Mom ran the house so we grew up Portuguese.

My food is Louisiana New Orleans-based well-seasoned rustic. I think it's pretty unique because of my background being influenced by my mom Portuguese and French Canadian. There's a lot going on there.

My inspiration was my mom. She's a great cook and she still cooks and we still banter back and forth about cooking. Growing up in a mostly Portuguese community food was important and the family table was extremely important. At a very young age I understood that.