Gale Gand is a

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-based

pastry chef A pastry chef or pâtissier (; feminine pâtissière, ) is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels, bistros, restaurants, bakeries, b ...

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (food), course (appetize ...

author, television personality, and winner of the 2001

James Beard Foundation The James Beard Foundation is an American non-profit culinary arts organization based in New York City. It was named after James Beard, a food writer, teacher, and cookbook author. Its programs include guest-chef dinners to scholarships for asp ...

Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef. Gand was the host of the

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, who manages and operates it as a division of the Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks Group. The channel airs both televi ...

show ''Sweet Dreams''. She was the Chef-in-Residence at Elawa Farm, in Lake Forest, Illinois. Gand is a partner and was the founding Executive Pastry Chef at Tru, a contemporary fine-dining restaurant affiliated with

Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Inc. (LEYE) is a restaurant group currently comprising 120 or more restaurants mainly located in the Chicago metropolitan area. It was founded by Rich Melman and Jerry A. Orzoff in 1971. History The first res ...

. Gand and her partners at Tru won the 2007

Award for Service. She has blogged for the ''

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...

'', was a contestant on

Iron Chef America ''Iron Chef America'' is an American cooking show based on Fuji Television's ''Iron Chef'', and is the second American adaptation of the series, following the failed ''Iron Chef USA'' that aired in 2001. The show is produced by Food Network, wh ...

in the 2006–2007 season, and was a judge on Bravo's

Top Chef ''Top Chef'' is an American reality competition television series which premiered on Bravo in March 2006. The show features chefs competing against each other in culinary challenges. The contestants are judged by a panel of professional chefs ...

in 2008 for the episode Wedding Wars. Gand was on the Great Chefs television program.

Biography

A native of Deerfield,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, Gand began her restaurant career in 1976 working as a line cook and waitress in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, and then as a pastry chef in Rochester, New York. She later did pastry in

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at The Gotham Bar and Grill and in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Stapleford Park Stapleford Park is a Grade I listed country house in Stapleford, Leicestershire, Stapleford, near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, England, which is now used as a hotel. It was originally the seat of the Sherard and Tamblyn families, later the Ear ...

. In 1993, Gand opened Trio with culinary partner and ex-husband

Rick Tramonto Richard Michael Tramonto (born May 30, 1963) is a Chicago chef and cookbook author. He was executive chef and partner in Tru (restaurant), Tru, a contemporary fine-dining restaurant from Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises. Biography A native of Roc ...

and Henry Adaniya in Evanston,

and was named among ''Food and Wine Magazines Top Ten Best New Chefs in 1994. In 1999, she opened Tru with Tramonto and Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises's Rich Melman. The following year she started making Gale's Root Beer, a cinnamon ginger vanilla flavored artisanal soda pop, producing 60,000 bottles a year which sells nationally. In 1996, Gand was chosen by

Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (Birth name#Maiden and married names, née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for having brought French cuisine to the American pu ...

to appear on two episodes of the PBS show ''

Baking with Julia ''Baking with Julia'' is an American television cooking program produced by Julia Child and the name of the book which accompanied the series. Each episode featured one pastry chef or baker who demonstrates professional techniques that can be per ...

''. Gand was the host of the Food Network show ''Sweet Dreams'' that ran on the network from 2000 to 2008. She got the show without a try out when calling the network to confirm a date to be on Sarah Moulton's show where she was a frequent guest chef. On July 30, 2006, Gale Gand and ex-husband Rick Tramonto appeared on '' Iron Chef: America'', losing to Mario Batali (53 - 46). In 2014, she partnered with Steve McDonagh and Dan Smith ( The Hearty Boys) to open SpritzBurger, a 2-year "pop-up" in Chicago. In 2014, Gand was inducted into the Chicago Chef's Hall of Fame. She was also inducted into the American Academy of Chefs in 2018. In 2016, Gand and other chefs, such as Laurent Gras and Matt Troost, collaborated with turkey and beef

jerky Jerky is lean trimmed meat strips which are Food drying, dehydrated to prevent Food spoilage, spoilage and seasoned to varying degrees. Normally, this drying includes the addition of salt to prevent Microorganism, microbial growth through o ...

producer, Think Jerky, creating signature jerky products. Some of Gand's creations included "Sriracha Honey Turkey Jerky," "Original Turkey Sticks," "Mini Original Turkey Sticks," and "Sesame Teriyaki Beef Jerky."

Books

* Tramonto, Rick, and Gale Gand. 1997. ''American Brasserie''. New York: Wiley. * Gand, Gale, Rick Tramonto, and Julia Moskin. 1999. ''Butter Sugar Flour Eggs: Whimsical Irresistible Desserts''. New York: Clarkson Potter. * Gand, Gale and Julia Moskin. 2001. ''Gale Gand's Just a Bite: 125 Luscious Little Desserts''. New York: Clarkson Potter. * Gand, Gale and Julia Moskin. 2004. ''Gale Gand's Short and Sweet: Quick Desserts with Eight Ingredients or Less''. New York: Clarkson Potter. * Tramonto, Rick, Gale Gand, and Mary Goodbody. 2004. ''Tru: A Cookbook from the Legendary Chicago Restaurant''. New York: Random House. * Gand, Gale and Lisa Weiss. 2006. ''Chocolate and Vanilla''. New York: Clarkson Potter. * Gand, Gale, with Christie Matheson. 2009. ''Gale Gand's Brunch!: 100 Fantastic Recipes for the Weekend's Best Meal''. New York: Clarkson Potter. * Gand, Gale, with Christie Matheson. 2014. ''Gale Gand's Lunch!''. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

External links

GaleGand.com

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gand, Gale Living people American food writers American television chefs Pastry chefs People from Deerfield, Illinois 1956 births American women chefs American women food writers American cookbook writers James Beard Foundation Award winners Chefs from Chicago 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers American women non-fiction writers Rochester Institute of Technology alumni Writers from Chicago