Name Jennifer Yee Role Chef | ||
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Cooking style French-inspired American pastry Profiles | ||
Jennifer yee pastry chef at lafayette short interview
Jennifer Yee is an American chef, specializing in pastry. Born and raised in San Francisco, she has worked in several pastry kitchens in some of New York’s finest restaurants. Her most recent roles include the Patissière at Lafayette in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, and the opening Pastry Chef for The Grill in the Seagram Building, also located in Manhattan, in midtown.
Contents
- Jennifer yee pastry chef at lafayette short interview
- Pastry chef jennifer yee of lafayette the chefs connection
- Background
- Pastry Chef positions
- Awards and nominations
- Television
- References
Pastry chef jennifer yee of lafayette the chefs connection
Background
Jennifer Yee began her culinary career by working as a pastry commis chef for Gordon Ramsay and Angela Hartnett at the Connaught Hotel, while attending London's Le Cordon Bleu, 2002-2003. After completing her Patisserie Diploma with Distinction at Cordon Bleu, Yee stayed on in London as pastry chef de partie at Alan Yau's Yauatcha. Yee returned to the United States in early 2006 and worked with Nick Morgenstern, who appointed her Pastry Sous Chef, and later David Carmichael at Gilt Restaurant.
Pastry Chef positions
In 2009 Yee left the two-Michelin-starred Gilt to assume her first head pastry chef position at Charlie Palmer's Aureole restaurant, working with Christopher Lee. While heading up the pastry department at the Michelin-starred mid-town New York restaurant, Yee was awarded the Star Chefs 'Rising Star' award for pastry, in 2010.
Following Chef Lee's departure from Aureole, Yee was offered the opportunity to work with Australian chef Shaun Hergatt at his fine dining establishment, SHO Shaun Hergatt, in Manhattan's Financial District.
While SHO Shaun Hergatt garnered much critical praise, and two stars from Michelin, the restaurant closed its doors in 2012, but not before Yee's refined pastry program had caught the eye of the dessert-minded media, noting her "artful" desserts and "best petits fours in New York City".
After the closure of SHO, Chef Yee was offered her most high-profile and challenging position to date as the Patissière for Andrew Carmellini's latest project, the French Grand Cafe and Bakery, Lafayette, which opened in April 2013.
Yee received high praise for her bakery and dessert program at Lafayette from several newspaper and magazine critics including the New York Times, Bloomberg, Time Out, the New York Post, and the Observer. The New York Times's restaurant critic, Pete Wells, rated Yee's fig tart as one of the best dishes of 2013.
At the end of August, 2016, Chef Yee decided to part ways with Lafayette to pursue culinary travels across Europe. On her return to the United States in early 2017, she joined Chef Mario Carbone's team at The Grill, located in the Seagram Building, the former space of the Four Seasons Restaurant, to lead the restaurant-opening pastry program.
Awards and nominations
In February 2014, Yee was announced as a semi-finalist for the James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef award for the first time, and in November the Food and Wine Magazine declared her one of their top five Best New Pastry Chefs. In March 2016, after three years as pastry chef of Lafayette, she was announced as a Nominee for the James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef award.
Television
On Christmas Eve 2011, while at SHO, Yee took part in a fun Gingerbread house competition on Good Morning America. Her take on a 'Grinch Who Stole Christmas' themed house proved to be the favorite.
In October 2012, Yee appeared on Food Network's Sweet Genius. The finalists in the episode were Yee and Stephen Collucci, pastry chef of Tom Colicchio's Colicchio & Sons in New York's Meatpacking District. Yee scooped the $10,000 prize after a close contest between the two chefs.