When I first met Gale Gand umpteen years ago, she was the amazing pastry chef (and partner) at Chicago’s Tru. Her career 
was just beginning to skyrocket. Since then she’s been recognized as Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year by The James Beard Foundation and by Bon Appetite magazine, been inducted into the Chicago Chefs Hall of Fame and for eight years hosted the Food Network series “Sweet Dreams,” the first nationally televised all-dessert show.
Earlier this spring, I sat next to Gale at the 2015 James Beard Foundation media awards dinner at Pier 61 and got caught up on her amazing career. She has another Chicago restaurant — Spritzburger — offering vintage seltzer cocktails, grass-fed burgers, and her own desserts, is working on another new restaurant project, baking for Cocoa and Company, consulting for a food company and authoring cookbooks. Gale’s eighth cookbook “Gale Gand’s Lunch!,” was released in April 2014. Be sure to check out our recipe section midweek for one of her recipes.
Did I mention she’s doing all this while raising her three kids?
– bonnie
Which food product or gadget would you never give up? That’s like asking which is your favorite child of the three you have! But if I did have to choose…tongs would probably the thing I use the most, then my KitchenAid mixer, then my immersion blender. Mostly because of how much I use them and how much they are an extension of me.
What do you like to serve when you entertain?
I like to entertain with lunch or brunch. Much easier than a dinner party. Not as long as people have places to go, and not as much booze for the same reason. Also service is easier, buffet acceptable, cold food and room temperature stuff is the norm plus maybe one hot thing versus dinner parties where it seems like everything has to be piping hot, and you’re the chef, waitress, and dish washer. So I like to put out a plate of crepes with all the fixins’…so jars of Nutella and peanut butter, jams, yogurt, can of whipped cream, cut up bananas and strawberries, shaker of powdered sugar, then let everyone roll there own. Then a platter of brown sugar caramelized bacon, maybe a tomato and ramp (We forage our own ramps in our hood) -or green onion galette, bottle of mango orange juice, cracked open bottle of something bubbly, have glasses set up with mint sprigs and mango chunks in them, maybe some cut up fruit, some sliced cured meats and cheese, some apricot chicken salad, some small rolls.
Describe your “last meal?” A glass of something pink and sparkling, snail rolls (they’re just shaped like a snail, they don’t have any actual snails in them) with echere (French brand) butter…unsalted, frisee salad with lardon and a poached egg, The lamb stew from Marshall Field’s from when I was a kid, my grandmother’s frozen oatmeal cookies. (We stole them out of the freezer where she tried to hide them so that’s why they were frozen.)
What food is your secret guilty pleasure? Either Junior Mints or cold fried chicken.
What is your go-to neighborhood restaurant?
Del Rio in Highwood, Illinois. I think it’s been there since 1923. It’s second or third generation at this point. I went with my mom as a kid and now go with my kids and/or husband for a romantic traditional Italian dinner. It’s old school Italian. We love to dip bread sticks in butter, have the sausage and sweet peppers, and their ravioli al forno — spinach ravioli covered with cheese and baked in a gratin dish then served tableside, removing it from the dish onto a plate so the molted cheese can cool.
What is one food product most people don’t know about, but should? Tough question. Tomato paste in a tube; Szechuan peppercorns; and vanilla paste to name a few.
Describe your worst kitchen disaster and how (if possible) you saved it: Probably one of the early dinner service when Tru opened and Chicago Magazine’s most important food critic was dining at our kitchen table and the gas went out. We tried to play it cool while we got it turned back on, serving lots of cold courses in the mean time. Luckily at that table there’s no menus and it’s the chef’s whim. But I remember I had a box of Krispy Kreme donuts in my pastry kitchen displayed prominently till I saw who walked in and then I was whispering “hide the donuts!” not wanted to reveal my current vice.
Who was your most influential mentor? Either Kandinsky, Pierre Gagnaire or the city of Paris
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