We've compiled a list of common questions that Gale gets asked during her tours. Check back often because we'll be updating the list with new topics!

THE DISH

1. Best thing about being a pastry chef?
You never go hungry and everyone thinks they love you but it's really the pastry they love, and you always get to cut the cake at parties.

2. Worst thing about being a pastry chef?
People only ask you to bring dessert to a party so I never get to cook savory food for get togethers.

3. Who is your greatest influence now?
Hard to say ... my painting teacher from the Cleveland Institute of Art Moe Brooker, maybe still my mom, Myrna, and grandma Elsie.

4. What is your favorite guilty pleasure or midnight snack?
Extra chunky peanut butter on saltines with strawberry jam or crabapple jelly, and a cup of milky black tea or maybe a fried egg sandwich.

5. What is the secret to balancing your life with work, and family with the long hours and travel?
It's no secret ... a supportive husband, lots of good help (nanny, personal assistant, public relations assistant, maid), low maintenance friends, busy parents and siblings, a Palm Pilot, plenty of tea, and yoga classes.

6. Your son Gio has taken on the family tradition of cooking, would you be glad if he or your girls pursued this as a profession?
I try to not care if they go into the business but I do want them to feel good and comfortable creating food for themselves and others. Having said that, I just got the girls their first chef's coats with their names on them so what's the message there? They know that mommy goes to work when she puts on her chef's coat so wanted them to be able to feel like they can go to work too just like mommy.

7. What is your favorite kitchen tool?
Probably my great grandmother's rolling pin.

8. Do you still dabble with your talents as a silversmith?
No but I still sing which was my profession as a child even before the silversmithing. I'm a chick singer for one of my dad's jazz bands.

9. Tell us more about your musical talent.
My dad was a folksinger when I was little and my brother and I sang and played music with him since I was 6. I retired when I went away to art school, but still sang solo for money as a strolling balladeer in restaurants 'till I was 21. I still play guitar for my kids and learn a song once a year with my son to sing to my husband for his birthday gift. I also started to learn the cello a couple years ago when the twins were born.

10. What are the best shoes for to wear while standing in a kitchen?
Comfortable ones ... but really, I like clogs, Dansko's, or Van's.

11. If you were not a pastry chef what would you be?
Maybe a classical guitar player (if I didn't mind being poor!) or a landscaper/gardener.

12. Where is your favorite Chicago spot to go for a coffee and a sweet treat?
I wrote a piece on this over at the Huffington Post. You can find it at this link.

13. Where is your favorite spot anywhere in the world for a coffee and a sweet treat?
Strohrer or Laduree in Paris.

14. Are you always creating new sweet treats?
Yep, whether it's for one of my restaurants or my son's soccer team.

15. What is your favorite candy bar?
Kit Kat or Nestles Crunch.

16. Do you eat fast food?
I rarely do but I like Eclairs on the go, if you can call that fast food.

17. If so, what is your favorite?
Does Hot Doug's count?

18. What is your favorite TV show (besides Sweet Dreams)?
Right now I watch Big Love, Flight of the Concords, Super Nanny, and Head Case I can find it. I also watch a lot of Elmo and Charley and Lola with the kids.

19. Are you an accomplished non-pastry chef?
You mean can I cook? Yes, very well.

20. When you are having over guests do you enjoy preparing the food or spending the evening out of the kitchen?
I love to cook but I get wound up doing it because I have such high expectations of myself, so I get a little crabby and bossy before the guests arrive.

21. What book is on your nightstand?
I'll go look ... hold on ... OK, I found the National Audubon Society Field Guide To Mushrooms, Your Child's Health, Holidays On Ice by David Sedaris, Insatiable by Gael Greene, and Beth Hensperger's Bread Bible.

22. If your week went from 24/7 to 24/8 what would you do with the extra time?
Sleep, garden, and make pies for my family.

AUTHOR'S SPOTLIGHT

1. When writing a cookbook, how do you decide the concept?
What I'm interested in lately, feel strongly about or what people are asking me for ... and what my publisher will buy also.

2. Do you have many cookbook concepts in your head?
Usually 2-3 at any one time.

3. What is the one tip you would give a budding pastry chef in today's world?
Work everywhere you possibly can, even for free if it will get you into the kitchen. And spend a year living in France and getting fluent in the language. That's something I regret I haven't done ... yet.

4. How can someone get noticed to work in your kitchen?
Call me and ask. My theory is if you are bold enough to ask, you deserve a chance to stage for a day in the kitchen and try out.

5. What is your favorite cookbook?
The Blue Strawberry Cookbook: Cooking Brilliantly Without Recipes by James Haller

6. How did the Life Photographer find you making mud pies? What was the story?
My best friends dad, Art Shay, worked for Life Magazine and asked the neighborhood kids to work with him for the story.

7. Where do you prefer to be, in the kitchen, talking with customers, filming for TV or?
I love teaching people but I need to be in the kitchen touching food too.

8. Is there another book in the works?
Yep, always but we're batting around a lot of different ideas now for it.