says pastry chef Nancy Silverton of Los Angeles' Campanile restaurant and La Brea Bakery. "I'd rather eat her desserts than my own."

Fleming took years to discover her passion for pastry. She abandoned her dance career at age 25 and "floundered all over the restaurant business" for five years before enrolling in cooking school. In 1990 she became a pastry assistant at Union Square Café, one of the many places where she'd waited tables. "I loved it, both because it was immediately gratifying and because I was mercenary," she says. "I was older and a woman, and there are never enough good pastry chefs. The job has the impression of being easy, so women traditionally end up there. The way I see it, you're responsible for one-third of the meal."

Today Fleming spends much of her time devising new recipes for the restaurant (a pear-based dessert for the fall menu is a current priority). She is also working on her first cookbook, The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern, to be published by Random House next fall. Her ultimate fantasy: to open "the great American bakery — whatever that is" — or, better yet, a restaurant that serves nothing but desserts.