Gina DePalma

Author, Dolce Italiano; and pastry chef, Babbo
New York, New York

James Beard Award–winning pastry chef Gina DePalma, of

Mario Batali’s flagship restaurant, Babbo (where she’s celebrated

for putting her own unique spin on classic Italian desserts), was in

Rome doing research for her next cookbook when she started to

feel ill.

“I thought I wasn’t adjusting to the water, the food,” she tells

me in her living room, where we’re sipping iced tea. “So when I

came back to accept my James Beard Award in 2008, I told my

mother to make me a doctor’s appointment.”

The doctor listened to her symptoms and ran tests. On June 12,

2008, the results came back: DePalma had stage-four ovarian

cancer.

Soon after, DePalma underwent surgery. “They cut my entire

trunk open,” she says, dragging her finger down the length of her

body. “The time it took me to recover afterward was

unbelievable.”

DePalma spent the next few months undergoing chemotherapy,

which made her very tired. “I watched a lot of food TV. I’d lie on

the couch and watch Lidia four times a day.”

The other element of her recovery came from her mother’s