Gabriel Rucker is an American chef and owner of the restaurants

Le Pigeon Le Pigeon is a French bistro in Portland, Oregon's Buckman, Portland, Oregon, Buckman neighborhood, in the United States. History Le Pigeon was previously known as Colleen's Bistro. Head chef Gabriel Rucker invested in the restaurant and became ...

, Canard, and previously

Little Bird Bistro Little Bird Bistro was a French bistro in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The restaurant opened in 2010, and closed on October 27, 2019. Description and history Little Bird was a French bistro in downtown Portland. It opened in 2010, and ...

, in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. He has received two

James Beard Foundation Awards The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media award ...

Early life and education

Gabriel Rucker was raised in

Napa, California Napa is the largest city and county seat of Napa County, California, Napa County and a principal city of Wine Country in Northern California, United States. Located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the Bay Area, th ...

. As a child he watched the ''

Great Chefs Great Chefs is a franchise of televised cooking shows that began with thirteen half-hour programs produced for PBS nationally and later the Discovery Channel. The series is a franchise of 656 televised cooking shows and over 13 cookbooks, t ...

'' franchise which inspired him to begin cooking. After attending high school in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

, he enrolled at

Santa Rosa Junior College Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) is a public community college in Santa Rosa, California with an additional campus in Petaluma and centers in surrounding Sonoma County. SRJC is governed by the Sonoma County Junior College District. History F ...

in 1999. He began a two-year culinary program at the college, but ultimately dropped out in favor of working in kitchens.

Career

Rucker worked at various restaurants in California until 2002, at which point he moved to

, to experience its culinary scene. He worked at Paley's Place and was mentored by Vitaly Paley. He went on to become the head chef at Colleen's Bistro. By 2007, Colleen's Bistro was renamed to

under Rucker's management. Rucker was a ''

Food & Wine ''Food & Wine'' is an American monthly magazine published by Dotdash Meredith. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and sea ...

'' "Best New Chef" in 2007. He won the Rising Star Chef award at the 2011

. He was nominated as Best Northwest Chef in 2012. In 2013, he won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Northwest Chef and was a semifinalist for Outstanding Chef in 2025. Rucker released a cookbook in 2013 titled ''Le Pigeon: Cooking at the Dirty Bird''. In 2018, he opened his third restaurant, Canard, next door to Le Pigeon, which offers "French bar food". He also offered cooking lessons and worked as a private chef during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Rucker was one of two local chefs who trained actor

Nicolas Cage Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Nicolas Cage, various accolades, including an Academy A ...

for his role as a Portland chef in the 2021 film ''

Pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities cons ...

''. That same year he appeared as a guest judge in the cooking competition show ''

Top Chef ''Top Chef'' is an American reality competition television series which premiered on Bravo in March 2006. The show features chefs competing against each other in culinary challenges. The contestants are judged by a panel of professional chefs ...

''. On the show he prepared a pigeon dish, and contestants were tasked with identifying the dish's ingredients in the dark before recreating it. Rucker spoke at a

TEDxPortland TEDxPortland is an independently organized TEDx event held annually in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 2009, TEDxPortland is one of the largest and most recognized TEDx events in the world, and the largest indoor TEDx conference. Hi ...

conference in 2024.

Personal life

Rucker is married and has three children. He previously struggled with alcoholism but became

sober Sober usually refers to sobriety, the state of not having any measurable levels or effects from alcohol or drugs. Sober may also refer to: Music * Sôber, Spanish rock band Songs * "Sober" (Bad Wolves song), from the 2019 album ''Nation'' * " ...

in October 2013. Rucker helped to found the Portland chapter of the nonprofit organization

Ben's Friends Ben's Friends is an American non-profit organization that serves people with rare diseases. It was founded in 2007 by Ben Munoz and Scott Orn and was granted 501(c)(3) nonprofit status on February 9, 2014. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas. Ben ...

after he found support in the organization. He has tattoos of birds on his arm, and the name of Le Pigeon was inspired by a pigeon tattoo of his.

Bibliography

* ''Le Pigeon: Cooking at the Dirty Bird'' (2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rucker, Gabriel 1980s births Living people American chefs American male writers American restaurateurs Chefs from California Chefs from Oregon James Beard Foundation Award winners People from Napa, California Santa Rosa Junior College alumni Writers from Portland, Oregon