Saturday, February 2, 7:00 P.M.
Members $85, guests $110

Supermodels, rollerblades, early-bird specials, neon-trimmed Art Deco buildings, Cubano sand-wiches, drivers who can't see over the dashboard of their 1970 Cadillacs: these are some of the images Miami evokes in the minds of people who don't know any better. The reality is a cosmopolitan city that attracts an international clientele who know a thing or two about how to live well. The most discerning travelers skip the trendy South Beach boutique hotels-where service usually plays second fiddle to atmosphere-and check into The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. Besides the pedigreed guest list and a gigantic swimming pool that Travel & Leisure called one of the most beautiful in the world, a main attraction is La Palme d'Or, a restaurant that Miami Herald critic Viviana Carballo called "sublime-distinctive, creative in its unique way of being classic and modern all at once."

At the head of the team responsible for the accolades is Geoffrey Cousineau, executive chef of the hotel. Cousineau trained at the CIA, and completed his world culinary tour the most efficient way possible, as part of the opening team of Epcot in 1982. He owned his own restaurant in Lake Tahoe, and later took charge of the kitchens at the landmark Arizona Biltmore, where the hotel's main dining room, Wright's, is named for Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the property. In Wine Spectator, John Mariani said Cousineau's arrival had "shaken Wright's free of its modest reputation for continental dining," and elevated it to "more than a dining experience."

Philippe Ruiz is the French-born chef de cuisine of La Palme d'Or, the chef Carballo called "brilliant" in her effusive review. Ruiz attended hotel school in Bonneville, France, and completed his apprenticeship with Georges Blanc. He worked at the Michelin-starred Château de Divonne in France, and at Le Chat Botte and Le Vieux Moulin in Geneva, before coming to North America. The legendary La Samanna on St. Martin was lucky to get this innovative young cook early on in his career. But the electricity and sophisticated clientele of Miami beckoned. (Upon his arrival at the Biltmore, a magazine in France ran an article about the concentration of fine French chefs at the hotel.)

Sweetening the team is the hotel's executive pastry chef, Marcos Gonzalez. A graduate of the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, Gonzalez is a native of Peru. He consulted for the grand Casona de los Conderos hotel in Lima and worked at the Palace Restaurant and Rio Grande in Sunnyvale, California, before coming to the Miami Biltmore in 2000.