Many say Boynton Canyon in Sedona, Arizona, is "God's country." In this spot-long considered sacred by Native Americans-spectacular red-rock monoliths pierce a cerulean blue sky; crystalline streams cut jagged paths through ancient rocks; and in the spring, desert wildflowers bloom in dizzying profusion on the surpassingly lovely canyon floor. Boynton Canyon, is, in short, a place of enchantment, and the luxe Enchantment Resort has made it a place of lavish creature comforts as well. In the kitchen at this award-winning resort, chef Kevin Maguire spins his own webs of enchantment.

A graduate of Johnson & Wales University, Maguire apprenticed at Boston's Copley Plaza Hotel, then trained with some of Beantown's leading culinary lights, including Lydia Shire of Biba and Pignoli, and Jasper White. Maguire went on to run hotel kitchens in Boston, Albuquerque, Minneapolis, and South Africa before arriving at Enchantment Resort in 1995. There, he coddles guests with delectable food that, in its own way, is as restorative as the Anasazi Herbal Sweat Wrap, Desert Flower facials, aromatherapy, meditation classes, and other New Age therapies and exercise regimes for which the resort is known.

Maguire makes skillful use of Southwestern ingredients, and local meats and produce to produce such signature dishes as pistachio-crusted rack of Colorado lamb and molasses-seared elk loin with roasted shallot and blackberry compote. Writing in Food & Wine, Andrew Solomon described his meals at Enchantment Resort as "admirable," while Hoyt Johnson of Sedona Magazine couldn't get enough of Maguire's "outstanding cuisine." In 1998, Condé Nast Traveler included Enchantment on its list of Top 25 North American Resorts. In its roundup of Top 100 Hotels in the United States and Canada, Travel & Leisure gave Enchantment spot number 15. Stats like this aren't possible without first-rate food.

Alas, New York's cliffs are made of steel and cement and its canyons formed by skyscrapers, but happily it isn't just the beauty of the natural setting that makes Enchantment Resort a little bit of heaven on earth; Maguire, too, wherever he is, casts a spell with his seductive cuisine.