‘Top Chef’ Star Gail Simmons Reveals Her Must-Have Heirloom and Dream Travel Destinations

Growing Up, The ‘Top Chef’ Judge worked as a canoe instructor, a downhill ski instructor and a summer camp counselor.

Her Favorite Show Moments: “In the 20 years we’ve filmed ‘Top Chef,’ my favorite moments were shooting my wedding shower and a quick-fire challenge with my mother.”

Her Favorite Comfort Food is matzo ball soup.

Her Next Adventure: “I’ve done a lot of travel,” Gail confesses, “but there’s always more to do — Argentina, Thailand and Kenya are where I’d like to go next.”

Her Most Valuable Possession is “a ring that was my grandmother’s that she wore until she died,” says Gail, who’s been wed to businessman husband Jeremy Abrams since 2008. “It has a beautiful antique setting with an emerald, my birthstone.”

Her Favorite Movie: “‘Back to the Future’ is the movie I could watch over and over. Michael J. Fox was my celebrity crush growing up,” says the 48-year-old Canadian food writer and cookbook author.

Her Favorite Show: “I am a huge ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ fan and when I met Sir Patrick Stewart at an Emmys afterparty, I told him that I had a life-size cutout of him on my dorm room wall in college,” says Gail. “Embarrassing but true.”