FAMOUS PEOPLE EILEEN HEISLER Eileen Heisler, a graduate of Deerfield High School, is a television writer, director and producer who has worked on such productions as The Middle, How I Met Your Mother, Lipstick Jungle and Murphy Brown. She and her long-time friend and writing partner, DeAnn Heline, created the popular television series, The Middle, starring Patricia Heaton and Neil Flynn which premiered on ABC in 2009 and continues to be popular. It is a family program which Heisler says celebrates the
trials and tribulations of parenting and the 90 percent of people in this country who live between New York and Los Angeles. Heisler and Heline met at Indiana University. Two years later, they both transferred to New York University where they each earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film and television from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Heisler is married to television executive Adam Wolman and the couple has twin teenage sons.
GALE GAND Chef Gale Gand, a resident of Riverwoods, is a nationally acclaimed pastry chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, television personality, teacher and entrepreneur. Gale is the founding pastry chef and partner of the popular Chicago restaurant Tru which she opened in 1999 with Chef Rick Tramonto and “Lettuce Entertain You” restaurateur Rich Melman. The pair of chefs also owned Trio and Brasserie T in the Chicago suburbs and worked at Stapleford Park, an historic country house hotel in Leicestershire, England. She has collaborated with The Hearty Boys of Food Network fame on her latest restaurant project, Spritz Burger, which opened in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood in early 2014. Chef Gand also produces her own
ART SHAY Deerfield resident Art Shay is a legendary professional photographer and writer, born in 1922. After flying 53 combat missions in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, Shay joined the staff of Life magazine as a writer. Soon thereafter he moved to the Chicago area and became a freelance photographer for Life, Time, Sports Illustrated and other publications. He has photographed nine American Presidents and many major figures of the 20th century. Shay’s photography is sold at Ann Nathan’s Gallery in Chicago and is in permanent collections of major museums including the National Portrait Gallery and The Art Institute of Chicago. He has written weekly columns for various newspapers, several plays and published more than 75 books for children and adults, often collaborating with writer and long-time friend Nelson Algren. In 2000, Shay published an autobiography entitled Album for an Age: Unconventional Words and Pictures from the 20th Century and two years later the American Theater Company in Chicago staged his autobiographical play, Where Have You
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artisan root beer, “Gale’s Root Beer,” which is available nationally. For 8 years, she hosted the Food Network show “Sweet Dreams,” the first nationally televised all-dessert show and she is the author of eight cookbooks. Chef Gand also frequently teaches, speaks, and does cooking demonstrations and book signings at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Elawa Farm in Lake Forest, local schools, public libraries, and many other Chicago area locations as well as at national and international Food and Wine festivals. She has also been recognized as Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year by The James Beard Foundation and by Bon Appetit magazine and has been inducted into the Chicago Chefs Hall of Fame. Chef Gand is married to Jimmy Seidita and the couple has three children.
Gone, Jimmy Stewart? He has been chronicling life at Northbrook Court since the mall opened in 1976. His wife of 67 years, Florence, passed away in 2012. His current projects include his recently released book My Florence: A Seventy
Year Love Story, a show currently up at the Highland Park Art Center through April 4th, an installation at the Art Institute this summer and a fall civil rights exhibit at Gage Gallery at Roosevelt University. A documentary about his life and his work is set to be released in 2016. ■
www.dbrchamber.com
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