Claudia Fleming

Claudia Fleming’s restaurant career started by chance in 1984, when she waited tables at Jonathan Waxman’s groundbreaking Jams. After graduating from ICE, she took an entry-level position in an unusual combination of front-of-hour and back-of-house roles as server, cook and pastry assistant at Danny Meyer's legendary Union Square Café. This experience led to a position as assistant pastry chef at TriBeCa Grill, and the true beginning of her career as one of the country's most highly regarded pastry chefs.

Fleming left Union Square Café for the oppertunity to work under macaron master Pierre Hermé at Fauchon in Paris. Up her return to New York she reunited with Meyer to be the opening pastry chef for Gramercy Tavern, now a New York fine dining institution. It was here that Fleming was nominated for Outstanding Pastry chef at the James Beard awards in 1998 and 1999, winning the award in 2000. 

It was also in her time at Gramercy Tavern that Fleming wrote her cult-classic cookbook, The Last Course. Originally published in 2001, the book's continued popularity and verocious fan base saw it have a second life on re-sale platforms, going for upwards of $200, before being re-printed in 2019. 

In the early 2000s, Fleming left New York City behind to open the North Fork Table & Inn on the east end of Long Island with husband, Chef Gerry Hayden. The restaurant was a huge success, with Fleming and Hayden being largely credited with ushering in the north fork of Long Island's food scene as we know it today. 

After the death of her husband in 2015, Fleming started to consider revisiting life in the city, and it wasn't long before Danny Meyer seized the opportunity to have the legendary chef back on his team, now in the role of Corporate Pastry Director. Since donning this title in 2021, Fleming has consulted and developed recipes and menus for such Union Square Hospitality Group hits as Daily Provisions and Ci Siamo.

Fleming's triumphant return to the New York dining scene has captured the industries attention and excitement, with in-depth covered by such publications as The New York Times, Pastry Arts Magazine, Food & Wine, Epicurious and reservation platform Resy's blog.