Emily Hall
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream | New York
February 2025
Emily Hall got into pastry by chance. On a whim, her mom signed her up for a cake decorating class while she was in high school in New Jersey. Even though she was initially against it, Hall was instantly hooked. She had a natural talent and took four more classes before enrolling in culinary school. While at Johnson & Wales University, Hall landed her first job working at Camille’s, an old-school Italian restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island. After graduating, she moved to Boston to cook at Menton, but after a year decided to relocate to New York when she got the opportunity to work at Eleven Madison Park. There, Hall developed her attention to detail, learned to operate in a fine dining kitchen under Rising Stars alum Angela Pinkerton, and had the chance to cook with new techniques and ingredients.
In 2016, Hall moved to Chicago to work on the savory side at 42 Grams before coming back to New York to help open Günter Seeger NY as pastry chef. She then went to The Musket Room, where she took on her first executive pastry chef role. When the pandemic hit, Hall went to work at JB Prince until she received an offer to join the pastry team at Crown Shy, Saga, and Overstory. Two years later, she was promoted to executive pastry chef. Before departing in January 2025, Hall led the pastry team and developed the dessert menus for all three concepts, creating imaginative, seasonal, and nostalgic dishes while learning from the late Chef Jamal James Kent. In February 2025, Hall joined the team at Van Leeuwen Ice Cream as the head of innovation.
