Former Flyte Executive Chef Matt Lackey Killed in Climbing Accident in Colorado

Matt Lackey, a Middle Tennessee native and former executive chef at Flyte, was killed yesterday after a fall while mountaineering in Colorado.

According to The Denver Post, Lackey and a group of friends were climbing on Mt. Princeton yesterday afternoon, a 14,197-foot peak that is part of the Collegiate Peaks just southeast of Denver, when a boulder he had grabbed dislodged, causing him to fall. Emergency workers responded, but Lackey was pronounced dead at the scene.

Known for his outgoing personality as well as for his talent in the kitchen, Lackey attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and Le Cordon Bleu in Arizona before taking a turn in the kitchens of Sean Brock’s Husk and McCrady’s in Charleston. He then returned to Nashville, taking the helm at Flyte in 2012 and earning himself an Eater Young Guns nod in 2013. After parting ways with the restaurant in 2014, Lackey moved to Colorado, where he was the opening executive chef for Arcana in Boulder in early 2016. He left that project shortly thereafter.