Mark Canha: From Detroit Tigers Baseball Player to Gourmet Foodie

In this episode of “Sports & Forks,” host Kelly Senyei sits down with Major League Baseball player Mark Canha to delve into his passion for food and how it intertwines with his career and personal life.

The Detroit Tigers outfielder, who is fresh off his recent grand slam against The Astros, opens up about his love for cooking and his multicultural influences, stemming from his Italian and Portuguese heritage. He shares childhood memories of exploring diverse cuisines with his dad, sparking a lifelong obsession with food.

Exploring various food scenes across the United States, Mark highlights Detroit for its pizza and African cuisine, while praising Seattle’s seafood offerings. All of his favorites are highlighted on his popular Instagram account @bigleaguefoodie.

As a father of two, Mark also shares his journey of instilling a love for food and diverse flavors in his children and reflects on how food plays a crucial role in bringing people together. Get ready for all the must-have restaurant recommendations from MLB’s biggest food lover.

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Timestamped Overview:
00:00 Challenges in finding healthy diet for sensitive stomach.
07:21 Instagram inspired me to share food passion.
11:00 Enjoys steakhouses, solo if too far. YouTube series.
13:37 Passion for food, lack of willingness.
17:19 Dad’s cooking and diverse college cuisines broaden horizons.
19:13 Visited girlfriend, now wife, in Rome, Brussels.
22:42 Italian heritage less present, embracing Mexican culture.
24:55 Highly exquisite French trout, attention to detail.
28:24 Sports & Forks Quick Fire Challenge with Mark Canha

like a lot of my passion for food is and I think a lot of people’s passion for food is centered around Nostalgia of just like Memories right of those times when a when a meal blew your mind and and uh for me it was just a powerful thing and it led to to this and and my obsession of about food I’m Kelly SE a professionally trained Chef TV and podcast host and sports Enthusiast I’m back behind the mic in my new podcast Sports and forks where the worlds of Athletics and appetites Collide ready to get in on the action the five [Applause] touchdowns new episodes air every Wednesday in today’s episode of the sports and forks podcast I chatted with major league baseball player Mark canah about his famous Big League foodie Instagram account his go-to Detroit eats and the one restaurant meal he can’t live without I hope you enjoy welcome to the sports and forks podcast mark thank you so much for joining me thanks for having me on all right now you are fresh off of your third career Grand Slam congratulations first and foremost it was epic against the Astros propelled you guys to Victory how did you celebrate after that career defining moment you know in basball there’s not much time to celebrate it’s kind of uh it’s on to the next one so you re in those moments and it’s a it’s a cool thing but um you know it’s a quick reminder that you got a game the next day to play and and uh there’s always a game the next day so it’s a it’s a short brief uh little party in my head and then and then we move on I love that party in my head I feel like I’m always having parties in my head yeah yeah so let’s talk about it then you talked about then going on to the next game obviously there’s a lot of wear and tear on your body as a professional baseball player you guys play so many games throughout the year you have training on top of that how do you eat to fuel your body to perform at the highest level you know for me everyone has kind of a different approach I eat pretty I would say healthy um but it’s been a challenge throughout my career to find what works for me and um I think part of the reason for that is I have a ironically as a food lover have a very um sensitive stomach it’s not very hard for me or not uncommon for me to eat something and then have like a stomach ache after maybe and I’m kind of learning a little bit more of that about that as I go and about what is good for my body and what is not but it’s kind of a Conant Journey but I I eat you know a lot of protein a lot of meat I’ve eaten vegetables in the past I love fruit I I love everything really if it’s if it’s good food it’s good food and it’s been uh this year I’ve been messing around with eating a little more red meat and less vegetables because I’m learning that vegetables I think are are what causes my stomach problems at times you said it we we play all the time and we’re always traveling and it’s really hard CU you’re eating a lot of your meals in clubhouses so you’re kind of um just subject to to whatever is available a lot of times whatever they serve and then when you are out of season do you change your diet at all is there more kind of quote cheap meals or and we’re going to get to all the rest stuff in a second but let’s say you’re out of