Chef Gabriel Guilbeau from the TV series Yellowstone now goes solely by his nickname, “Gator." “My mom even calls me Gator,” he told me.

For about five years, Guilbeau has served as head of craft services for projects by director Taylor Sheridan. But the 30-year-old caught the public eye with his appearances in 12 episodes of the hit show Yellowstone.

“I’d never acted before,” Guilbeau said. When Sheridan wrote him into his first scene, he admitted to “shaking in my boots.” While Guilbeau’s on-screen persona as the Dutton family chef is newer territory, his affinity for cooking was generations in the making.

Guilbeau’s paternal ancestors migrated to Acadiana—a region in Louisiana known as Cajun Country—with the first wave of French people exiled from Canada in the 18th century. The region is “where all the best food in America is,” Guilbeau said.

Guilbeau described his father as “the black sheep” of his family for marrying a woman of non-Cajun descent and pursuing a profession outside of agriculture. Instead, Guilbeau’s dad ran the historic Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO, which was the inspiration for the hotel in Stephen King’s The Shining.