‘Relentless Advocate’: Chef Gabriel Rucker Opens Up About Sobriety

VIDEO – GOURMET COFFEE ONLY? –

Feb. 17, 2022 – “I’m lucky that I have also a father that’s in recovery, too,” he said.

These days, Rucker also finds support in a group called Ben’s Friends.

“There’s winemakers, there’s baristas, there’s restaurant owners, there’s bus boys, there’s servers, cooks, and we get together, once a week, in person. And then there’s also a zoom meeting every day,” Rucker said.

“We all relate to each other, the stresses that we deal with the night before, with me overcooking a steak or the kind of things where maybe we go home, go and drink about it or something like that,” he added.

Ben’s Friends Co-founder Mickey Bakst, based in South Carolina, said Rucker helped start the Portland chapter.

Bakst called him a “relentless advocate for sobriety and for helping people in the Portland community who are struggling with addiction.”

“It’s just been awe-inspiring to watch, to be quite frank,” he said.

Ben’s Friends started with a focus on alcohol for people in the restaurant and hospitality industries. Now, it’s far beyond that.