season you guys wrap up for the year do you change your diet at all at that point yeah I mean it certainly changes in the sense that I can I have more say over what I’m eating and I can choose to to eat a certain way basically I just as a foodie foodie um I eat whatever I want though I’m lucky to have a good metabolism and and and not have problems with my weight or or things like that in my career I’ve always um it’s just the stomach thing is the only thing I kind of pay attention to but but basically um it it can be exhausting trying to figure out what works for you and and so a lot of times I kind of just have the um the screw it mentality and just eat eat whatever I want because I want to eat delicious things and and there’s so much out there that I as you know maybe by looking at my Instagram that there’s a lot of different variety of typ of foods and junk food and fancy food and whatever it may be I like to explore the food world and and whatever that looks like and so I kind of just do my thing and and eat whatever I want and we’re going to get to the strategy behind the Instagram account and how you actually choose the restaurants that you’re dining at but I want to go back to inseason for a second I’ve always had this question about professional baseball players what do you eat during the game are you a guy that’s like snacking through the game or are you like a no food just beverages kind of guy and I mean beverages in like water and electrolytes and all the things but are you ever eating during the game no I don’t really eat during the game some pitchers will I think that they’re the ones that are kind of using the most energy I think that’s the the kind of the most energy demanding position um but no typically I’m I’m eating like a a mediumsized meal about an hour and a half before the game and then and not again till after and are you a sunflower seeds guy a gum guy none of the above gum I’m a gum guy I don’t like sunflower seeds yeah okay what flavor gum are you going for is this like the Big League Chew iconic gum or it’s a little more simple they give us double bubble in the Dugout and and I’m an I’m an OG just uh original we have all the flavors but I I like just the original kind of bubble gum that’s all it’s kind of a superstition thing I think I started doing it one day when I I was doing well with the original flavor so i’ I’ve stuck with it ever since I love it iconic it it it matches with the whole theme and um and you can get a you can blow a really good bubble with that stuff I’ve got four little kids and there is a lot of practice at our house with who can blow the biggest bubble with the uh with the gum so I I I appreciate that for the quality that it offers absolutely yeah it’s kind of it’s kind of gives you something to do during the game baseball’s not the most always the most uh you know High action uh game but except when you’re hitting grand slams and then High action and everyone’s going crazy but yeah I agree okay so let’s chat about this amazing Instagram account that you created it’s called Big League foodie what was the original inspiration for launching this account so before I started my big leag career I was I was at Cal Berkeley at a alumni baseball game after Ward me and my fellow alumni went out and grabbed a bite I was having a conversation with my friend’s wife and she was doing this she was uh her account is Bay Area eats um her name is Kristen hildenberger she has a really great food blog and she was telling me about this and telling me how she kind of does it for a living and and I was like wow like you can do that I did I didn’t really realize you could do that and um I didn’t really really I wasn’t in Instagram before that so I was like oh this is a way I can use Instagram to not just like post pictures of myself in places like I can do it and Center it around food which is something I’m really passionate about and uh and I’ll have a platform because I’m I’m about to be in the big leagues hopefully and and uh and that’ll give me a little following and so I started this account the rest is history I’ve kind it’s just uh grown grown and it’s it’s been a lot of fun and it um it it’s like my hobby like it gives me an excuse kind of you know the nature of baseball and the schedule and you know you’re playing every day but you’re also traveling to different cities so it gives me an excuse to get out of the hotel and and go explore these cities so I can kind of eat and eat cool food and and delicious food and also at the same time um explore places which is a lot of fun and you also have a strategy I think so you you’re like you mentioned you’re going to a ton of different cities when you’re traveling for the games how do you choose which restaurants you’re going to to you’re going to eat at are you doing research ahead of time are you like a fly by the seat of my pants kind of guy or you have a strategy behind this yeah it requires some