Ever since Robert Acosta’s grandparents picked up their family and moved from the Dominican Republic to New York City in the late 80s, the culinary world has provided them a connection to their cultural roots and each other.

Acosta will bring some of that family-secret flavor and culinary passion to fans of the Tampa Bay Lightning for Sunday’s Noche Latina celebration. The executive sous chef prepared every specialty dish that will be served to fans, a list that spans from tacos to nachos, quesadillas, cuban sandwiches and more that will be available throughout the arena.

Acosta is in his first year working as executive sous chef for Oak View Group at Benchmark International Arena, and he’s proud to bring his culture to the front lines of Tampa Bay Lightning fans on Sunday.

“I let everybody understand and know that I’m very proud of my Spanish heritage and where I come from because those are the people that raised me,” he said.

Fans can get the food throughout Benchmark International Arena on Sunday night when the Lightning take on the Vegas Golden Knights at 5 p.m.

Tampa Bay hosts Noche Latina night each season to celebrate Latin culture through music, art, food and more while supporting local initiatives through the Lightning Foundation.

Acosta plays a central role in this year’s celebration after a lifelong journey that began across the country surrounded by family.

“My grandfather always wanted us to be a unified front, always together. Every Saturday while we were in New York, we would always meet together, even if we all live in different parts of the Tri-State area—my cousin lived in Pennsylvania, my uncle lived in Boston—at least once or twice a month they would make sure that they come on a weekend to spend time as a family, for events and stuff, but it was always based around food,” Acosta said. “We would either go to restaurants together or my uncles would have a battle over who could make the best soup or make the best of grandma’s dishes. And then the younger generation just took on to that.”

A passion inspired by Grandma Rosa

For Acosta, Sunday also marks a notch-in-the-belt type moment of a culinary career that almost never happened.

Most people say that their grandmother is the best cook alive, but Acosta’s grandmother, Rosa Hiciano, truly might be if you ask her grandson. She was the one that sparked the chef’s initial love for the culinary world.

It was also his grandmother that inspired him to make the difficult choice to walk away from a full-ride scholarship to pursue his dream job as a professional chef.

Acosta worked hard during high school to earn a full scholarship to Penn State University in engineering. His mother raised him as a single parent, and Acosta wanted to make college possible for himself without her needing to help pay for it.

But during his junior year of college, a visit home during Thanksgiving break caused something in his heart to change.

“I used to go to New York and help my mom work in the supermarket and help out making some food because that’s when they were introducing hot food for the supermarket hotlines. And it was 8, 9 in the morning and I’m like, ‘I cannot stand here and think and say to myself that I’m gonna have fun doing calculus at 8 a.m. This is not it,’” Acosta remembered from the head kitchen at Benchmark International Arena on Saturday morning.

“So I reached out to my connection in New York and asked if I decided to make the jump back to New York, how fast he could get me into a kitchen. He said if I arrived today he’d have me in the kitchen by tomorrow morning. I packed up my whole car and drove overnight.”

Acosta worked his way up the ladder in the New York food scene, also earning a degree as an automotive technician as a backup plan.

On that drive back home, his family admitted they held reservations over him walking away from a fully-paid education for an uncertain change. But all Acosta could think about was his burning passion to make quality food—and his grandmother.

He worked 18 to 20 hours a day in New York.

“At the end of the day, they were like, ‘Oh, you had a full-ride to Penn State. You’re giving this all up?’ to just go and follow what they thought was just a hobby. But it’s not a hobby for me,” Acosta said.

“Growing up with my grandma, why she is such a big part of me was because my mom was a single parent so most of my day was spent with my grandma. She was the one that was cooking my lunches, my dinners, and being there with her, I was seeing what she was doing and that’s where the love came from.”

Tampa and Noche Latina

Acosta worked at multiple high-end restaurants in New York, working his way from line cook to lead line cook to kitchen supervisor. He ended up working for a rooftop restaurant overseeing the Empire State Building before heading to the New York Yankees in production and catering.

He laughed on Saturday to admit he moved to Tampa because he was chasing a girl, who happened to be the Yankees’ pastry chef and was leaving for a new job. He took a job at the Yankees’ spring training facility in Tampa before moving to the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers training facility, where he made snacks for Tom Brady and the rest of the Buccaneers.

Now, he’s part of Oak View Group and Benchmark International Arena. And that girl he was chasing in his move to Tampa? They are married with three children.

“I love it. I’m all for the thrill,” he said of his new role. “Sometimes it gets hard because I do have a family with three kids and all that good stuff, but my family knows that because my wife is also a pastry chef. So we were always the dynamic duo.”

The chef’s best dish is a sweet pea risotto with short rib, he said. Among the meals on Sunday, he recommended fans head to Lolis Tacos in section 320 at Benchmark International Arena for the variety of tacos, quesadillas, taco salad and other options.

He was quick to say there isn’t a bad pick on the menu, though. That is in large part due to the staff at the arena, one filled with culture, particularly of Latin roots.

“Noche Latina, everybody’s represented in here,” he said of the kitchen at Benchmark International Arena. “I’m guessing a lot of people don’t know the kitchen went from having little presence in Spanish to being equally divided. There is Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Hondurans, Ecuadorians. It’s a melting pot,” he said. “There’s balance. Some of the Spanish speakers can’t speak English, and the English speakers can’t speak Spanish, and they’re learning how to communicate. I think it’s great.”

And after Sunday’s Noche Latina celebration, Acosta will have one more notch in his belt as a chef, one he can cherish with his grandmother and the rest of his family.

“Grandma let everybody know, especially because I never take my grandma out of any equation. She’s always there like, ‘I was his inspiration. He is where he is because of me,’” Acosta said between proud laughs Saturday morning.

“And my mom and her had a back and forth and grandma was like, ‘No, no, no. You were there supporting him and helping him a lot of stuff, but I took the time to show him how to cook everything.’ She passed on recipes just to me, and my uncles to this day are like, ‘Hey, how is it that grandma does this?’

And I’m like, ‘No, you’re gonna have to figure that one out.’”

Grandma was eager to hear her favorite chef was leading this year’s Noche Latina charge for the Lightning, and fans can get an inside look at some of those family kitchen secrets this weekend.