Gale Gand

America

Chef Gale Gand is a nationally acclaimed pastry chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, television personality, teacher, entrepreneur, and mother. Chef Gand has been recognized as Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year by The James Beard Foundation and by Bon Appetite magazine and has been inducted into the Chicago Chefs Hall of Fame.

Gale’s latest restaurant project, the 2 year pop up Spritz Burger (Feb 2014- Mar 2016) in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, was a collaboration with The Hearty Boys, (Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh) who won Food Network’s reality competition “The Next Food Network Star”, season 1. The menu featured vintage seltzer cocktails, house-made sodas including Gand’s cinnamon-ginger-vanilla root beer, grass-fed burgers, and desserts by Gale.

For 8 years, Gale hosted the Food Network series “Sweet Dreams,” the first nationally televised all-dessert show anywhere. Gale has made appearances on “The Martha Stewart Show,” “Oprah,” “The Dr. Oz Show,” “Baking With Julia” (Child), ”Good Morning America,” “The Rachael Ray Show” and “The Today Show.” She competed on “Iron Chef America” and has been featured as a celebrity judge on “Food Network Challenge,” “Last Cake Standing,” “Top Chef” and “Top Chef Just Desserts.”

Gale is the founding pastry chef and partner of the beloved Chicago restaurant Tru, opened with long-time culinary partner Chef Rick Tramonto and restaurateur Rich Melman in 1999. Tru quickly became a sensation among Chicago’s fine dining community and has earned ecstatic praise from reviewers, receiving accolades from the James Beard Foundation; the Michelin, Mobil and AAA guides; Relais Gourmand; Wine Spectator magazine; and was named Chicago’s Best Restaurant by Chicago Magazine. Prior to opening Tru, Gand and Tramonto earned increasing acclaim at their Chicago area restaurants Trio and Brasserie T, and at Stapleford Park, an historic country house hotel near  Melton Mowbray  in Leicestershire, England, where in 1991 Tramonto and Gand became the first American chefs to earn a Michelin Red M. Gale is a prolific cookbook author with eight titles to her credit, including her most recent “Gale Gand’s Lunch!,” released in April 2014.

Gale Gand

Pastry Chef