some patience and some some time management I have some go-to resources the main one for me lately has just been eater yeah they have a great kind of um database I love their essential lists they have these lists of like it’ll be like 13 essential restaurants in Cleveland or something and it’ll be like all kind of um ethnic foods so you get a lot of different um diversity and you can find Vietnamese food in in some City where you wouldn’t expect them to have good Vietnamese food and then stuff like that so it’s just um it’s been a pretty reliable re source for me to find like a a quality kind of delicious meal in places where I would know where to go all the time I absolutely love eater I also enjoy dining out I eat for a living so I guess we both t for living yeah so as you know it’s pretty good yeah I love how they do the heat map where you know and it shows you like on a map like these are different spots so even if you wanted to go to one or two places like when you’re in the city playing you know it allows you kind of plot out in terms of geography where the best spots are too so yeah or you can do like breakfast or you know if you’re like we have night games a lot of times it’s all I only have the opportunity to have breakfast so I’m like where’s the best I’ll put in breakfast eater Arizona or what whatever and and something will come up and do you usually dine out solo when you’re doing these expeditions to the restaurants or do teammates come with you usually solo sometimes I’ll I’ll find a um a team mate that that will want to tag along and kind of experience what what I’m doing um last year I briefly did a little YouTube I’ll call it a very miniseries where I um I would I brought a couple teammates out with me and and recorded it and it it was too hard to sustain during the season because we’re so busy but um that was a lot of fun most of the time you know the guys my teammates want to um they generally to eat at like a steakhous not that I have anything against steakhouses I love going to steakhouses and it’s fun to have like a boys dinner which we’ll do a lot of times like the first night we get into a city if there’s time usually we’ll go out as a group and and go get a steak as you know as a food lover yourself sometimes you know you’re like okay I I can go to this place which looks really cool but it’s like a 25 minute Uber right away from where we’re staying or or something like that so typically if it’s if it’s that type of situation I’m going so low um I did briefly last year do a a a little miniseries on YouTube where I kind of like grabbed some guys and made them come out with me and just uh and recorded it and that was a lot of fun to do to to kind of watch guys like try food and try things that um and see the appreciation on their faces of of people you know like who wouldn’t typically go out of their way to eat something like that I’m eating and and that’s um that’s space that I think is really interesting it’s like having people who don’t normally appreciate that type of food try different things and and record it is is really fun and I know you visit a lot of like hole-in-the-wall places kind of off the beaten path you mentioned about taking a 25 minute Uber I once took a 40-minute Uber to get bagels in San Francisco not gonna lie I I’m right there with you when says it’s worth it you go you go which bagels and I me oh my gosh now I’m because I can’t even remember I was doing was it because in the mission they have um what’s the name of it it was definitely in the mission and I’m trying to remember in Suns um yes in Suns that was the um it’s from New York they’re from New York but they’re from New York and I took a 40-minute Uber and I waited in line and then I sat like next to a garbage can and ate them yeah that’s very San Francisco yeah that’s how you do you know the bagels were amazing we’re going to remember the name of the place was it’s on my Instagram I’ll find it I was doing like a a a hop from like pastry shop to bagel shop and so anyways I went solo also I was with some girlfriends and nobody wanted to go on a 40-minute Uber ride so I get it um yeah but do your fellow athletes and maybe even the guys on your team know that you have this big league foodie account are they like cheering you on or you know what’s their kind of involvement or affiliation with it they they all know that I have the Instagram account that I’m that I do this I think a lot of them like no I do it and don’t really get it and don’t really like understand what the big deal is they’re not as big of a food is they’re just not yeah like food is is a passion for me and and that’s um I think a lot of people love good food but they’re just not willing to do the research and go the extra mile to try different things in baseball the thing people focus on around food is very much I’ve noticed especially lately it’s very much health centered like guys are really into whatever they’re