Yep - your Dad and mine may have been related. His idea of a treat was a cheese pizza - hold the cheese. Strictly a meat & potatoes guy, his obsession was salt. He heavily salted everything. (I never use salt and find the natural salts in food quite sufficient).
My Mom was a wonderful cook who put up with Dad’s sparse diet until us kids were into our teens. Then she started taking cooking classes as a local community college - French, Italian, and Oriental (are we still allowed to say that?!).
We couldn’t get enough and Dad was happy - as long as he got his steak.
Regarding salt- was your dad a smoker? Just curious because my mom was and the end result was that everything was way over spiced. We once ate her spaghetti sauce thinking it was chili, not realizing she had left pasta in the fridge as well.
CC