Farming for Health Podcast #30: Mickey Bakst of Ben’s Friends

Today, our guest on the Farming for Health podcast is Mickey Bakst, the co-founder of Ben’s Friends. This organization provides support to chefs, bartenders, cooks, servers, and more in the food and beverage industry who struggle with substance abuse and addiction. The mission is to offer a path forward to anyone in the industry battling addiction—a future filled with hope and fellowship.

Mickey, who is a forty-eight-year veteran of the hospitality industry, bluntly shares his own history, calling himself a “hard core drug addict and drunk.” He loved to party and play, functioning that way as a Newport Beach, California restaurateur—until he no longer functioned. As his life plunged into chaos, he stole from his employees, his partner, and his next door neighbor. He subsequently lost his restaurant, ended up in a hospital for mental health issues, and was dead on arrival in an emergency room. 

In 1982, Mickey found the help he needed at Alcoholics Anonymous, and he’s quite grateful for them. The problem? People would tell him that he needed to leave the hospitality industry, but Mickey loved the magic of greeting people, serving them food, and being part of this environment. So, he went into the fine dining niche, struggling—successfully—to stay sober.

During the decades of being in the restaurant environment, Mickey witnessed plenty of people destroying their careers and their family—even dying because of their addictions. So, in 2016, he co-founded Ben’s Friends with fellow restaurateur Steve Palmer to offer hope and support to people struggling with addiction. 
You can hear more of Mickey’s story from when he participated in a Roots panel in 2023 titled “A Balanced Kitchen: Mental Health in the Foodservice Industry” and in our Farming for Health podcast with him titled “Ben’s Friends, Community “WE,” and Taking Action.”

Past Episodes of our Farming for Health Podcast

If you’ve missed any of our previous episodes, you can find them here:

• Episode One: Keto, Cruciferous Vegetables, Salt and Your Mindset
• Episode Two: Cooking, Conviviality, and Preserving the Harvest
• Episode Three: Ferments, Food Insecurity, and Wasted Food
• Episode Four: Anti-Cancer Diet, Food as Medicine, and Vegetables
• Episode Five: Plants, Happiness and Mindful Neglect.
• Episode Six: Whole 30, Sustainable Habits, and Loving Vegetables
• Episode Seven: Iodine, Egg Yolk Enzymes, and Miso
• Episode Eight: Fungi, Bitter Foods, and Food Extinction
• Episode Nine: Understanding Food, Nutritional Healing and Farming
• Episode Ten: Enjoying the Process, Connection and Soup
• Episode Eleven: Monica Geller, Community and Limiting Salads 
• Episode Twelve: Nourishment, Creativity, and Full-Spectrum Health
• Episode Thirteen: The Joy of Cooking, Fermentation, and Seasonality 
• Episode Fourteen: Cauliflower, Potlucks, and the Joy of Food
• Episode Fifteen: Time Savers, Pickled Raisins and Cooking With Creativity
• Episode Sixteen: Romanticizing Food, Seasonal Eating, and Shamed Spinach
• Episode Seventeen: Being Present, The Eat In Method and Food as Fuel
• Episode Eighteen: Regenerative Grazing, Monarchs and Voting with Your Dollar 
• Episode Nineteen: Childhood Injustice, Soil Health, and Relationship with Nature
• Episode Twenty: Yoga, Climate Changes, and Creating a Livable Future
• Episode Twenty-One: Understanding the Soul, Flow State, and Finding Your Purpose
• Episode Twenty-Two: Regenerative Food Systems, Food Sheds, and Resiliency 
• Episode Twenty-Three: Leaning In: Culinary Trends and the Power of Teaching
• Episode Twenty-Four: Mentorship, Self-Care, and Hospitality
• Episode Twenty-Five: Community, Self-Care, and Mindset Tools
• Episode Twenty-Six: Sustainability, Koji Coffee, Being Intentional 
• Episode Twenty-Seven: Finding Your Passion, Picky Eaters, and Cooking for Levi
• Episode Twenty-Eight: Creativity. Brining Vegetables and Family Pasta Night
• Episode Twenty-Nine: Triathlons, Eat to Nourish, and Be Bold With Your Cooking