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.

Lagasse credits his culinary drive less to formal training than to domestic example: a mother whose cooking and ongoing kitchen “banter” made food a living relationship rather than a set of techniques. By situating his childhood in a largely Portuguese community, he points to an immigrant/ethnic food culture where meals function as social glue and identity-keeping. The “family table” becomes an early lesson in hospitality, tradition, and the emotional stakes of feeding others—values that later translate into his public persona and restaurant ethos. The quote frames cooking as intergenerational transmission: skills, tastes, and standards are learned through closeness, repetition, and conversation.