By Louise McCreadyBabbo pastry chef Gina DePalma earned this year's James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year. An Italian-American New Yorker, DePalma earned critical acclaim for her 2007 cookbook, Dolce Italiano [Buy on Amazon]. A year after she was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer, DePalma launched the Cowgirl Cure Foundation to increase public awareness of and find a cure for ovarian cancer. This past week, DePalma took a break from her busy schedule to discuss spices, gelato, and cowgirling up.
LM: First, congratulations on winning the James Beard Award. After being nominated several times in the past, what do you think separated you most from the rest of the competition this year?
GD: After 7 nominations, I don't think it's about separating me or looking at my work because I never think it's a competition. Everyone who's nominated wins because your work is already being recognized.
What made winning the Beard Award neat for me was to be able to stand up and publicly thank Joe [Bastianich] and Mario [Batali] for everything that they've done for me--for 11 years of standing by me and making everything happen. The minute I was sick, they didn't stop, and they've been just beside me every step of the way.
When you mention being sick, you're referring to your battle with
ovarian cancer. Do you think that has enhanced your focus in the
kitchen? Or changed the way you view cooking?
My cancer's made me appreciate everything in my life, including cooking and my career. I've been doing this in New York for 15 years, and you get tired and uninspired, or you take it for granted. Not being able to work for quite a while made me appreciate it. Now every time I go into Babbo, I'm really happy to be there.
Your foundation, Cowgirl Cure Foundation, launched this month. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
It's a little bit selfish--I want to find a cure so I don't die. It's also a little bit of not wanting other people to go through what you've gone through and learning from your mistakes. With this particular cancer, there isn't a lot of attention focused on it. We're trained to think of breast cancer as our biggest threat. The numbers aren't quite as high with ovarian cancer, but they're pretty high, and if you've had one or the other, you're at risk to get the other. But no one talks about ovarian cancer--except to say, "Oh, that's the one that killed Gilda Radner, isn't it?" with a sharp intake of breath, that says, "You're a goner aren't you?" I want to change that.
The story behind the name Cowgirl Cure Foundation is a friend of mine gave me this ring. She's got a horse, would maybe call herself a part-time cowgirl, and is from the South. She said, "You've got to cowgirl up!" I said, "What the hell is that? I'm from New York." The more I looked into it, the more I saw that's exactly the attitude you need [to battle cancer]. Being a cowgirl is about staring down your fears, standing up to your difficulties, and protecting others around you. All those themes play into it.
Your cookbook, Dolce Italiano, has received rave reviews. What is your favorite dessert?
A date and chocolate budino. It's warm, melty chocolate in the middle and the flavor of dates permeates it. I love panna cotta because it's simple. I have a really wonderful panna cotta in there made of ricotta which I just adore. And a strawberry gelato. I think I make an awesome strawberry gelato.
What is your favorite spice to use when baking or cooking?
It's not a spice, but I really love the flavor of toasted sesame. I use that a lot. Italian people love nutmeg--they use a lot in savory cooking too. In fact, when you go to Italy, you buy whole nutmeg in every grocery store. The nutmeg comes in a little bottle just like our bottles here but they include whole nutmegs and a little, teeny, tiny grater. You can't find ground nutmeg there because their premise is, why would you grind it? It needs to be fresh.
I know you travel to Italy often. Do you have either a favorite memory of a certain pastry, or a place that you frequent that you know will have the best pastries?
I associate cities with certain places that you go to in that city or things that that city is known for. In Torino, there's a pasticceria called Peyrano. They have an assortment of teeny, tiny cookies--sometimes called pasticcini--the best little cookies that I've ever had in my life. You know how you see them and they don't taste as good as they look? Peyrano's taste amazing, so I love to associate Torino with Peyrano.
In Rome, there's a wonderful gelateria in the Prati neighborhood called Gelateria dei Gracchi. It's a tiny non-descript place, and they don't have a lot of flavors. Most of their flavors are creamy rather than fruity, but they're just amazing. It's not flashy. They don't have pastel colors on the wall. You walk in and it's a raw space with a gelato case in it--but the most flavorful gelato I've ever had, at least in Rome.
In Florence, I love to get at any number of places a budino de riso. It's almost like rice pudding baked in a crust. Even though you can find it in a lot of places, it's always the best in Florence.
What about New York? What restaurants do you like to go to?
