Monday, January 28, 7:00 P.M.
Members $85, guests $110

"When you want to be coddled—and swaddled—in sensual enticements, this is the place," said the Naples Daily News of The Dining Room at The Ritz-Carlton, Naples, on Florida’s central coast. "The food is pretty as a picture and delicious." The Monita Extra agreed: its reviewer gave The Dining Room four stars, declaring every dish "a work of art." For connoisseurs of fine French fare touched with the flavors and textures of American regional cuisine, such assessments hardly come as a surprise: after all, the culinarian in charge of the stoves here is Arnaud Berthelier, a French-bred tip-top toque with a truly tasty résumé and a particular way with French sauces and Florida-born food. No wonder the place has won two AAA Five-Diamond awards, two Mobil Four-Star awards, and a top food rating for Central Florida from Zagat since he took over the stoves some two and a half years ago.

Berthelier didn’t mess around with small-scale restaurateuring in the early years of his career. He started right at the top—at Le Louis XV in Monte Carlo, Monaco, to be exact, that shrine to all things culinary presided over by the legendary Alain Ducasse. He served as chef de partie at the much-acclaimed Les Saveurs in London, then crossed the pond to take up a ladle as junior sous-chef to Troy Depuis at the ultra-luxe Lespinasse in Washington, D.C. Back in England, he was a sous-chef at the tony Park Hyatt in London. Then he teamed up with the Ritz-Carlton folks to run the kitchens at The Dining Room in the company’s fabulous outpost in St. Thomas. In July 1999, he assumed the helm at The Ritz-Carlton, Naples. The place has always been an haute favorite among Floridians-in-the-know, but on his watch, as Southwest Florida Business put it, The Dining Room is "a world-class restaurant offering the highest level of cuisine, service and ambiance."

This month, Berthelier brings his classic sensibilities and his way with the bounty of the American tropics to the Beard Foundation. Call it "The Sunshine Coast Goes Gallic"—and book now.