into about food and a lot of it like right now what I’m hearing that’s trendy is like the red meat diet and eating a lot of red meat and not eating too many vegetables and and and I’ve noticed that that’s kind of helpful for me it’s been it’s been good for me maybe it’s just the nature of our sport because we’re we’re playing so often that how we feel is is always so important to us but yeah most of it is is certainly like centered around like the health aspect of of food and and for me it’s what I’m doing with my Instagram account is is not really uh that’s not the the top priority right I’m mean like donuts sometimes and which is myor whatever Donuts always seem to come up here on this Sports and forks podcast because it is my favorite food of all time um really yeah just love donuts like if Donuts are on a dessert menu if Donuts are on a breakfast men I’m always ordering them they are just my go-to so let’s say you open up a restaurant menu is there ever one dish where you’re like if that’s on the menu like what is Mark’s dut equivalent my favorite like food yes um one of the things I always get if it’s on a menu I feel like is bone mirrow o okay I love I love a bone marrow caviar o okay it’s a little pretentious but I I don’t mind it I I I don’t mind saying that I am like obsessed with caviar what’s the preparation that you love do you do it on the bini do you like it you know like on your hand I mean how are you eating it yeah typically like a not a I don’t love the the bleen um I at home I’ll do it on Melba toast and with uh Mela toast with creem fresh or or cream cheese there’s this one restaurant in Denver it’s called beckan okay it’s amazing it’s uh it’s upscale restaurant um I don’t know why they don’t have a Michelin star they should it’s phenomenal but they have the best caviar service I’ve ever I’ve ever had in my life they call it like a French picnic basket or something like that they make these like these little they call them Savory Donuts so it’s like a doughnut hole but they’re sourdough dut holes they’re not sweet and um they’re piping hot it’s like crispy it has like a crispy Golden Crust on the outside and on the inside it’s like this pillowy just bread deliciousness you you said the magic word which was sourdough there is nothing sour dough involved that I am not obsessed with that sounds incredible yeah I don’t know how they do these little clouds of breed deliciousness but they are incredible and and then you put the crem fro and the caviar and the you know the Shives on top and it’s like it’s unbelievable so you obviously have a very elevated palette if caviar is your go-to what is it that originally ignited your passion for food what is it that started this whole kind of obsession and and interest in the food scene I always credit my dad kind of I I always give him a shout out because as a as a kid my dad cooked a lot and he would travel for he was um worked in Silicon Valley as a sales manager and he would have to travel a lot and then he would come home and kind of like try and make the food that he ate overseas like in Europe and stuff and and he also had this collection of food and wine magazines that he would cook out of and and he would like kind of you know scrapbook and cut recipes out and and and he would make these things at home and and as kids me and my siblings uh didn’t love it all the time because we were we were kids and we’re like you know what why is Dad making this weird stuff for dinner so at the time I didn’t really appreciate it but then as I got older I think it it just made me more open to to trying things you know like other things didn’t seem as weird once I got out in the real world and uh I found myself at Cal Berkeley for college and and that’s a very diverse place and there’s a lot of different Cuisines I remember the first time uh a friend that was on my baseball team at Cal um took me to get Thai food and that was like the first time I’ve eaten Thai food somehow was in college which like is crazy to think that I grew up in San Jose and never tried Thai food and then until I got to college do you remember what your order was that first time you had Thai food uh yeah like Patu with chicken or something the Gateway the Gateway into the Thai food world yeah exactly and was like and and I’m still upset I still love like going to get some just like cheap Pat Thai anywhere like it’s just delicious or Padu um and then like in college I also had some other experiences like I went to um visit my girlfriend at the time who’s now my wife uh was studying abroad in Rome and so I went on like a little European Vacation like on winter break to visit her and and ate a a bunch of food and and just we’re traveling around as college kids and and there I just have this memory of like the first time I tried muscles was in Brussels in Belgium and there was this like little place called Shay Leon that we would go to like almost every night because it