Friday, November 8, 12:00 noon
Members $55, guests $65

Since the Victorian era, the food served in Victorian hotels has faded like the silk chintz that covers their walls. But Christopher Hubert, executive chef and owner of the Union Park Restaurant in the Macomber Hotel, is trying to change all that. And even though the room is newly outfitted with elegant chandeliers and stately fireplaces, and the tables are draped with creamy linens and set with heavy silver, don't expect to find appetite-numbing resort fare on the menu. Hubert has gone to great lengths to awaken palates that have been lulled into complacency since the 19th century.

As Eric Asimov wrote in The New York Times, "The chef…builds his food on a classical French foundation, and yet, with its emphasis on seasonal and organic ingredients and even little Asian touches, it feels like the best combination of traditional and contemporary." Examples include the "irresistible" roast-chestnut risotto; "earthy" duck confit encased in wonton wrappers, then pan-fried and served with hot mustard and a mizuna salad; and "creamy and flavorful" noisettes of veal. Asimov was even lured to "the chocolate side of the dessert menu," a highly unusual dining decision for him, for some "thick, sumptuous" chocolate-banana bread pudding and double chocolate semi freddo. But what has had people talking since the mid-'90s is Hubert's signature dish—sesame-crusted yellowfin tuna, which the Atlantic City Press named "the best tuna you will find anywhere."

Hubert began his culinary career at the CIA. After graduating, he held down positions in top-rated restaurants around the country. Most recently, he ran the kitchen at the Ebbitt Room in the Virginia Hotel, also in Cape May. He then went on to Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Hotel, before settling down at Union Park. Among Hubert's various honors, he was named one of the Top 25 Chefs of the Jersey Shore by Atlantic City Magazine, included on New Jersey Monthly's Best of the Best readers' choice poll, and won the national Cervena Venison Plates Competition.