Long gone are the days when eating in Boston meant baked beans and brown bread, or, heaven forfend, bad French food. This New England city has experienced a culinary rebirth, and a few of our friends are coming to town to celebrate. This isn't a tea party we're throwing, it's a gala dinner showcasing some of the best chefs in the country, and even a few from faraway lands.

Our host is Clio chef Ken Oringer, a CIA graduate who impressed diners at Silks in San Francisco's Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Tosca in Hingham, Massachusetts before opening what Boston magazine crowned the best new restaurant of 1997. Café Atlántico and Jaleo chef José Andrés is coming from Washington, D.C., no doubt with a few culinary surprises in his bag. At the Beard House last month, this culinary maverick used Altoid powder and Pop Rocks in his creative cooking, inspired by the mind-bending cuisine of his mentor Ferrán Ádria in Spain's three-star El Bulli. We can only imagine what his course at this feast will behold.

Gourmet globe-trotter Michael Ginor will be there with his Hudson Valley Foie Gras. A bona fide chef in his own right, Ginor is also a Beard Foundation Angel, whose tireless fund-raising efforts help support our myriad endeavors. No square himself, Philip Howard is arriving from The Square in London, where he recently received a second Michelin star for his widely acclaimed inventive interpretations on classic dishes. From Montreal we'll welcome Normand Laprise of Toqué! Considered that city's most accomplished chef by publications like GQ and Food & Wine, Laprise earned three stars last year from our own New York Times for his knife work at the late Cena.

To help enrich the menu, we're counting on Jean-Louis Palladin from Napa in Las Vegas and Palladin in New York. A Gascon native known for his cutting-edge seasonal cuisine, Palladin is counted among the country's, maybe the world's, best chefs. And somewhere not far behind on that list is Nuevo Latino master Douglas Rodriguez, who perked up the taste buds of Manhattan's dining elite while chef at Patria, and whose eagerly awaited Único is bound to afford a uniquely exciting dining experience. To round out the group, we've invited the acclaimed Craig Shelton of the Ryland Inn. The envy of many chefs for his acres of organic gardens, Shelton has built a dining mecca in New Jersey's horse country that Gourmetdeemed worthy of a Michelin star.

These days, the food in Boston is good. But a collection of chefs of this caliber means it's gonna be even better. Reserve early.