was like €1 for you get like a bowl of muscles and a beer and we were like we’re like this is the best deal ever what a combo that yeah yeah it was incredible and just like little memories like that I feel like it’s like a lot of my passion for food is and I think a lot of people’s passion for food is centered around Nostalgia of just like Memories right of those times when a when a meal blew your mind and and uh for me it was just a powerful thing and it led to to this and and my obsession of about food so you’re also a dad you’re a father of two and you mentioned your dad bringing all of these worldly flavors into your home via his travels you obviously travel all over the United States occasionally internationally as well are your kids picky eaters are they willing to eat anything and who’s the cook in your family uh my wife and I both cook my kids eat like kids like for the most part there’s there’s a limited number of things they will eat um they’re good they’re pretty good though they eat fruit and and there’s some vegetables I think I think think I’ve heard I haven’t uh been at home with my kids for a while but I will be soon but anyway um my wife is telling me that my oldest has been eating salads which is like I’m like oh wow that’s uh impressive I think it’s because she my wife eats salads all the time and and so my daughters like now my six-year-old daughter is is venturing into salads I love it we have the very a very similar thing going on at our house I eat a lot of salads as well so every night we’ll have some sort of salad and my six-year-old also maybe this is like a six-year-old kid thing he’s very into salad now but he doesn’t want he just eats the full leaves of Roma dipped in Godly bucket of ranch I mean basically he’s just drinking the lettuce is just the vehicle to get it there but yeah whatever work I count that as a vegetable so it’s fine that counts yeah that totally counts so okay so when you are home and you are cooking what’s like a signature dish that you make often I like to make meatballs like spaghetti meatballs my mom’s side of the family is talian and I you know it’s not it’s something that’s not very hard to make and I just like kind of like on the weekend I kind of like the idea of like the ritual of just U you know I put on like mob hits and like you know uh you know Dean Martin and and all Frank Sinatra and all his his music and and and I’ll just put that on in the house and and make spaghetti of Meatballs just trying to like you know bring me bring the Italian flavor into the house that’s fantastic and you’re also of Portuguese descent as well correct yeah that part of my Heritage isn’t as present I I don’t really feel that connected to that to that part of my identity but um the Italian thing growing up I think just cuz my mom’s family lived in California we’re always around the Italian side more I try to bring that out and uh my wife is Mexican so so that is is definitely more heavily present in our household my my in-laws live in Arizona where we live so they’re always over so that there’s Spanish being spoken and and uh but so I that’s my way of like trying to bring the the Italian side and is making the spaghetti meatballs and it sounds like a very worldly Cuisine environment in your home now similar to like you mentioned when you were growing up so I’m sure your girls and hopefully my boys are going to expand the pallets EV yeah that’s my hope that’s my hope for them uh you know I just want them to to have the appreciation for food like I do I think it’s uh it’s fun it’s a fun thing to have in your house like an appreciation for everything regarding food like where it comes from and hands preparing it and and just appreciating um the work that goes into getting food on the table and and stuff like that is is a is a really important value for me we have to talk a little bit about your best ofs because you have this incredible travel experience with all of the different ballparks you go to is there one restaurant anywhere in the country that stands out where you were like that was a meal that was it the best one I mean I have a bias towards San Francisco just growing up in the Bay Area um I was fortunate enough to play in the Bay Area in New York which are two amazing food hubs Dominique Ken’s Restaurant in atellier Ken I think I ate there for my wife’s birthday I took her there uh a long time ago it was one time I’ve eaten there and I was like this is this is how it’s done what did you guys order well as a prefix menu but I just there was one dish in particular it was like a trout and it was just like a very simple trout with like a French preparation where they poured a sauce over it and there was probably caviar on top or something and it was just like I’ve never eaten a piece of fish that delicate and that well prepared to where it’s like cooked so perfectly and just all the flavors going on were just like on point and you’re just like