But you won’t find any of that out by talking to Holmes, who’s soft-spoken and rarely steps out of the kitchen. If pressed, he’ll share that his true passion is baking.

Once you try his food — a bite of his BBQ shrimp — New Orleans-style, lightly sauteed in a house seasoning and garlic and spices with no barbecue anything — you’ll push for more information.

The 65-year-old chef got his start the old-fashioned way: learning to cook in a home economics class in elementary school in Chicago in the 1960s.

“It was just an interest,” Holmes said.

Instead, he had an aptitude for art and in sixth grade won a scholarship to take classes at The Art Institute of Chicago, but soon after he and his family moved south — to New Orleans, when the burgeoning artist was 14.

Holmes finished high school and enlisted in the Marines and served. Along the way, he found his way to baking, something that fused his artistic talent with the interest he had in cooking. He also worked in restaurants along the way, starting as a dishwasher.

When he left the Marines, Holmes started working the night shift at Leidenheimer, the bakery that invented the po’boy.