How Chef and Mental Health Advocate Lorraine Le Uses Food to Open Conversations and Reclaim Power

We’re all told to “just be ourselves,” but what happens when that truth is too raw, too emotional, too messy for the world around us?

For Lorraine Le — chef, mental health advocate, and creator of the Break It Till You Make It project — the answer has never been simple. Like many women, she grew up believing that perfection was the goal. That if she played by the rules, held it all together, and smiled through the pain, she’d be safe. Accepted. Successful.

Instead, she found herself broken — by trauma, by disordered eating, by the impossible pressure to be everything for everyone.

But that breaking? It became her turning point.

“I learned that breaking things is how we build something better,” Lorraine says. “I stopped trying to keep it all together and started asking: what would it look like to create a life that actually fits me?”

That question — and the courage to live into its answer — became the foundation of her unique work at the intersection of food, healing, and emotional truth.

Why the Table? Why Food?

In an industry that prizes polish over vulnerability, Lorraine decided to do something radical: tell the truth.

As a chef, she began using food not just to nourish, but to provoke, to comfort, to confront. She hosts intimate Chef’s Table experiences that serve dishes inspired by her own journey — through trauma, recovery, resilience, and rebirth. The meals are immersive, sensory, and sometimes intentionally uncomfortable.

Because for Lorraine, food isn’t just fuel. It’s language. It’s rebellion. It’s therapy on a plate.

“The kitchen became my space to feel again,” she shares. “It gave me permission to break the rules — in cooking and in life. To stop performing and start healing.”

The Table as a Safe Place to Break Down and Begin Again

There’s something unspoken about the way we gather around a table. Whether it’s Sunday dinner, a friend’s kitchen counter, or a solo cup of tea, food has a way of softening us. We drop our guard. We speak more freely. Or sometimes, we just sit — quietly, together. And that’s enough.

Lorraine believes these moments are not just comforting — they’re revolutionary.

“So many of us feel like we can’t say the hard things. But when we eat together, we create space where those truths can sneak out,” she explains. “Food helps us go deeper — not with pressure, but with presence.”

How Meals Become Medicine

Lorraine’s work is rooted in the idea that food can unlock conversations we didn’t know we needed to have. Through her Break It Till You Make It framework, she helps people:

• Reclaim their voice through storytelling at the table
  
• Explore emotional wounds through curated, symbolic meals
  
• Practice presence through conscious cooking rituals
  
• Connect without pressure by sharing space, not expectations
  

Whether she’s leading a wellness retreat, a private dining experience, or a communal workshop, Lorraine creates spaces where people can fall apart and still feel held.

“It’s not about having the right words. Sometimes healing sounds like chewing in silence. Or laughing mid-bite. Or passing the bread after a long pause.”

This Is the Work: Messy, Beautiful, Unfinished

Lorraine’s approach isn’t about self-improvement — it’s about self-reclamation. She invites women to embrace what society tells them to hide: their anger, their grief, their exhaustion, their truth.

Her story — from a place of silence and shame to one of embodied expression — is woven into every aspect of her business. From mental health advocacy to culinary artistry, everything she offers is a love letter to the parts of ourselves we’ve been taught to suppress.

“I used to think healing meant fixing myself. Now I know it means loving myself through the breaking.”

What’s Next at the Table

Lorraine’s Break It Till You Make It initiative continues to grow, expanding into curated dining circles, corporate wellness experiences, and community-focused events that center mental health through food.

Her mission? To help others reclaim their narratives — one bite, one story, one brave conversation at a time.

Because sometimes, the best way to rebuild your life isn’t by putting the pieces back the way they were.

It’s by breaking the rules — and making something entirely your own.