In addition to her work on Top Chef, Gail makes frequent television appearances on NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America, among others.

Simmons was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to a Jewish family of Eastern European origin,[2][3] and graduated from McGill University in Montreal, where she majored in anthropology and Spanish.

[2] She began her food journalism career writing restaurant reviews for the McGill Tribune[4] before becoming an intern at the monthly magazine Toronto Life and later wrote for the daily National Post newspaper.

[9] She teaches viewers new ways to cook with familiar and unusual staples in their kitchens in the KitchenDaily.com online video series titled The Pantry Project.

[8] Her Bravo.com bio reports: "Gail makes frequent television appearances on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, among others.

She was a founding member of Food & Wine’s Grow for Good Campaign to raise funds and awareness for sustainable agriculture programs in the United States.