What’s your go-to breakfast when you have time to truly enjoy it?
I LOVE Soft Boiled Eggs for breakfast on buttered (salted butter) white toast, but my other favorite is lacy
Swedish Pancakes with Lingonberry Preserves and whipped butter.
Is there a childhood dish or flavor that shaped the way you cook today?
Only in the sense that my mom was a Pie Baker, so I was always aware of what a good pie crust was,
texturally and flavor-wise. So now I’m always very conscience about pastry and dough and
its texture, and that it be flaky, not overworked, and have flavor, not just be greasy. Does
that count?
Before becoming a chef, did you ever imagine a different path for yourself?
I actually was on a few different paths before settling in the kitchen. I was a professional musician in my
family music group, The Gand Family Singers (Think Van Trapp Family, but without the
Nazis. We could move freely throughout the continent) till I went off to college. I started
studying silver and goldsmithing in high school, became a jeweler and diamond setter for 2
years, then went to college for that (I have a BFA from RIT’s School for American Craftsman)
and made a living doing it for my first year out of college. But my chef, whom I worked for
during college, came to me and begged me to help him out by coming back into the kitchen, and I never was able to escape after that.
Of all the French pastries, which one do you most love making—and why?
Aw…that’s not fair! That’s like asking which of my 3 kids is my favorite! But if I had to choose, I guess I would say either an Almond Croissant with toasted frangipane on the top or Kouigh Amann. And I
do love a good Pallet Raisin.
Is there a food or ingredient you’re secretly obsessed with keeping in your kitchen at all times?
Many…Szechwan peppercorns, jarred artichokes with long stems, avocados,
zucchini, goat cheese, 4 kinds of butter, including salted and unsalted, many kinds of
mustard, a few different kinds of orange marmalade, cheese…lots and lots of cheese.
Is there a food trend or dish you just don’t love—no matter how popular it is?
Right now, it would be all the mash-ups. I just don’t always think 2 things that are good on their own are
better together. I’ll probably regret saying this, but…cooking everything in an air frier. I don’t
think that little toasting oven should be called a frier, and I don’t think you can fry things with
air. Marketing madness that seems to be working. Not sure what that says about common
sense…not so common, I guess.
If you could unlock one chef’s secret recipe, whose would it be—and what dish?
I’d love to discover the real recipe for Ebinger’s Black Out Cake. I get asked to make it sometimes
and have tried my best to recreate it through interviews with elders who grew up on it, and when
they taste mine, they say it’s spot on. But I’d love a gander at the actual recipe that the bakery
used. Also, there are some heirloom recipes from my husband’s family we’ve tried to recreate, and I would love the originals of those. Cuccidati is one. They’re ground-nut and fig-stuffed cookies, carved into elaborate shapes for the holidays and then decorated with icing and rainbow sprinkles.
What’s the most unforgettable meal you’ve ever had—whether cooking it or being served?
It was on my first plane ride (TWA, I think) when I was about 6 years old. Cold Fried
Chicken (that’s def going to be my “last supper”), and a crisp, Delicious apple. But if you’re
looking for a restaurant meal, I’d have to say the dinner my restaurant, Tru, prepared for my
wedding reception at Tru. We started with Italian Wedding Soup with pearl pasta, then
Gnocchi with Mornay Sauce and shaved Black Truffles, followed by Crown Roast Pork with
house-made Apple Sauce, and Raspberry-stuffed Golden Cup Cakes with blown sugar balls
and pearls on top. I wore lavender pearls, and my wedding outfit had pearls on it, so that was
the theme.
Who has mentored or influenced you most in your culinary journey?
It actually isn’t a chef, it’s my painting teacher at CIA (not Culinary Institute of America, but Cleveland Institute of Art), Moe Brooker from Philadelphia. He taught us to take away elements we use as a crutch
to push ourselves to new solutions. I use that all the time, trying to innovate with food, recipes, and plating. But also Chef Pierre Gagnaire in France, whom I’ve followed, staged with, and eaten at his restaurants since 1988. For flavor combinations, I look more to ethnic or culturally time-tested combinations.
Have you noticed differences in the atmosphere or leadership styles in kitchens led by women vs. men? How has that shaped your experience?
I have noticed a difference. I only worked in one almost all-women kitchen, which was Jam’s, led by chef Johnathan Waxman. Unlike all the other kitchens I’ve worked in, besides my own, I found it to be a community concerned with everyone’s wellbeing and workload, willing to pitch in in a way no other
kitchen I’ve ever worked in did. At Family Meal, we’d check in with each other to see if anyone
was feeling behind, and if they did, we’d all focus on her prep list to get her out of the weeds.
Where do you turn for creative inspiration when you’re in a cooking rut?
I pull from the past to create new things for the future.
If you could give one piece of advice to the next generation of female chefs, what would it be?
Be in your kitchen the day they mount the shelves so they are low enough to fit you, always have a milk crate near by to stand on for reaching things, answer all your emails, return all your phone calls and smile while you talk on the phone (they can sense it on the other line), say thank you, and always wear comfortable shoes. Oh, is that more than one? And never follow the rules. They’re for someone else.
Instagram: @chefgalegand
Email: [email protected]
www.galegand.com