You'll no longer find John Barrymore guzzling Champagne at the legendary Pump Room in Chicago. Nor can you see Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart canoodling in the restaurant's legendary Booth One. And Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack holding court at the restaurant is a distant memory. But if the aura of the celebrity-studded days of the Pump Room in the '40s and '50s lives on in the refurbished glamour of the dining room, the continental menu-infamous for its many flambéed items paraded on flaming skewers by waiters-is happily a thing of the past.

When chef Martial Noguier first saw the Pump Room in the Omni Ambassador East Hotel, he was thrilled by the "magical quality of the room." He had no qualms, however, about updating the kitchen, and his efforts have transformed the place into one of Chicago's most exciting restaurants. Noguier trained under many of France's biggest names, including Alain Ducasse, Alain Passard, Jacques Maximin, and Gilles Epié. In the States, he worked with compatriots Michel Richard and Joachim Splichal, gleaning much from their Californian culinary leanings and their restaurants' Hollywood glitz. He first came to the attention of the restaurant-going public as the chef of Richard's Citronelle's in Santa Barbara and Washington, and later at the famed Jumby Bay Island Resort in Antigua.

Celebrities still flock to the Pump Room, but these days they enjoy sophisticated dishes like roasted Chilean sea bass with vegetable bouillabaisse and tapenade, which John Mariani described as a "flavor epiphany," or beef tenderloin with Yukon gold potatoes and Zinfandel reduction, which he dubbed "superb." Chicago praised "the sensational double whammy of a thick nutmeg-scented potato gratin disk atop a mound of silky mashed potatoes" (the potatoes accompany a New York strip steak), which proves Noguier can "elevate spuds to the sublime."

If the ghost of James Beard is lingering at 12th Street, we know he'll be thrilled to mingle with the spirits of the Pump Room's glamorous past. And if you're lucky enough to snag a reservation to this dinner, you won't be disappointed by its delicious present.