Dayton sailor on Lagasse show today

Dayton High School graduate Thomas James "TJ" Milani will be a guest Friday on Emeril Lagasse's TV cooking show, Emeril's Table.

Milani, the son of Sandra L. Ramos of Dayton, is a Navy culinary specialist whose current assignment is the officers' ward aboard the USS Kauffman. Milani was in New York City, helping with a reception aboard the USS New York, when he was asked to appear on Lagasse's Hallmark Channel show.

Sea service military personnel from the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard were also invited to appear on the show. The USS New York was commissioned into the U.S. Navy this month and was constructed with more than 7 tons of World Trade Center steel in her bow.

Lagasse will prepare and serve some of his favorite Southern fare to TJ and his fellow service members, including oven-fried catfish, sweet succotash, kicked-up collard greens and Garlicky Cornbread.

Milani is a 2008 graduate of Dayton High School who joined the Navy in August 2008. He has been through the Panama Canal and to South America in 2009; traveled to Scotland, Poland and Russia in 2010; and sailed across the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal to Oman and down to Somalia. Milani has been stationed stateside since January 2011.

This special Veterans Day episode of Emeril's Table will air at 8 a.m. today on the Hallmark Channel.