Great Chef Gale Gand

Gale Gand
TRU
Chicago IL
http://www.trurestaurant.com

Gale Gand started out with mud pies. Captured by a Life magazine photographer, six-year-old Gale was already focused on her future.

Gand has been celebrated as ‚“the best pastry chef in the U.S.,‚” a tag placed on her by Chicago Sun-Times restaurant critic Pat Bruno. In 1994 she won the Robert Mondavi Award for Culinary Excellence. She and partner Rick Tramonto were nominated for the James Beard Awards as Best Chef, Midwest, in 1994 at their Trio restaurant, and again in 1999 at their TRU (Best New Restaurant this time). She has also been nominated Best Pastry Chef by the James Beard Awards, and the Tramonto-Gand cookbook, Butter Sugar Flour Eggs, was put forth in the Best Cookbook category.

Gale Gand and Rick Tramonto are good, in other words. Really really good. A native of Chicago, Gand was studying metalworking in college when she worked at a restaurant during a year off and fell in love with the business. After running her own catering company, she went to work in Rochester, New York, at the Strathallen Hotel, where she met her future partner, Rick Tramonto.

Together they moved to New York City, working at Gotham Bar & Grill. Moving back to Chicago, the duo were drawn to a five-star hotel near London, the Stapleford Park, where they earned praise AND the big red ‚“M‚” in the Michelin guide. Back in Chicago, Gand worked at Charlie Trotter´s before she and Tramonto teamed with Henry Adaniya to open Trio. Next it was Brasserie T, and then, in 1999, Tru´s. Gand has her own show, Sweet Dreams. It´s a long way from mud pies!