As BBQ Brawl Season 7 continues to heat up, team captain Brooke Williamson is opening up about the advice that helped guide her career from the very beginning — and the surprising lesson she says boyfriend Bobby Flay has taught her in recent years.

Speaking with PEOPLE at the 2026 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Williamson reflected on her journey from a teenage cook to one of the most respected chefs in Food Network history.

According to Williamson, the most important advice she ever received did not come from a celebrity chef or restaurant mentor. It came from her parents.

The Top Chef champion revealed that when she first entered professional kitchens at just 17 years old, her parents encouraged her to focus on something simple: happiness.

Rather than chasing prestige or financial success, they told her to pursue the work that made her genuinely excited to get up every day.

Williamson explained that the advice helped her push through the difficult moments that inevitably come with a career in the culinary world. Long hours, intense pressure, and countless setbacks become easier to endure when someone truly loves what they do.

She added that there is no substitute for hard work, but hard work becomes much more sustainable when it is connected to passion.

The lesson clearly left a lasting impression because Williamson says she has tried to pass the same philosophy on to her son, Hudson Roberts.

Now 18 years old and preparing to attend New York University this fall, Hudson has become a source of enormous pride for the chef. Williamson praised her son for being highly self-motivated, revealing that she never pressured him to earn top grades despite him becoming a straight-A student.

She said one of the qualities she admires most is his ability to push himself without outside pressure, adding that she is excited to see what he accomplishes in the future.

While Williamson credits her parents for shaping her career outlook, she says another important lesson came from a much more recent source: Bobby Flay.

The two Food Network stars confirmed their relationship in 2025 and have since become one of the most talked-about couples in the culinary television world.

According to Williamson, Flay has taught her something that does not come naturally to highly competitive people: how to lose gracefully.

That lesson may sound simple, but it carries extra significance for Williamson, who has built a reputation as one of the fiercest competitors in food television.

Over the years she has won Top Chef, competed on numerous cooking shows, and established herself as one of Food Network’s most respected culinary personalities. Her drive to win has never been questioned.

Yet Williamson says Flay constantly emphasizes the importance of appreciating opportunities regardless of the outcome. Winning is valuable, but maintaining perspective and professionalism after a loss can be even more important.

The timing of that lesson is particularly interesting given Williamson’s current role on BBQ Brawl.

After spending five seasons as a judge, Season 7 finally gave her the opportunity she had wanted for years: becoming a team captain and mentor.

And according to Flay, nobody wanted that promotion more than she did.

Speaking to PEOPLE at the same event, Flay revealed that Williamson had repeatedly expressed her desire to move from the judging panel into a leadership role. When the opportunity finally arrived, he says she fully embraced it.

Flay described Williamson as incredibly determined this season, saying viewers can see how seriously she has approached the competition. In fact, he admitted he has rarely seen anyone want to win as badly as she does.

That competitive fire has become one of the defining storylines of BBQ Brawl Season 7. Early concerns from some viewers that Williamson’s relationship with Flay might affect the dynamic of the show have largely faded as the season has progressed.

Instead, many fans have praised the chemistry between the two chefs, arguing that their competitive relationship has added another layer of intrigue to the season. Rather than creating favoritism concerns, their rivalry has often produced some of the show’s most entertaining moments.

For Williamson, however, the season appears to represent something larger than simply winning another television competition.

It is the culmination of years spent building a culinary career based on the advice her parents gave her as a teenager: find what makes you happy and work relentlessly at it.

Nearly three decades later, that philosophy has taken her from a 17-year-old line cook to one of the biggest stars on Food Network — and now, one of the leading faces of BBQ Brawl.