Jennifer Yee is an American chef, specializing in pastry. Born and raised in San Francisco, she worked in several pastry kitchens in some of New York's finest restaurants, including Lafayette in the

NoHo NoHo, short for "North of Houston Street, Houston Street" (as contrasted with SoHo), is a primarily residential neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded by Mercer Street (Manhattan), Mercer Street to the west, the Bowery ...

neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

as Patissière, and The Grill in midtown

Seagram Building The Seagram Building is a skyscraper at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd Street (Manhattan), 52nd and 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe along with P ...

, as the opening Pastry Chef, before becoming the Executive Pastry Chef for Chef Linton Hopkins' restaurants in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. Her work has been recognized by the

James Beard Foundation The James Beard Foundation is an American non-profit culinary arts organization based in New York City. It was named after James Beard, a food writer, teacher, and cookbook author. Its programs include guest-chef dinners to scholarships for asp ...

in both New York and Atlanta. She is currently the Executive Pastry Chef for

Wynn Las Vegas Wynn Las Vegas, often simply referred to as Wynn, is a luxury resort and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. It is owned and operated by Wynn Resorts, and was built on the former site of the Desert Inn re ...

Background

Jennifer Yee began her culinary career by working as a pastry commis chef for

Gordon Ramsay Gordon James Ramsay (; born ) is a British celebrity chef, restaurateur, television presenter, and writer. His restaurant group, List of restaurants owned or operated by Gordon Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has ...

and

Angela Hartnett Angela Maria Hartnett (born September 1968) is an English Michelin-starred chef. A protégée of Gordon Ramsay who became well known by her appearances on British television, she was Chef-Patron at Angela Hartnett at the Connaught in London. ...

at the Connaught Hotel, while attending

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Le Cordon Bleu Le Cordon Bleu (; French: " The Blue Ribbon"; LCB) is a French hospitality and culinary education institution, teaching haute cuisine. Its educational focuses are hospitality management, culinary arts, and gastronomy. The institution consists ...

, 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 Alan Yau () (born 11 November 1962) is a Hong Kong-born British restaurateur who founded the Wagamama chain in the United Kingdom. Of Hakka ethnicity, he was born in Sha Tau Kok, Hong Kong and moved to King's Lynn, Norfolk in 1975 with his fam ...

'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 in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Pastry Chef positions

In 2009 Yee left the two-Michelin-starred Gilt to assume her first head

pastry chef A pastry chef or pâtissier (; feminine pâtissière, ) is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels, bistros, restaurants, bakeries, b ...

position at Charlie Palmer's Aureole restaurant, working with

Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a career spanning more than sixty years, Lee became known as an actor with a deep and commanding voice who often portrayed villains in horr ...

. 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 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-focused 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 for extended culinary travels across

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. On her return to New York in early 2017, she joined Chef Mario Carbone's team at The Grill, located in the former space of the Four Seasons Restaurant, to lead the opening pastry program, and helped the restaurant attain a three star review from the New York Times. Shortly after, Yee relocated to Atlanta to join Chef Linton Hopkins' 'Hopkins and Company' hospitality group and assume the new position of Executive Pastry Chef for the group. After five years working with Chef Linton Hopkins, Yee accepted the Executive Pastry Position at

, at the beginning of 2023.

Awards and nominations

In February 2014, Yee was announced as a semi-finalist for the

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 finalist for the James Beard Foundation Outstanding Pastry Chef award. Six years later James Beard acknowledged her work once again, this time in Atlanta, with her fourth semi-final nomination. *Star Chefs Rising Star Pastry Chef 2010 *James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef Semi Finalist 2014 *Dessert Professional Top Ten Pastry Chefs 2014 *Food and Wine Best New Pastry Chefs 2014 *James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef Semi Finalist 2015 *James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef Finalist 2016 *James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef Semi Finalist 2022

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 The Meatpacking District is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan that runs from West 14th Street south to Gansevoort Street, and from the Hudson River east to Hudson Street. The Meatpacking Business Improvement District alo ...

. Yee scooped the $10,000 prize after a close contest between the two chefs.TV By the Numbers
/ref> In October 2015 she appeared on Beat Bobby Flay as a judge alongside Johnny Iuzzini and Paulette Goto in the "Trick or Treat" episode of season 6.

References

External links

Homepage for Jennifer Yee
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yee, Jennifer Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Pastry chefs Chefs from San Francisco American women chefs Alumni of Le Cordon Bleu 21st-century American women Chefs from New York City