How to pronounce “gail” in English

Please welcome Gail Simmons and Frank Bruni.Gail Simmons: Hi Frank.Frank Bruni: Hi Gail, how are you?

Frank Bruni: Hi Gail, how are you?Gail Simmons: I'm good, thanks for coming today.Frank Bruni: I'm honored to do it.

Frank Bruni: -we'll talk a little about that now.Gail Simmons: Yeah, thank you.Frank Bruni: Since we're here on the day of the book's publication, what made you decide to write the book?

Frank Bruni: Since we're here on the day of the book's publication, what made you decide to write the book?Gail Simmons: You know it's a funny thing, and actually Frank has written his own memoir too, so I'm sure you will understand the angst involved?When I set out to write a book, I wanted to write a book, I wanted to tell my story and my first instinct in doing that was to write a cookbook because in the food universe, or

Frank Bruni ñ the path before you ended up at Food &Wine Magazine.Gail Simmons: Well, you know and it's interesting because as much as I eat on television, also one of the questions I get so often is really like, what do you know?Like how made you- you just woke up one day and decide to eat and be mean to people?

Frank Bruni: Right. Gail Simmons: For a living?Gail Simmons: Which is not true.I'm actually relatively nice most of the time- >>Frank Bruni: And you'd already been mean to people before.

I'm actually relatively nice most of the time- >>Frank Bruni: And you'd already been mean to people before.Gail Simmons: Right. Yes, exactly- >>Frank Bruni: Yeah, so you- Gail Simmons: Exactly, I've been mean to people for years.But I do, I used to cook.

Frank Bruni: Very different restaurants- >>Gail Simmons: Very different restaurants- Frank Bruni: -from each other.Gail Simmons: Right, one was sort of very classic four star, it was at the time four star you know Le Cirque, which in its day, in its heyday at sort of the end of the 90swas really the kind of power dining restaurant in New York.

Frank Bruni: We'll come back to your Jeffrey Steingarten experience.Gail: Yes. Yes. Frank: But before we go there- >>Gail: Yeah.Frank: - you say in the book, a big conversation ongoing in the culinary world all the time is why there aren't more female chefs.

And it's demanding in ways- >>Frank: In crude ways.Gail: In crude ways.I mean it's really, it's physical manual labor.

How many of you knew that Gail worked for him for a couple years?Gail: And did .Frank: Wow, they're pretty good.

Frank: Wow, they're pretty good.Gail: There we go, yeah.Frank: You guys are good Gail-ologists.

Frank: You guys are good Gail-ologists.Gail: Thank you. Yes, that's a major- >>Frank: What you don't know until you read the book is what the experience of working with him is like.So let's first talk about his chocolate and diet Coke habit.

So let's first talk about his chocolate and diet Coke habit.Gail: Oh yes. You know, it's funny I really wrote this as a love letter to him.It really remains to be seen if he will- >>Frank: Love letter?

It really remains to be seen if he will- >>Frank: Love letter?Gail: - take it that way.You know, working for Jeffrey was the greatest education I could have ever asked for.

I'm from Canada, I just want to say that again one more time.Gail: We donít have, we donít have a lot of great Mexican, there isn't the Mexican community in Canada that there is here.There is, you know, I had not ever really eaten great Mexican food, I didnít know what a tamale was.

But he also taught me so much about food and eating and- Frank: And about the decomposition of beef.Gail: And about, exactly, about how quickly beef could rot when left on a counter in July in an unairconditioned apartment with maggots.So that was a really educational moment in my life, for sure.

In the book you also say he made you guess the grape, but you donít tell us whether you got the guess right.Gail: I didnít get the grape right.I mean it was a red, it was a Spanish red.

In Canada I'd been drinking since I was 14.Gail: But, not that that's legal and I'd never did it.Frank: Not that you're, you're not advising anybody.

Frank: Not that you're, you're not advising anybody.Gail: I was responsible, I was never driving, you should never- Anyway, that's bad.But I didn't get it right.

Frank: In all of this time, in the cooking in the kitchens, working with Jeffrey are you ever thinking I want to be on TV?Gail: Never. There wasn't really, I mean I guess there was food television, the Food Network existed.Julia Child certainly, I mean that's kind of the funny thing about food television, that we talk about it as its new.

Frank: -designs at it or cut concerted effort ending up on Top Chef.Gail: I, when I left Jeffrey I went to work for Daniel Boulud a many years, chef of many many restaurants all over the world but certainly he's a New York, we can call him our own evenif he's French. He's certainly our adopted hero.

Frank Bruni: Did you have even a moment's hesitation or were you on board from the beginning?Gail: Oh I had a lot of hesitation.Frank Bruni: What were your reservations?

Frank Bruni: What were your reservations?Gail: A couple, you know I have this, Tom and I joke a lot about it now.There was a moment the first day, so I get to San Francisco, and I'm alone and Bravo and Food & Wine are still sorting out the contract.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: No. Frank Bruni: How does the food that first season stack up against the food in subsequent seasons?

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Sure. Frank Bruni: When you presumably had more people knocking on the door.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Yeah, that's a great question.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: His first one.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Yeah yeah I didnít really ñ thatís a Bravo word.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Not in the dictionary.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Both certainly.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Yes. Frank Bruni: -the cheftestants- >>Gail Simmons: Yes.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Absolutely. Frank Bruni: Which ones and how did it happen?

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: You know we really do keep separate from them.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: I donít, still I donít watch a lot of food shows.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Where- >>Frank Bruni: To eat?

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: - that's like the million dollar question, Frank as you know.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Yeah, it's amazing because they're pretty similar, they're very close but I just never had the occasion to go.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Oh my God.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: You know a couple things one timing, I mean when you're doing live television, I mean obviously Top Chef isn't live.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: You know it, a little bit but it's certainly the question I get asked a lot.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Sure. Frank Bruni: So, anyone who's got a question, think about it and maybe get to a microphone.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Yes. Frank Bruni: -element to it.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: I think Top Chef Desserts is a harder show to pull off.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Right. Male Audience Member #1: Well what do you think is your sort of unique perspective that you bring when you're talking about you know what you think is the best or what you think

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: That's a great question.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: And you know, and so she's sort of like, you know, the viewer.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: - thatís sort how I think of us.

And I think more or less, that's what we've loved about the show.Gail Simmons: Oh this finale, which hasnít aired yet.