James Beard Award-winning Pastry Chef Gina DePalma was born and raised by a close-knit, transplanted Italian family.  Her mother and grandmother taught her the importance of food and the family table, instilling a love for simple meals, abundant with flavor and prepared with the freshest of ingredients.

Soon after graduating from the College of New Rochelle, she worked in kitchens and restaurants with the intention of saving up some extra money for a post-graduate degree. Gina eventually decided a career in law was not for her, and instead headed for culinary school in New York, as she puts it, “....way before it became so cool.  Most everyone I knew, including my family, thought I was completely nuts.”   Gina proved them wrong when after years of hard work she landed a pastry apprenticeship at the venerable Chanterelle.  It was her first taste of working on the sweet side of the kitchen after years on the savory side. 

The next step was a job in the pastry department of the newborn Gramercy Tavern, working under the massive talent of Claudia Fleming for over two years, before becoming the Pastry Chef at The Cub Room in Soho.  A bit later, Mario Batali gave her a call about his yet-to-be-opened restaurant, and in 1998, Gina became part of the opening team at Babbo Ristorante and Enoteca.

“My eleven years as the Pastry Chef of Babbo have been amazing, “ says Gina.  “I have had the opportunity to work with the genius of Mario Batali and a sucession of gifted chefs and cooks who have enriched me as a chef and a person. It has been a gratifying and wild ride.”

Her writing career began when she contributed the entire dessert chapter to The Babbo Cookbook, followed by her own cookbook, Dolce Italiano, Desserts From the Babbo Kitchen, published by W.W. Norton & Co. in October of 2007. 

Along the way, Chef DePalma’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The New York Daily News, New York Magazine, Gourmet, Chocolatier, Pastry Art and Design and Food & Wine, and in 2005 she was named one of the Ten Best Pastry Chefs in America by Pastry Art & Design Magazine.

In 2008, Gina received the Bon Appetit Magazine Award for Best Pastry Chef.  And in 2009, after being honored with multiple nominations, Gina was named Outstanding Pastry Chef from the James Beard Foundation.

Gina now divides her time between New York, and frequent trips to Italy where she is researching everything sweet about the bel paese for her second book.  “Life is good,” she winks, “except for airports.”