A native of
Deerfield,
Illinois, Gand began her restaurant career in 1976 working as a line cook and waitress in
Cleveland,
Ohio, and then as a pastry chef in Rochester, New York. She later did pastry in
New York City at
The Gotham Bar and Grill and in
England at
Stapleford Park. In 1993, Gand opened Trio with culinary partner and ex-husband
Rick Tramonto and
Henry Adaniya in
Evanston,
Illinois and was named among
Food and Wine Magazine's 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 to appear on two episodes of the PBS show
Baking with Julia. 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 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==