was so taken by cooking that before he even attended culinary school, he wrote a letter to groundbreaking chef David Burke at the legendary River Café in New York – and got hired. He credits Chef Burke with setting him on the path to culinary achievement and, after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Levine cooked at a variety of restaurants, winning a three-star review from the New York Times. He then began opening restaurants of his own, building a restaurant group that now includes locations in Brooklyn and on Long Island, offering cuisines that run the gamut from burgers to handmade pasta to elevated high-end cooking that evokes his life, such as an upscale homage to the bagels, knishes, and hot dogs from the Brooklyn of his childhood. Along the way he was named champion on Chopped. And he did it all while repeatedly battling cancer.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 44
OWNER AMY MILLS ON SECRETS BEHIND THE ICONIC BARBECUE RESTAURANT FOUNDED BY HER FATHER, MIKE MILLS, THE FIRST PITMASTER NAMED GRAND CHAMPION THREE TIMES AT THE INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED MEMPHIS IN MAY BARBECUE COMPETITION. EP44
Amy Mills grew up surrounded by barbecue. Her father Mike Mills owned 17th St. Barbecue in Murphysboro, Illinois and was the first pitmaster ever named Grand Champion three times at the “super bowl of swine,” The Memphis in May barbecue competition. Her father passed away a few years back and Amy now runs the growing operation which includes two restaurants, a sauce factory, and catering. She’s kept the quality and the flavor up to her father’s standards and reveals some of the secrets for creating 17th Street’s signature ribs, brisket, sausage, and more. She’s now consulting and teaching barbecue classes as well.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 43
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNING CHEF ALON SHAYA - EP 43
James Beard Award winning chef Alon Shaya, born in Israel and raised in Philadelphia, was cooking for his family from the age of seven. When he was getting into trouble as a teen, his high school home economics teacher intervened, getting him his first fine-dining cooking job when he was just 16. He says she saved his life. He went on the Culinary Institute of America, then cooked in a variety of restaurants, become an executive chef at 21. He won the 2015 James Beard award as Best Chef South for cooking at the Italian restaurant Domenica which he co-owned in New Orleans, and then the following year, his Israeli cooking at Shaya in New Orleans the James Beard award The following year his restaurant Shaya, offering Israeli food, won the James Beard Award as the country’s best new restaurant. He then moved on to open two more highly popular Israeli restaurants, in New Orleans and Denver, and is now growing his Pomegranate Hospitably group with locations featuring other cuisines as well, including a restaurant in the Bahamas.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 42
CHEF ALYCIA WAHN MARTINDALE ON MICHELIN RECOGNIZING HER NEW TORONTO RESTAURANT; COOKING CREOLE, CARRIBEAN, AND LATIN AMERICAN FLAVORS NORTH OF THE BORDER; AND WHY SHE’S SCRATCH- MAKING HER OWN BUTTER AND BACON. EP 42
Chef Alycia Wahn Martindale is cooking up southern flavors north of the border at Conejo Negro (Black Rabbit in Spanish), the massively popular Toronto restaurant she owns with her husband and their good friend. The menu is a combination of Creole, Caribbean, and Latin American cooking. And she is making everything possible from scratch— bacon, butter, pickles and much more. The former punk rock musician says she wants diners to feel the love in her food, which should feel like something someone’s grandmother would make. After little more than a year, Conejo Negro was feted by Michelin with a bib gourmand and an award for outstanding service.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 41
Katz’s Deli owner Jake Dell with the inside story of the 137 year-old American institution and having Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal back to re-do their famous movie scene – EP 41
Often cited as America’s best deli, Katz’s has been a lower East Side institution in New York for more than 137 years this month. Owner Jake Dell’s father and uncle bought the deli from the original Katz family in 1988. Jake joined in 2009. He refuses to change anything about the customer experience there—from the ancient decor to the scratch made pastrami, corned beef, chopped liver, knishes and everything else on the expansive menu. He is, however, working to bring his food to even more people, opening a take-out location in Brooklyn and expanding into nationwide shipping. Katz’s was, of course, the location for the famous “I’ll have what she’s having” scene in the movie When Harry Met Sally, a scene recreated there by stars Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal for a 2025 Super Bowl commercial for Helmann’s mayonnaise. Dell insisted he would only allow the ad to be shot there if the producers promised not to put mayo on pastrami, which requires mustard.
Meet The Host
David Page
David Page is a long-time journalist who reinvented food television when he created Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. He is also an author, having written the award-winning book Food Americana, which explores the creation of American cuisine from the foods of other countries and cultures. Now he’s talking with some of the most important—and entertaining— figures in the food world on Culinary Characters Unlocked. Previously, Page spent many years in news, producing for both NBC and ABC and covering some of the world’s most important events, (even walking through the Berlin Wall the night it opened).