After a shift, what is your favorite guilty pleasure to eat? “A peanut butter and honey sandwich with a glass of milk. Don’t @ me. I’m just being honest.”

Is there one dish you won’t cook? “None come to mind. I still haven’t done the sourdough thing, but I’m almost there mentally.”

All-time favorite spice. “Black pepper or cumin.”

What is your favorite music to listen to while you cook? “Jazz lately. This may sound pretentious, but I’ve only recently discovered it.”

Did you grow up cooking? “Cooking with my abuela for sure. She would hand me a little box of button mushrooms and let me do whatever. Looking back, it was a great teaching method. She wouldn’t interfere at all, maybe guide me if I had any questions. Otherwise, I would make my own mistakes and she would help me fix them.”

What cookbook is your go-to resource for inspiration? “Hard question because I collect cookbooks, so when it’s time to work on new things, I grab a few and start thumbing. I will say that the first book that really turned the light on for me was Donald Link’s Real Cajun. Someone gave it to me as a college graduation gift when I was in Chicago, and I turned to it when I was homesick. It’s wild to say that I probably owe the first chapter of my career to that book.”

Cure Co

After all these years working in restaurants, how much do you still enjoy going out to eat? “I live for it.”

What is the one tool that you always need but can’t ever seem to find in your kitchen? “A good can opener.”

What is the best food city in the world? “You mean outside of New Orleans?”

Cure Co

Alfredo Nogueira is the executive chef of New Orleans restaurants and bars Cane & Table, Cure and VALS.

Interview has been condensed and edited.