Monday, April 23, 7:00 p.m.
Members $100, guests $125

Once upon a time, Café Boulud was "the single most underrated restaurant in New York City," as Steven Shaw of Edifice Rex put it. Not anymore. And no wonder: since he last graced our 12th Street kitchens in a sold-out debut a year or so back, chef de cuisine Andrew Carmellini has been named 2000 Perrier-Jouët/James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year, an award that came a scant month after he landed a coveted spot on the cover of Food & Wine as one of the year's Ten Best New Chefs. But it's not just the awards that are packing Daniel's casual cousin on 76th Street: a single bite of Carmellini's sumptuous food is enough to explain why he's such a hit. As Moira Hodgson wrote in the New York Observer, Carmellini's food is nothing short of "wonderful."

This hot young chef is no flash in the culinary pan. At 30, the Cleveland-born CIA grad has been honing his skills on the New York scene for a decade. As Peter Kaminsky wrote in New York, "If chefs were Thoroughbred horses, Andrew Carmellini would have the best bloodlines in town." Carmellini served as private weekend chef to Governor Mario Cuomo while still in school. He wielded a ladle at San Domenico before heading off to Italy, where he worked on the line at the restaurant's legendary Imola cousin for Italian superchef Valentino Marcattilii. Back in New York, 22-year-old Carmellini served as sous-chef/tournant at San Domenico before heading to Gray Kunz's kitchens at Lespinasse, where he was chef de partie when the restaurant earned a four-star review from The New York Times. After a culinary tour of Europe that included stages at Arpège in Paris and Les Saveurs in London, Carmellini signed on as sous-chef at Le Cirque 2000. Another four-star review followed.

In 1998, Daniel Boulud tapped Carmellini for the job at Café Boulud. The following year, John Mariani named Café Boulud to his Esquire list of the country's top 25 restaurants. Writing in Menu, he declared, "The country is ablaze with rising star chefs. I'll put my money on Andrew Carmellini." Gayot gave the restaurant a 16 out of 20 rating, and Zagat named it one of the year's top two newcomers. Meredith Brody of the Los Angeles Times called the food "stunning: perfect in conception, execution, presentation. It's among the best meals of my life anywhere," concluding, "Café Boulud becomes with one meal one of my favorite restaurants on the planet."