"What are you doing New Year's Eve?" crooned Nat King Cole (and Ella Fitzgerald and a few others). For obvious reasons, the refrain from that standard has become the burning question of 1999. For our Last Supper of the Millennium, we know what we're doing-we're throwing a party with lots of glitz, lots of glamour, and more champagne, caviar, and truffles than you can shake a licorice stick at. To help, we've enlisted the fashionable chefs of the Neiman Marcus chain. They haven't been singing standards, they've been setting them in their exclusive eateries in their exclusive stores throughout the country.

Kerry Chace is the first in our lineup for this auspicious eve. Chace trained in Europe at the legendary Ecole Hôtelier in Lausanne. Now he's happily ensconced in Neiman Marcus's Dallas kitchen, where he accents his New American cooking with a variety of ethnic influences.

Like a buyer searching for the latest look, CIA-grad Larry Watson, Neiman Marcus' northeast regional executive chef, has traveled all over the world, picking up flavors to accent his solid, classically French-influenced cuisine. Joining Watson as part of our lineup is his CIA classmate, Ken Hiscock, who worked at the renowned Turnberry Isle Resort in Aventura, Florida, and at Allyn's Restaurant in Roundsman, New York, before taking over Neiman Marcus' fine-dining restaurant Zodiac in White Plains. With Hiscock will be Martin Schanley, a Los Angeles native who honed his skills with such notable chefs as Wolfgang Puck and John Sedlar, before heading East for his present post.

If ever you've lost your will at a trunk show and you've been looking for an excuse to wear that Bill Blass gown or Armani tuxedo, this is your opportunity. The Beard House will be dressed to the nines for this evening of fashion and food. Our philosophy about celebrating the new year (and the new millennium) is to start the night before surrounded by everything we want our year to be full of-foie gras, caviar, lobster, truffles, shrimp, Champagne, chocolate, and fine wine, for example. Book early (and read the cancellation policy above), and we'll guarantee you the start to a wonderful 1,000 years.