Wednesday, March 7, 7:00 p.m.
Members $100, guests $125

A definite glow emanates from a double-story, single-paned window on East 61st Street. It's the kind of halo that radiates from elegantly dressed people when they gather for dinner in sumptuous restaurants. But it isn't the cocktails and the chatter that light up this room-it's the beautifully presented, creative, thoroughly urbane cuisine prepared by Charlie Palmer and his extraordinary chef de cuisine Gerry Hayden. The restaurant, in case you haven't guessed it, is Aureole, and for more than a dozen years it has served as a beacon for sophisticated New York dining.

James Beard Award winner Palmer first caught the attention of the dining public with his whimsical creations at River Café in Brooklyn. A pioneer in the style of presentation that became associated with New York City dining and would eventually come to be known as "tall food," Palmer carved out a place in culinary history with his teetering entrées and soaring desserts. At the age of 28, Palmer opened Aureole and, like his food, the restaurant shot to the top of the dining charts-since opening it has remained among the most popular restaurants in Zagat.

Palmer parlayed his success at Aureole into an empire of taste that stretches from restaurants in Manhattan (Alva, Lenox Room, and Métrazur) and Las Vegas (Aureole at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and Charlie Palmer Steak at the Four Seasons Hotel), to farms in upstate New York (Egg Farm Dairy in Peekskill, New York). Palmer has also authored two cookbooks.

Gerry Hayden first worked with Palmer at the River Café and later helped him open Aureole. Expert in both sides of the kitchen, savory and sweet, he served a dual role as sous-chef and pastry chef. He left the restaurant in 1990 to open Drew Nieporent's Tribeca Grill with Don Pintabona. Already building a reputation for his good starts, Hayden moved to San Francisco to open Aqua, and returned to New York to help David Burke with the launch of Park Avenue Café. After critical successes at East Hampton Point and Marguery Grill, Hayden returned to Aureole as chef de cuisine in 1999.

Together, Palmer and Hayden have maintained a bright halo around Aureole. "Charlie Palmer has a way of feeding you more than you need," wrote Wine Spectator in a recent review (the restaurant scored 91/100), "but he still leaves you wanting more."