Gail Simmons was born on the 19th May 1976 in Toronto, Ontario Canada, and is a food and cookbook author, best known to the world for serving as the judge in the reality competition television series “Top Chef” (2006-2014), among other achievements. Her career started in the ‘90s.
Have you ever wondered how rich Gail Simmons is, as of mid- 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that Simmons’ net worth is as high as $2.5 million, an amount earned through her successful career in the food industry.
Gail Simmons Net Worth $2.5 Million
Gail is the daughter of Renee, a former food columnist for Globe and Mail, and Ivor; both Jewish; she has two older siblings. After finished high school, Gail enrolled at McGill University in Montreal, where she majored in anthropology and Spanish language and literature. Her mother passed a love for cooking to young Gail, as she taught her from an early age how to cook. This resulted in Gail pursuing a career of her own.
She found her first job as a restaurant review writer for the McGill Tribune, and then became an intern at the monthly magazine Toronto Life. Little by little, Gail climbed her way up, and eventually started writing for the daily National Post newspaper. Encouraged by the success she accomplished in the early years, Gail decided to pursue further her career, but before that, she attended the The Peter Kump New York Cooking School, and then served as an apprentice at Le Cirque and Vong.
After completing her education and apprenticeship, Gail found employment at Vogue as assistant to food critic Jeffrey Steingarten. For the next two years, she held her position before she became the special events manager for Chef Daniel Bould’s restaurant empire. Thanks to her successful experience she gained working for Daniel, in 2004 she was hired as a special projects manager for Food & Wine, which only increased her net worth.
Two years later, Gail was hired as a permanent judge on the reality competition show “Top Chef”, and stayed on the show until 2014. This engagement increased further her wealth, but also her popularity, and she was soon brought up to the show’s spin-offs and other cooking shows, such as “Top Chef Masters” (2009-2013), “Top Chef: Just Desserts” (2010-2011), “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” (2011), “Top Chef Duels” (2014), and most recently “Cooks vs. Cons” (2017), all of which added a significant amount to her net worth.
Aside from cooking shows, Gail has also made appearances on several variety shows, such as “The Today Show”, “Good Morning America”, and “Fox & Friends”, among many others.
She has been a frequent guest of several notable culinary festivals too, such as South Beach Wine & Food Festival, Pebble Beach Food & Wine, Cayman Cookout, New York City Wine & Food Festival, and Kohler Food & Wine Experience, among others.
Gail is also an accomplished author; in 2012 she published her memoir book “Talking With My Mouth Full: My Life as a Professional Eater”, the sales of which added further to her net worth.
Regarding her personal life, Gail has been married to Jeremy Abrams since 2008; the couple has one child together.
Gail is a well-known philanthropist; she was one of the integral parts of the launch of Food & Wine’s Grow for Good Campaign to raise funds and awareness for sustainable agriculture programs in the United States, and also, she is one of the supporters of Common Threads, an organization that is focused on teaching children living in poverty how to cook wholesome, affordable meals.
To speak further of her engagement in the community, Gail is a board member of the American Institute of Wine & Food, Institute of Culinary Education’s Alumni Committee and City Harvest, which is a food rescue organization.
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