Eric Tucker has been creating in the kitchen since he was five years old. “When I was eight or nine I constantly had my nose in my parents’ Gourmet Magazine. By the time I was in my teens I was organizing and cooking whole dinner parties, soup to nuts, for my parents.” Tucker grew up with food lovers for parents, and they took him to all kinds of restaurants. By the time he began cooking, he had already been exposed to an impressive diversity of cuisine. During his early teens, distance running and a diagnosis of hypoglycemia compelled Tucker to develop an interest in healthy cooking and nutrition. He soon came to realize the importance of diet. “I was forced to become aware of the profound effect that changing your diet has on your health,” he says. After working in various restaurants in New Jersey, including Everybody’s Café in Red Bank, Tucker was able to find a culinary balance that accommodated his lifestyle. The culmination of Tucker’s training in healthful cuisine was his graduation from the National Gourmet Institute for Food and Health in New York City in the fall of 1990, which allowed him to become a professional chef focusing on healthy, natural foods. While attending the school, Tucker worked with quality organic produce from the local Farmer’s Market. He established contacts in the school that would bring him across the country to Milly’s Restaurant in San Rafael as an intern. Within two years, Tucker’s total dedication to creating innovative, natural, low-fat cuisine resulted in his being promoted to Head Chef. In 1994, Tucker was able to bring all his invaluable experience to Millennium as Executive Chef of the opening team. Since then, he has been the creative force behind the restaurant’s success.