One of my very favorite restaurants in New York is Eleven Madison Park [watch video]. I love Daniel Humm's cooking--it's not fussy or pretentious. It balances that line of being beautiful, delicious, and very technically correct, but not silly. I love his platings, his flavors--it just all works. Bar Boulud is one of my favorite restaurants right now. I just can't get enough of that place. Even to just go in and get oysters and their amazing house-made charcuterie--great for a date to share all sorts of delicious things. Yum, yum, yum. And of course, I'm addicted to all our restaurants. I can't wait to try Locanda Verde by my good friend Andrew Carmellini which just opened. I can't wait to see what he's doing there because I've missed his cooking.
Learn more about the Cowgirl Cure Foundation.
Get information about Babbo in New York City on Savory Cities.
My cancer's made me appreciate everything in my life, including cooking and my career. I've been doing this in New York for 15 years, and you get tired and uninspired, or you take it for granted. Not being able to work for quite a while made me appreciate it. Now every time I go into Babbo, I'm really happy to be there.
Your foundation, Cowgirl Cure Foundation, launched this month. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
It's a little bit selfish--I want to find a cure so I don't die. It's also a little bit of not wanting other people to go through what you've gone through and learning from your mistakes. With this particular cancer, there isn't a lot of attention focused on it. We're trained to think of breast cancer as our biggest threat. The numbers aren't quite as high with ovarian cancer, but they're pretty high, and if you've had one or the other, you're at risk to get the other. But no one talks about ovarian cancer--except to say, "Oh, that's the one that killed Gilda Radner, isn't it?" with a sharp intake of breath, that says, "You're a goner aren't you?" I want to change that.
The story behind the name Cowgirl Cure Foundation is a friend of mine gave me this ring. She's got a horse, would maybe call herself a part-time cowgirl, and is from the South. She said, "You've got to cowgirl up!" I said, "What the hell is that? I'm from New York." The more I looked into it, the more I saw that's exactly the attitude you need [to battle cancer]. Being a cowgirl is about staring down your fears, standing up to your difficulties, and protecting others around you. All those themes play into it.
Your cookbook, Dolce Italiano, has received rave reviews. What is your favorite dessert?
A date and chocolate budino. It's warm, melty chocolate in the middle and the flavor of dates permeates it. I love panna cotta because it's simple. I have a really wonderful panna cotta in there made of ricotta which I just adore. And a strawberry gelato. I think I make an awesome strawberry gelato.
What is your favorite spice to use when baking or cooking?
It's not a spice, but I really love the flavor of toasted sesame. I use that a lot. Italian people love nutmeg--they use a lot in savory cooking too. In fact, when you go to Italy, you buy whole nutmeg in every grocery store. The nutmeg comes in a little bottle just like our bottles here but they include whole nutmegs and a little, teeny, tiny grater. You can't find ground nutmeg there because their premise is, why would you grind it? It needs to be fresh.
I know you travel to Italy often. Do you have either a favorite memory of a certain pastry, or a place that you frequent that you know will have the best pastries?
I associate cities with certain places that you go to in that city or things that that city is known for. In Torino, there's a pasticceria called Peyrano. They have an assortment of teeny, tiny cookies--sometimes called pasticcini--the best little cookies that I've ever had in my life. You know how you see them and they don't taste as good as they look? Peyrano's taste amazing, so I love to associate Torino with Peyrano.
In Rome, there's a wonderful gelateria in the Prati neighborhood called Gelateria dei Gracchi. It's a tiny non-descript place, and they don't have a lot of flavors. Most of their flavors are creamy rather than fruity, but they're just amazing. It's not flashy. They don't have pastel colors on the wall. You walk in and it's a raw space with a gelato case in it--but the most flavorful gelato I've ever had, at least in Rome.
In Florence, I love to get at any number of places a budino de riso. It's almost like rice pudding baked in a crust. Even though you can find it in a lot of places, it's always the best in Florence.
What about New York? What restaurants do you like to go to?
One of my very favorite restaurants in New York is Eleven Madison Park [watch video]. I love Daniel Humm's cooking--it's not fussy or pretentious. It balances that line of being beautiful, delicious, and very technically correct, but not silly. I love his platings, his flavors--it just all works. Bar Boulud is one of my favorite restaurants right now. I just can't get enough of that place. Even to just go in and get oysters and their amazing house-made charcuterie--great for a date to share all sorts of delicious things. Yum, yum, yum. And of course, I'm addicted to all our restaurants. I can't wait to try Locanda Verde by my good friend Andrew Carmellini which just opened. I can't wait to see what he's doing there because I've missed his cooking.
Learn more about the Cowgirl Cure Foundation.
Get information about Babbo in New York City on Savory Cities.
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