Fifteen years ago, when she was an aspiring modern dancer waiting tables to pay her bills, Claudia Fleming never dreamed she'd win the culinary world's equivalent of an Oscar. But that's just what happened last May when she was named America's top pastry chef by the prestigious James Beard Foundation.

Ensconced at New York City's Gramercy Tavern for the past six years, Fleming, 41, is renowned for her deceptively simple multipart desserts that rely on seasonal ingredients and the subtle interplay of temperatures, textures and flavors. Instead of serving an ordinary tarte Tatin with créme fraîche, for example, Fleming makes a miniature version and pairs it with a tiny cheesecake and a "napoleon" made of alternating layers of green-apple chips and green-apple sorbet. The result juxtaposes "hot vs. cold, crunchy vs. creamy, sweet vs. not sweet," she explains.

A self-described risk taker whose sweet-corn ice cream (inspired by Mexican cuisine) is now a summer favorite, Fleming aims to make dessert fun — an attitude that's readily apparent in her basket of warm cinnamon-sugar doughnuts and the warm chocolate soufflé served with a shot-glass-size chocolate malted and a scoop of chocolate-malted ice cream. "Claudia gives a lot of thought to her desserts and combines flavors that make you want to eat them,"