Gina DePalma was born in New York and raised in Northern Virginia 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.

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.  After deciding a career in law was not for her she instead headed for culinary school, 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 Chanterelle.  It was her first taste of working on the sweet side of the kitchen after years on the savory side. 

Not long after that, she landed 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 his opening team at Babbo Ristorante and Enoteca.

“My ten 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.”   She contributed the entire dessert chapter to The Babbo Cookbook, and was eventually given the chance to write 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.  She has been honored with multiple nominations as Outstanding Pastry Chef by the James Beard Foundation and in 2005 was named one of the Ten Best Pastry Chefs in America by Pastry Art & Design Magazine.   “It has been a gratifying and wild ride.”

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.”