STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Brother Luck is quick to say that his name has a front porch factor, an invitation to a conversation.

“That IS my name,” said Luck, who is one of 14 chefs taking part in the fourth annual Sun Valley Food & Wine Festival this week. “Brother Marcellus Haywood Luck IV. And it goes back generations—my mother’s Cajun; my father was Creole.”

Despite his Cajun/Creole heritage, Luck has made a name for himself with southwestern cuisine at his restaurant Four by Brother Luck in Colorado Springs.

His menu transports diners’ tastebuds to the Four Corners where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet.

“The Four Corners is a mixture of mountains and desert, and I love to tell the story of the people who have lived in those mountains and that desert through my cuisine,” he said. “You start with the Native Americans who were hunter gatherers, then the Spanish conquistadors, then the influence of the Mexicans and then the Europeans—the gold rush pioneers, the cowboy culture. At the same time, I’m cooking through the four seasons.”

These influences, for instance, have inspired Luck’s blue cornbread  with Colorado green chilies, which he serves with a thick Native American jam called Wojapi that he makes from wild berries and agave.

“We use Native American techniques in our garden, as well, where we grow tall corn, wrapping squash vines around it to suppress the weeds and beans around the stalks.”

Luck praised the Sun Valley Culinary Institute’s program teaching aspiring young professional chefs. He said he was a troubled teen-ager, raising his mother after his father died and his mother went to prison.

“I saw a culinary class in high school and I thought: Girls and free lunch,” said Luck, who started working in professional kitchens, winning various culinary scholarships and competitions in high school. “I had no idea I would find mentorship, how someone would take me under their wing and say, ‘Good job. Let’s see what else you can do.’ ” It changed my life.”

In fact, Luck champions various mental health programs when not in the kitchen.

“Someone invested in my life my education and three decades later I’m giving back.”

Originally from the Bay area, Luck worked at resorts around the country, as well as in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Kanazawa, Japan.

He sketched his dream restaurant while sitting on a beach in Japan. And, when he was  ready to do his own thing, he returned to the United States to build it.

His reputation spread after he got a call from a Food Network scout looking for a chef who had spent time in China and knew the language. While he couldn’t fulfill that request, he became determined to get on a TV show.

“I walked into the backyard with a shovel and filmed myself digging a hole and saying, ‘I will bury (my competitors)….’ ’ That got me an interview and the rest is history,” said Luck, who has since been on Top Chef, Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay.

Luck, who has been nominated for a James Beard Award and featured in The New York Times, Food & Wine Magazine, the Rachael Ray Show and more, said the definition of creating art is something that evokes emotion.

He tried to do that every Sunday as a 16-year-old as he worked at an aebleskiver station at brunch, making an art out of cooking up light Danish pancake balls cooked in a cast-iron pan.

And when the COVID pandemic closed his restaurant, his creativity extended to building Cooking Classes to Go kits, in which he measured out ingredients. People drove by, picking up kits to which he added a bottle of wine. Then they went home and followed along via Zoom as he taught how to make the recipe.

Luck introduced Aebleskiver Pancakes in one of several cooking classes offered as part of the Sun Valley Food & Wine Celebration this week. And Tana Aardal perked up as she saw the cast iron pans, each sporting seven holes, that at on the burners.

“I found a pan like that in my drawer. I didn’t know what it was used for—I think I inherited it. So, I’m sure I will get an education today. And, even though I don’t typically eat pancakes, I think I may have to start,” she said.

The seven-hole pans was created by a blacksmith as a way to maximize and equalize the heat, Luck said.

“I’ve heard that the holes represent the helmets of the Viking warriors who would cook on helmets over fire,” he added.

The aebleskiver pans can be filled with a variety of sweet and savory items, he said, adding that making them is a Christmas Eve tradition.

“I love this type of dish because it has so much versatility in how you can personalize it. And the kids love it because it’s kind of a novelty.”

BROTHER LUCK’S AEBLESKIVER PANCAKES

2 eggs

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 ounces unsalted butter (or other types of fat, such as bacon fat)

2 cups buttermilk

Optional--fillings, such as chocolate chips, serrano ham, cheese shavings, blueberries and seasonings like coriander or cumin

NOTE: These can be made as pancakes on a grill , but it’s more fun and more novel to make them in an aebleskiver pan.

Separate the egg whites from the yolk. Beat the whites until you can hold the pan above your head without the meringue falling on your head.

Beat egg yolks, buttermilk, flour, melted butter, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl until well combined. Fold in the egg whites until they’re nice and smooth.

Dribble a little melted butter on the bottom of the pan. Pour batter in pans and top with any fillings you’d like to add.

Cook over stove. Use a wooden skewer or pick to turn them over to let the batter cook on the other side. Dribble a little butter on top of each ball as it continues to cook.

Poke skewer into the center to see if the batter comes out wet. If not, they’re done.

NOTE: Aebleskiver means “apple slices” in Danish, Luck said. So, if you want to make them like they do in Denmark, you might add a slice of apple in each one.