Gail Simmons lends her strong culinary expertise as a judge and critic to Top Chef: Chicago, tasting and critiquing the competing chefs' creations each week. Gail has been with Food & Wine magazine since 2004, currently in charge of special projects for the epicurean magazine. In this role, she oversees the brand's signature event, the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, the country’s premier culinary event. In addition, she works on the publication's chef-related events and programs.

Gail began her culinary career writing food articles for Toronto Life magazine and the National Post, Canada’s national newspaper. In addition, she served as the research and recipe assistant to food critic Jeffrey Steingarten at Vogue magazine and apprenticed at both Le Cirque 2000 and Vong restaurants. Prior to joining Food & Wine, Gail most recently worked as the Special Events Manager for The Dinex Group, Chef Daniel Boulud’s acclaimed restaurant empire. She has also contributed to several cookbooks including It Must’ve Been Something I Ate by Jeffrey Steingarten, (Knopf 2002), Daniel Boulud Cooking in New York City (Assouline 2002) and The New American Chef by Karen Page & Andrew Dornenburg (Wiley, John & Sons, Inc. 2003).

She graduated summa cum laude from McGill University in Montreal and received her formal culinary training at what is now the Institute of Culinary Education in New York. Simmons currently resides in New York City.