Cooking up connection: Lessons from Chef Brother Luck

Chef Brother Luck chops food on a cutting board.

Beyond the kitchen, Brother is open about his mental health journey and the challenges he’s overcome—breaking barriers as a sober chef and as a biracial leader in the culinary world.

In November, our board gathered for its annual retreat—a day of learning, conversation, and reflection. It was an intentional pause meant to reconnect with one another and with the purpose behind our work. The board, along with members of our staff, finished the day in a fun and meaningful way: cooking alongside Chef Brother Luck.

Luck is a nationally recognized chef, restaurateur, and mental-health advocate based in Colorado Springs. Beyond his appearances on Top Chef, Chopped, and Beat Bobby Flay, he’s known for being open about his own journey with adversity and for using food—and the process behind it—as a way to build connection, resilience, and community. That spirit guided our time with him.

Before we arrived, we selected four words—root, gather, heat, and balance—that we would use as inspiration to build meals together. Before we started, Luck used those same words to demonstrate how he builds a dish from start to finish. What he created was more than a menu. It was a framework for how people can work better together.

While deftly chopping root vegetables, Luck talked about knowing who you’re cooking for and why intention matters. As the meal came together family-style, he reminded us that “gathering” isn’t just physical proximity; it’s the act of listening deeply, adjusting as you learn, and making space for other voices and ideas. Heat was about trying something bold that kicks everything up a notch. And balance, he said, is about testing your own creation and being willing to pivot and adjust as you go.

After sampling his delicious meal, it was our turn. In teams of three to four, we stepped into the same messy, creative process he’d modeled—figuring out how to communicate, divide roles, adapt to surprises, and finish well. The room filled with laughter, trial-and-error, and the small breakthroughs that only happen when people are truly working together.

The kitchen can be chaotic, but Luck showed us how clarity emerges when people collaborate with intention, stay grounded in purpose, and trust the skill of the team around them. He talked about the importance of vulnerability, working through uncertainty, and the value of pausing to breathe. He reminded us that there’s no perfection—only experimentation, iteration, and shared accountability.

As we cooked, we were struck by how Luck’s role, like ChangeLine’s, is about creating the conditions where people can collaborate, experiment, and build something greater than the sum of its parts. Community-led change, like a memorable meal, isn’t about any one ingredient but about what happens when diverse elements come together with purpose. And it requires the same courage, creativity, and trust we practiced that night.

In many ways, Chef Brother Luck’s kitchen became a metaphor for what drives ChangeLine: the belief that transformation happens when we lead with intention, work side by side, and stay open to what can emerge when each of us has the opportunity to add our own unique spice to the recipe.