Background: Grew up in local kitchens – from Damon’s and Long John Silver’s to Gourmet Market and Tapatio; chef/owner of past favorites Crescendo and La Tavola; current chef/owner of Knead Urban Diner.

Culinary education: Self-taught

Hometown: Columbus

Guilty pleasure: Cookies ... with Snowville Milk, I’m a dunker.

On the music that represents your style: I’d say The Clash, because it’s a mix of all different kinds of rockabilly, reggae, punk . . . with attitude. It’s blue-collar, nothing refined or fancy about it. It’s kind of rough around the edges.

On local ingredients: I’ve always done Italian, and the main principle of Italian cooking is utilizing fresh ingredients in season and what’s available locally. It’s something I’ve always done. From having Crescendo Pastaria and La Tavola, I had all these sources – so it’s kind of a joke [looking at the mural], “Eating local since 2010,” that sign on the wall over there. I’ve always done it as much as I could, but back then, nobody cared about it. Now that people care about it, I want them to know what comes from where. It’s the Italian mantra for cooking: get the best ingredients you can find and do very little to them. The fewer ingredients in a dish, the better.

On inspiration: I try and deal with what’s in season first. Like, if you’re writing a paper, that’s my outline of what I have available, what I can use. Then I look to the past and to the future. With classic cocktails being huge right now, I look at that time period of food to get ideas that people aren’t doing anymore and maybe adding a modern twist. Then also I try to keep up with New York City because there are so many good things going on there that I feel like won’t be a trend here for years, but you sort of pick and choose. I look at a lot of old cookbooks; I really like the retro sort of cookbooks that talk about old delis and old neighborhoods, from the 1900s, 1920s. And then I have a few that were my grandmother’s books. I’ll go online and expand the idea. If I like an idea, then I’ll make it my own.

On movies: I love old movies, black-and-white silent films. I was named after Casablanca [character] Rick [Blaine]. I’ve always wanted to have the old floorshow, the tuxedos, but it would never fly. We don’t dress up for anything . . . now everybody puts on sweatpants. Remember the jazz club Major Chord? One night, Michelle Horsefield sang there and I remember her dedicating “You Must Remember This” and I thought, “How cool, that people are eating dinner and watching a show.” It was as close as you could get to Casablanca.

On mentors: I’d have to say Chef Hubert at Gourmet Market. Besides all the cooking skills and it being an amazing kitchen to be a part of, the main lesson I learned from him was just to keep going. He’s been around a long time and it’s not by mistake. The guy’s persevered. He’s a fighter and a winner. No matter how bad it gets, you just have to wake up the next morning and keep going. I had to sit down and tell him why I should work in his kitchen and he took me on.

On the local dining scene: Biggest change? Just the sheer number of restaurants is the big thing. I just think it’s a great scene. We’ve got a lot of talented people, whereas it used to just be a few. I think we have a great younger class of restaurateurs. The future looks great. I think people need to appreciate Columbus restaurants more than they do.