March 2007: Gale Gand’s Chocolate and Vanilla

Gale Gand, the Chicago-based fireplug pastry-chef gastropreneur has done it again. Her newest book, Chocolate & Vanilla, put out by Clarkson Potter just last month, is perhaps her best yet. Ready for this metaphor? Gand told me last week that “vanilla is the lingerie of baking. It’s put on first, resides beneath all the other flavors, and yet when given the spotlight, is every bit as sexy and alluring as chocolate.” The flip side of Gand’s pillow is cacao’s noble distillate—in fact, the book itself reads in flip-flop style, the reverse of the vanilla half of the book is all about chocolate, Gand’s passion.

Check out the chocolate-praline cakes baked in little cups or Gand’s incredible chocolate almond upside-down cake, a huge hit in our house. Her vanilla recipes are divided between those made with extract and those made with beans. They all rock, especially the lemon-vanilla caramels and the vanilla charlotte. Gand’'s madeleines are made in Julia Child’s molds (she owns them, for real!), and she seems to be channeling Julia these days, creating easy and appealing recipes that are as sophisticated as they are beautifully explained.

Gand is the multiple James Beard and IACP award-winning host of the Food Network’s Sweet Dreams, the author of six cookbooks, the owner of one of Chicago's best restaurants (Tru), and the proprietor of a new Gand-tastic company selling her own line of bakeware and her incredible new cream soda and root beer business.

Go grab this book, check out the recipe on page forty-two for Gand’s chocolate “Twinkies” filled with vanilla cream, and then call me and let me know if you don't think this is the best new dessert cookbook in years. Like Gand, it’s passionate, perfect, and comes in a small and elegant package.

Buy Chocolate & Vanilla at Borders.