Chef Michel Richard -
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"This is Michel Richard, the best chef in the world -- in the whole world," the sommelier says with practiced fanfare.

All eyes turn to a round, balding, bearded Frenchman who looks like Santa Claus wearing a slightly rumpled white chefs jacket. "Hes not biased," the chef says of the sommelier, who works for him at his internationally acclaimed Georgetown restaurant, Michel Richard Citronelle.

Full article from the Washington Post:

Inside, four young members of the resorts waitstaff look nervous. The curtain is about to rise on a manmade spectacle. "Come closer," Michel coos encouragingly to a shy waiter. "Be part of us."

Soon, two dozen well-heeled food and wine lovers will negotiate the perilous switchbacks of a mountain road to attend a special dinner featuring seven courses of Michels celebrated food paired with fine wine in the weekend-long Jackson Hole Wine Auction, an exclusive event in a nation obsessed with good living through fine dining.

The diners coming here tonight have paid $5,000 a couple for the weekend. "Its like nothing to these people," the sommelier, Mark Slater, tells the servers. "They know their food, and they know their wine. We are going to have a fun time tonight. Were friendly people."

"I am," Michel cracks to his sommelier. "Sometimes, you are not." Michel turns serious only when describing in minute detail each of the dishes the staff is about to serve. "You have the flavor of the country," the chef says dreamily about a morel and porcini sauce that will accompany a fish course. "When you taste the sauce, you really feel as if you are on top of the mountain." But mountains dont materialize by themselves. Its time to cook them up. Michel wanders off to the resorts kitchen to continue last-minute preparations.

Some celebrity chefs have spent more time becoming household names than actually cooking. They have signed lucrative contracts, lending their names to several restaurants they visit only now and then. They have hawked everything from frying pans to spice mixes. Michel has devoted much of the last decade to creating obsessively perfect food at one restaurant: Citronelle in Georgetown.

He has spent 44 years standing on his feet long hours in hot kitchens to cook his way into the top ranks of cuisine. Among the worlds chefs, he is one of the most respected and most emulated. He is known both as a rare culinary wit -- his trompe loeil dishes can make diners laugh -- and a superior technician who understands food so well that he manipulates ingredients in unconventional ways to realize his artistic vision. His accomplishments have won him numerous awards and accolades. Along with Washingtons other elite chefs, such as Roberto Donna of Galileo and Patrick OConnell of the Inn at Little Washington, he has been recognized by the prestigious James Beard Foundation. He has been nominated for the foundations coveted best or outstanding chef awards five times, including this year. In 1992, the foundation named him the best chef in California. Michel was selected for the first season of "Chefs Story," an upcoming television series of interviews with Americas top chefs. Robert Parker, the nations premier wine authority, calls Michel "a great chef, who is cooking at a level that far exceeds any Michelin three-star chef in France."