Alcoholism is rife in our industry - but cooking kept me sober and alive

Chef Martin Ruffley has co-authored an unconventional cookery book that journeys through his work at the highest levels of the restaurant industry, his struggle with addiction and salvation through practising mindfulness 

Chef Martin Ruffley: “I’m sober for 20 years and I try to live within the day, sometimes within the minute". 

A softly spoken man, Martin Ruffley has a whole world of international experience under his belt. He’s a chef with a travel itch, having travelled the world in search of good food, doing stages - periods of work experience - in Michelin-starred restaurants and bringing all this knowledge back home to Galway where he lectures at the College of Tourism and Arts at GMIT (now part of Atlantic Technological University). 

Ruffley is also the co-author, with Anna King, of Rekindling the Fire: Food & The Journey of Life (‎Austin Macauley), a deeply personal food memoir that traces his life through the darkness of addiction into the light of recovery.