Gale Gand

Pastry chef Gale Gand is nationally known for being the host of Food Network’s first dessert-only cooking show, Sweet Dreams. She is the James Beard Foundation award winner for Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year and was hand-picked by world renowned celebrity chef Julia Child to star alongside her on her show Baking with Julia. Along with being a pastry chef, Gale is also an award-winning restaurateur, bestselling cookbook author, media personality, and mom.

Her Chicago-based restaurant, Tru, which she started with Celebrity Chef Rick Tramonto has remained a city-wide favorite since it opened over ten years ago. The partners of Tru have received countless awards and accolades like James Beard Foundation’s Award for Service, one Michelin star, four Mobil stars, five-diamond AAA, and the prestigious honor of being named Chicago’s Best Restaurant by Chicago Magazine.

Chef Gand has written seven cookbooks in which she provides recipes for all types of cuisine, not just desserts. In her latest book, Gale Gand’s Brunch!: 100 Fantastic Recipes for the Weekend’s Best Meal, she shares 100 recipes for brunch meals that are not only delicious but easy to make. Chef Gale was also asked by the Huffington Post to contribute to their blog for which she wrote a piece on how bakeries have evolved.

For 8 years, Gale hosted the Food Network series “Sweet Dreams,” the first nationally televised all-dessert show anywhere. In addition to hosting her own series on Food Network, Gale Gand frequently makes guest appearances on other food competition shows as well. In 2006, Chef Gand competed on Iron Chef America with partner Chef Rick Tramonto against Iron Chef Mario Batali and sous chef Anne Burrell in a Fennel challenge. Gand was also featured as a guest judge on season four of Bravo’s Top Chef series for an episode called Wedding Wars where Gand judged the contestants in a catering competition for a 250-guest wedding. She has also appeared on Food Network Challenge, Last Cake Standing, Oprah, and Martha Stewart.