When Il Solito chef and pasta enthusiast Matt Sigler was a kid, his father would skip spaghetti night. In the morning, he would wake up, take the leftovers, and fry them with a touch of garlic powder and some dried parsley. Food was important in his Nebraska home; his cattle ranching family would gather around the table for his father’s lasagna, which always snagged top honors at family reunions.

Now, after time at San Francisco’s three-Michelin-starred Quince and Portland’s Renata, Sigler is uninterested in tweezer-y plating, Instagram-perfect dishes and complicated recipes. In his words, his food should be familiar, “soul-touching:” food steeped in nostalgia that “anyone can relate to.”