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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 behind the stoves at Danny Meyer's Union Square Café, which led to a position as assistant pastry chef. Fleming then worked under macaron master Pierre Hermé at Fauchon in Paris. She returned to New York—and Danny Meyer's restaurant empire—as the pastry chef for Gramercy Tavern. After leaving Gramercy Tavern, Fleming opened the North Fork Table and Inn on Long Island's North Fork with her husband, chef Gerry Hayden.