man this is this is intense and then also the thing I love about like eating at Michelin star restaurants is is the attention to detail and how it’s just like over-the-top like a system where they’re where they’re every little detail on the table is like you know incredibly like well thought out and that night they were like presented the menu in the form of a poem and it was just like so it was so beautiful I it was just like I Blown Away just like how do people like care this much to do all of this they they really care about making the experience like something special and and that’s just something that goes a long way with me and you talk a lot about in your travels having the experience you are with the in Detroit not exactly a food capital of America but I’ve heard it’s getting there do you find that there’s a most underrated City when it comes to Cuisine we all know San Francisco’s great New York’s obviously great is there a city you went to and you’re like this actually a legit food scene Detroit is very good actually I’ve been very surprised um I’m all in on Detroit Pizza which I didn’t even know what I couldn’t have told you what Detroit pizza was before I got here and now I know and I’m like yeah this is good and they and also there’s this like African restaurant out here I’ve been eating at this outstanding that it was a um a James beer be award finalist this year it’s called bow Bob Fair it’s outstanding there’s a sushi restaurant out here that I’m obsessed with called soai so I mean there’s a lot of good stuff in Detroit I think if we’re if you’re talking about in the the places I’ve traveled over the years one of my favorite that I have to mention is Seattle Seattle is fantastic the fresh seafood and not just fresh seafood means everything but like there’s a lot of good restaurants in Seattle like a ton one of my favorite restaurants I’ve ever eaten at is there it’s called canless it’s another um very fancy restaurant but the chef there just like blew my mind with her food and um yeah but but there’s so many good restaurants in Seattle I have like this weird soft spot for Seattle because I I I was playing for the A’s for the first seven years of my career so I was going to Seattle a lot cuz they’re in our the Mariners are in our division so I kind of in defense like I know the city well because I’ve been there so many times that’s great and now we have Mark’s kind of goto list for all things Detroit food which I love we’re gonna we can write to and tell them to start a heat map we got Mark’s heat map for Detroit eats which is a great takeaway from folks yeah but we love to end every episode of the sports and forks podcast with we call the quickfire challenge so if you’re up for it I’ve got a few questions here whatever comes to your mind just right off the bat send it my way all right all right here we go mark on the sports and forks quickfire Challenge on a scale of one to 10 how spicy do you like your food seven you’ve got 20 minutes to work out what are you doing I’m doing a total body workout um of two upper body and two lower body exercises a push and a pull for each and I’m going uh Low Reps High weight and just banging it out as fast as I can fill in the blank one food I will never ever eat is nothing I will eat anything if it’s good all right you are at a baseball stadium in the stands you’re not playing you’re in the stands what ballpark snack are you eating good question uh garlic fries at San Francisco so I get to choose which one yes you can choose that was that was uh that was the thing like when I was a kid going to Giants games you get the garlic fries and those are the best yeah I have had them and I concur they are so good that and a really good soft pretzel and a giant Diet Coke and I’m happy I’m happy yeah I’ll take a br too I’ll take a br with my garlic fries yeah all right last but not least is there a life motto that you try and live by I don’t know if I have a motto I think uh have fun don’t take yourself too seriously and and uh give your time to the people who you love you know I prioritize my family is the most important thing to me and my kids and and my wife and um try and give them all the time I have and and uh just because it’s with baseball it’s limited so I I don’t know I believe in uh giving everything you have to your kids as as you can probably relate to that definitely well thank you so much for your time here huge congratulations on all of your success your long career in MLB we cannot wait to see what you do next we’re going to be waiting on that next Grand Slam we stay in tuned and we’ll stay tuned for all of your your eats all of your future requests we can’t wait to see what you guys what you suggest over on Big League foodie we’ll make sure people follow you over there thank you so much for your time thanks Cali thanks so much for tuning in if you liked what you heard make sure to subscribe to keep up with the latest episodes