My family... always had the value of the family table and these cultural influences of growing up.
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.
Growing up in New England, being schooled and classically trained, it needed to shake, it needed to evolve.
