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Chef chat: New faces at Walnut Street Cafe and Kensington Quarters

Elizabeth Yee and Matt Harper have new roles.

New chefs include Elizabeth Yee at Walnut Street Cafe and Matt Harper at Kensington Quarters.
New chefs include Elizabeth Yee at Walnut Street Cafe and Matt Harper at Kensington Quarters.Read moreCOURTESY RESTAURANTS

Two recent kitchen moves:

Elizabeth Yee, who last headed the pastry department at the Rittenhouse Hotel (Lacroix, Bar 201, Mary Cassatt Tea Room), has joined Walnut Street Cafe at the FMC Tower in Cira Centre South as executive pastry chef and baker. Yee, 30, was studying math at Drexel University when she decided to turn her hobby into a career. She trained recently with Walnut Street's Melissa Weller, who is leaving to focus on a new project in New York.

Matt Harper, former chef de cuisine at Zahav, is now executive chef at Kensington Quarters in Fishtown. Harper, 30, a native of small-town Arkansas, worked for Hugh Acheson at Atlanta's Empire State South. He rose through the ranks to executive sous chef, before relocating with his girlfriend to Philadelphia, where she began grad school at Drexel.