Q & A with Gina DePalma

If you need a little inspiration, just look at Gina DePalma.   She’s battling ovarian cancer, launched a cancer foundation, won a James Beard Award, and writing a second cookbook.  She’s also the pastry chef at Babbo.  Not bad at all.  

It was a long road up.  DePalma’s first job was as the cook, the only cook, in the kitchen of a small town cafe in Northern Virginia.  After years working in the restaurants, she earned a culinary arts degree from the Peter Kump cooking school.  She was literally forced into pastry by a teacher who sent her for an externship in at Chanterelle.  From there, she went to Gramercy Tavern to work under Claudia Fleming   At Gramercy, DePalma cultivated her simple, ingredient-driven style before moving on to become the pastry chef at The Cub Room, then onto Babbo.

Ten years in the same kitchen is a long time for a chef.   And after seven nominations, her eleven-year run with Babbo has finally won her a James Beard Award for Best Pastry Chef.  She is working on a follow-up cookbook to Dolce Italiano and her newfound organization, the Cowgirl Cure Foundation, which fights ovarian cancer.  DePalma is publicly battling her cancer and determined to succeed.  Despite her illness, she manages to oversee Babbo’s dessert menu, where she makes a chocolate hazelnut cake with orange sauce and a hazelnut gelato. 

Single/Married/Divorced?
Single

What did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was in college, I thought I wanted to become a lawyer, but that was mostly because I watched a lot of L.A. Law and was attracted by all of those pastel power suits with shoulder pads.

You grew up in an Italian household transplanted to Virginia.   What are some childhood memories of Italian desserts that you make professionally today?
We didn’t have a lot of desserts when I was growing up, but what stuck was my love of fruit.  For me, it is a struggle not to make a dessert that is centered around fruit.  That is a direct result of our Italian tendency to end a meal with a big platter of fresh fruit.  Even my chocolate desserts tend to feature fruit, even if it just a hint of orange zest.

What was your first job in food?  What did you learn? My first food job was as a cook in a small-town café.  I did lunch shifts and I also did Sunday brunch, and the owner passed on her secret to making great hollandaise sauce, and really great omelets.  I still love cooking both of those things.  I also learned how important timing is in cooking, especially when it is just you, a dishwasher and full rail of incoming orders!

You began your culinary career working on the savory side of the kitchen – what got you interested in pastry?
I didn’t get interested in pastry, I was sent to pastry!  I kind of did things backwards.  I went to culinary school years after I had been cooking, or mainly messing around, in savory kitchens. After completing cooking school at the then Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School (now the Institute of Culinary Education) my culinary instructor sent me to Chanterelle for an externship in pastry.  She had a hunch that I might fall into it, but at the very least, she wanted me to experience life in a pastry kitchen so I would become a better cook, well-rounded, and exposed to all facets of the kitchen.  I loved my time there; it was magical for so many reasons, but mostly because of the people I was exposed to:  Karen and David Waltuck, and Lisa Hershey, who was the pastry chef there at the time. 

After my time there, I started looking for a job, and there weren’t that many around back in 1994!  Cooking in a restaurant kitchen was an unusual choice, and there weren’t as many great restaurants open in New York.  It was a very competitive scene if you wanted to find work in a top-notch place with a great chef. 

It was a plus to have four solid months of pastry experience behind me, so I went with what I had.  One thing led to another, and soon I was working full time in pastry, in the great kitchen of Gramercy Tavern.

What is it about pastry that inspires you? 
I think pastry takes great patience and a very particular skill set, but at the same time there is room for you to find your niche, to discover where you fit into the pantheon, so to speak. There are so many styles and facets of pastry these days.  In many ways, I am inspired by all that is around me that is different from what I do.  I think it is cool that we can all coexist.

Was it a long road or did things fall into pass for you quickly as a pastry chef?
Pretty quickly.  Probably because the New York restaurant scene exploded in the late 90’s and it was easy to ride that wave.

What was it like to finally be named Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year by the James Beard Foundation?

After seven nominations, it felt great, definitely sweet if you pardon the pun.  I felt like I got a big hug from the industry, which is nice.  It is a tremendous honor, and I am unbelievably proud to be a part of the history of the Beard Awards.  

You’ve been fighting ovarian cancer for a year now.  What has that been like for you and how do you keep your strength up in the kitchen?

Well, I was only diagnosed a year ago – the one-year anniversary of my surgery was just in early June.  In a way, it is still very new to me, to have this disease, and to have it hanging over my head.  I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.  I’m still in treatment, and I has required a complete adjustment of nearly everything about my life.  Taking care of myself is my number one priority, over anything that happens in the kitchen.  Period.  And from now on.  It brings a great perspective with it, this disease.  My career is important, but my health is everything.  I have to see it that way, and everyone around me has to make that mental adjustment as well.

