A Desserter From The Dance

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 creme fraiche, 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 souffle 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," 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 Cafe, 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. Yum.