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Chef Lawrence Page has come a long way since his days as a young boy in Brooklyn, learning his way around the kitchen from the best cook he knew - his mother.
This summer, he brought his unusual brand of soul food to Miami Beach with the opening of his second and highly anticipated restaurant, the Pink Teacup Villa.
"I've been frequenting Miami for a long time," says the 42-year-old. "A lot of the places where I ate, I was looking for something different. I came to Miami to jump start the food scene."
His entrée into the culinary industry came at age 19, when he bought a bakery. He went on to purchase five more eateries until he discovered the Pink Teacup, a historic Brooklyn restaurant, in 2009. Chef Page breathed new life into it by relocating it nearby and modernizing the soul food menu.
To make classic soul food dishes healthful, he swaps lard for vegetable oil, keeps salt to a minimum and uses cornmeal instead of flour to make recipes gluten free.
"I cook cleaner, and it tastes great," he says. "People don't even know they are eating healthy."
Following Chef Page to Miami is his WE Tv reality show, "Hustle & Soul," which premiered March 2017.
"I didn't just want to be a chef who worked 18 hours a day, so I wrote a story about how tough it is to manage a restaurant and be a team," he says.
Also featured is Ana Lavender, his fiancée, the mother of his two children, and the general manager and co-owner of the Pink Teacup Villa. Filming for the third season starts shortly.
Chef Page sees a bright future ahead of him and is quite happy with his present, he says: "I have mahogany skin and kinky hair. I always had to work from the inside out. I show America that it's not about color; it's about what you can push through. The only color I know is the color of my food. I am a living witness that you can do it well." O
