In Conversation: Gale Gand on dessert, simplifying things and her new book Lunch!

James Beard award-winning pastry chef Gale Gand talks about her new restaurant, her new cookbook and other red hot irons she has in the fire.

Gale Gand wears a lot of toques. A co-founding partner of Chicago’s Michelin-starred Tru, world-renowned for its contemporary French tasting menus, Gale hosted the Food Network series “Sweet Dreams” for eight years, the first nationally televised all-dessert show. She appears regularly on TV shows like“Good Morning America,” “The Today Show” and “The Rachael Ray Show.” She produces her own artisanal root beer, volunteers, teaches, speaks and does cooking demonstrations. Gale also lists “mom” in her description on her website; she and her environmentalist husband Jimmy Seidita have a teenaged son and twin daughters.

Most recently, Gale opened a burger joint, SpritzBurger, with the Hearty Boys, Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh. And her eighth cookbook, Gale Gand’s Lunch!, hits bookstores this week. It seemed like a good time to check in with her.

BK: Let’s start with the book. Why lunch?

GG: I decided to write about lunch because it’s such an important meal. And I feel it’s like the neglected stepchild of all the meal periods! France has it right with their longer lunches and lighter dinners. We all need better lunches, whether it’s ones packed for ourselves or our kids, or at home, alone or with friends as a way to entertain. My family are all musicians, so they work nights—lunch is the perfect time to get together with them.

BK: Speaking of lunch—school lunches specifically—you were involved with Michelle Obama’s Chefs Move To Schools initiative, weren’t you?

GG: Yes. She asked us to mentor a school. I chose Deerfield High School, where I had gone (and where my son went, so I could spy on him). One goal was to improve their lunch program. But I also wanted to improve kids’ relationships with food, using food as a way to learn. I used cooking demos to teach in French classes, Physics classes and Outdoor Adventure classes. I did demos in the cafeteria and at PTO meetings for the parents. And I wrote menus and recipes for the monthly school newsletter.

BK: You just opened SpritzBurger with the Hearty Boys in Chicago. How did your collaboration come about?

GG: Really, it grew out of our friendship, developed over the last five years. Our lives are so parallel—we all have young children, we had shows on the Food Network and really love to cook. We kept finding ourselves at a lot of the same culinary events and food and wine fests. Our kids got along, and we loved hanging out and cooking—and drinking Steve’s cocktails. We go blueberry picking together, go to Disney World to cook at the Epcot Food and Wine Fest on the same weekend (we do that on purpose). And we truly enjoy collaborating on meals together, whether it’s just for our families or brunch for 200 people at Taste of Chicago.

I think they wanted a restaurant lifestyle that allowed them to be home more with their son, so we tried to come up with a simpler concept that didn’t require us to be there ALL THE TIME. That was the idea of SpritzBurger, besides showcasing the craft sodas and cocktails we love—and the burgers customers were always ordering at their previous restaurant, Hearty.

BK: Burgers, fizzy drinks and comfort food desserts like root beer floats, blueberry ginger hand pies, lemon meringue pie… SpritzBurger has to be quite a change from Tru.

GG: It’s a less intense, more friendly kitchen to work in for me. I can do just down home delicious desserts without worrying about whether they’re cutting edge enough.

BK: How do you see dessert evolving—in restaurants in general and in your own approach?

GG: For me, as I get older and become a more mature chef, things seem to be getting simpler. I don’t feel the need to have 10 different components on the plate, trying to show all my tricks in one dessert. I feel more confident and just like to combine maybe two or three textures, flavors or temperatures in a dessert composition. I’m not sure if that’s what other pastry chefs are doing. My protégés are 10 to 25 years younger than me, so they’re at a different place in their artistic development than me.

BK: What’s a typical day for you as pastry chef?

I do paper work and emails first thing in the morning, after making breakfasts and lunches for my kids. Then I look at the prep list I made the night before and decide if I need to get right to the restaurant or can knock off a few errands on the way… probably not much different than other people’s lives. And then go cook ’til the list is completed.

But some days there might be a photo shoot, an interview, a flight to New York to shoot an episode of Rachael Ray, an afternoon seminar at the Chocolate Academy, teaching a cooking class at Elawa Farm, the organic farm in Lake Forest… Other days I might go up to Milwaukee to the Food Expo and do a demo. Or judge a cake contest somewhere, do a book signing, do a demo with one of my daughters in her classroom or at a food swap event… That’s my life these days—no two days are really alike.

BK: For home cooks who want to get a little more serious about their pastry skills,  what are some essential tools?

GG: Good rolling pin, a good surface to roll things out on, a micro plane for grating, some pastry bags and tips, rubber spatulas, maybe an icing spatula.

BK: What are your everyday go-tos?

GG: Those things, plus a pastry brush, a set of graduated round cutters, a scale, some good mixing bowls.

BK: Speaking of home, when you’re at home with your husband Jimmy and your three kids, who cooks?

GG: Me, of course, but by choice. My son Gio cooks his breakfast and lunch because he eats a high protein, no carb diet right now and works out every day. But dinner is on me, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Especially since the alternative is doing the dishes and thank god, Jimmy has volunteered to do that part!

BK: What’s a perfect meal at home for you?

GG: All my kids and husband at the table—and my dad, Bob, and Gio’s girlfriend, Sofie, too—with a batch of beef stew or meat loaf, mashed potatoes and room temperature butter. That or brunch of crepes with all the fixin’s… Nutella, peanut butter, whipped cream, sliced bananas and strawberries, yogurt, homemade concord grape jam and a powdered sugar shaker. And a cup of black tea with milk.

BK: And is there dessert?

GG: There should be, shouldn’t there? I guess my Cranberry Angel Food Cake with whipped cream. Or the Chocolate Bouchons (corks) I made this past Sunday, hot and melty right out of the oven.

Want to know more about Gale? Visit her website. You can find out more about the burgers, cocktails and down home desserts at SpritzBurger right here. And be sure to check out the new cookbook, in stores Tuesday, Gale Gand’s Lunch!