 You’ve started your own foundation, the Cowgirl Cure Foundation, which has proved to be extremely successful in spreading awareness about ovarian cancer.  What will you be planning to fight for a cure?
 I’ve been dealing with my cancer in part by trying to draw attention to it.  I’m not shy about it – ovarian cancer is a real risk for all women, and no one is sounding the alarm loud enough, I think. So I’ll take that on, if I can.  The Cowgirl Cure Foundation is an itty bitty baby right now, and I hope to grow it into a real force ovarian cancer – to help raise money for research efforts and bring a greater degree of public awareness.   We’ve had one impromptu fundraiser, which has been my jump start.  Establishing a non-profit is a huge project, and one that I want to do right, so I’m carefully trying to lay the groundwork right now.  It is a big task I’m facing, for sure.

You worked with Claudia Fleming at Gramercy Tavern.  What were the most important lessons you learned from her and working there?…

Claudia taught me so much.  She showed me how simple things can be absolutely elegant, and that dessert doesn’t need a huge amount of bells or whistles to be equally beautiful and delicious.  And she taught me how to stand up for myself in a kitchen full of men!  I love her dearly; I recently went to dinner at The North Fork Table and Inn, and had an incredible dessert that was all Claudia:  a warm rhubarb crumble tart with strawberries and a goat cheese cream.  Gorgeous colors, deep flavors, simple, yet stunning.  It made me cry!

How would you describe your cooking style at Babbo?  And how has it changed over your 10 years there?
My style at Babbo is very much about keeping flavors pure and direct, and honoring great ingredients.  That is what Italians do with their cooking, they honor the fantastic ingredients they have to work with.  So at Babbo I try to first and foremost find the best ingredients I can, and then maintain their integrity, and let the flavors shine through.  If fresh ricotta is in the dessert, you should taste all of its sweet milkiness.  If I feature something like Saba or Vincotto, or even honey as a garnish it should be showcased properly, and play off the other flavors and textures in the dessert.  I try not to be too fussy, because our food at Babbo isn’t fussy – it is bold and inviting and comforting.  I am a firm believer that the pastry kitchen should be in rhythm with the savory kitchen.

Rumor has it you’re working on a new cookbook.   Do tell…
Yep.  Well, I was just starting the research and prep for that when I was diagnosed with cancer, but I’m plugging away at it.  It is going to be an even greater exploration of some of Italy’s great and varied regional desserts.  I’m really excited about it, and hoping to get back to Italy soon to delve back in to what I had already hooked into.

What is your favorite dessert on the menu at Babbo?
That is such a hard question to answer.  I love my Saffron Panna Cotta, because it is delicate in texture but has that beguiling flavor of saffron to it that just wafts over your palate.   I always feature a fruit crostata of some sort, which is near and dear to my heart.  Great fruit plus great crust equals delicious, I think.

What is your least favorite (and yes you must pick one?)
Crap, that’s not fair.  I love all my desserts, but I think I get frustrated with that magnetic drift people have towards chocolate.  That is about all I am going to say, though, because even if it is a predictable choice, I think I make a darn great Chocolate Hazelnut Cake!

What dessert trends do you think we’ll be seeing?
I think there is a desire to return to the classics, done correctly and with honor.  I hope the cupcake craze yields to a healthy respect for more European nostalgia, like a perfectly made tarte tatin, or a creamy clafoutis, or Sacher torte.  I like when looking back becomes something new.  I love that Eleven Madison Park has brought back the dessert cart – at lunch they wheel around this beautiful selection of fresh tarts and cakes, and it is just so exciting and elegant.  It makes dessert an event!

What’s your favorite junk food sweet?
Oh gosh, I love cheap milk chocolate, like what you get with an Easter Bunny.  And I love Zingerman’s Old-Fashioned Zzang Candy Bars – the What The Fudge one is pretty darn great.   And I adore chocolate covered graham crackers from Li-Lac Chocolates.

Other than Babbo, what is your favorite place to get dessert?
The Piemontese capital of Torino.  That town has an incredible sweet culture.  The smell of gianduja literally floods the streets.  In the afternoon, you can get a shot of espresso in a gianduja-coated glass, with a dollop of cream.  That is what gets you ready for aperitivi later on!  Every corner reveals another pastry shop or chocolate shop or candy shop, gelato, bread, you name it, they’ve got it all in Torino.

Any new projects or travels in the works?  Spill the beans…
Well, I’ve got the book going, the foundation going, my menu at Babbo going, and I’m trying to start a non-profit.  That’s going to keep me pretty busy.  And I am hoping to stay alive and beat this cancer, that’s for sure…Wish me luck!

Babbo
Address: 110 Waverly Pl., nr. Macdougal St.
Phone:  (212) 777-0303