When Jason Williams was a kid in the 80s, he had a favorite TV show.

It wasn't a cartoon. It was more like a documentary show, like the educational kind.

I was obsessed with the show Great Chef's Great Cities, which was a program back on in the early late 80s probably, where they'd go to different restaurant kitchens and make a dish.

Jason grew up on the East Coast in a small town. It was nice, but it was not the ideal place to learn to become a chef.

I grew up in New Hampshire and didn't have a lot of access to crazy ingredients.

The closest to bigger town was across the border in Maine.

But when he went there as a kid, he wasn't going for the food.

So I'd come to Portland growing up as a kid.

We used to come over here and skateboard and, you know, all that fun stuff and just kind of be in the city.

Back then, the big city of Portland, Maine wasn't necessarily known for its food scene.

It was not featured on great chefs, great cities.

But these days, Maine's reputation in the food world is different.

And Jason Williams, now chef Jason Williams, is a big part of that.

What Jimmy to Maine was just the accessibility.

We have like the ocean right here,

incredible cold water seafood.

We're two miles from the ocean and we're on a 120 acre farm.

The farmers are all approachable.

The fishermen are all good people, you know,

and there's so much abundance.

I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Atlas Obscura,

a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

...