Arnaud Berthelier/credit: AJC

Current chef Arnaud Berthelier’s French cuisine has graced the Dining Room since 2005, incorporating Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and North African flavors with modern French style. Playful and creative, he was never shy about pushing the envelope, from creating flavorful foams to cooking short ribs sous vide, trapping the vapor to be released from under a glass dome tableside. Bread baking is another of his specialties, and he created 10 recipes for the Dining Room. He was twice nominated for a James Beard Award during his tenure. He is leaving Atlanta to work at the Peninsula Shanghai.

Bruno Menard/credit: AJC

Bruno Ménard, chef from 2001 to 2005, was lauded for his modern French cuisine with delicate Japanese nuances. He came from a famous chocolate-making family in France, and the refined art of the confectioner showed in much of  his cooking, particularly his lavish desserts. He left the Dining Room to work for L’Osier in Tokyo.

Joel Antunes/credit: AJC

From 1997 to 2001, Joel Antunes presented progressive French cuisine with Thai and other Asian influences to diners. His cooking was noted for its fresh, innovative approach, pairing modern technique with the classics. He left the Dining Room to open his eponymous restaurant, Joel (now Joel Brasserie). After opening the renovated Oak Room in New York’s Plaza Hotel, he is purportedly planning to open a brasserie with famed French patissier Pierre Herme in London.

Guenter Seeger is perhaps the Dining Room’s most lauded chef, and worked for the famed room the longest, from 1985 to 1996, the year he won the James Beard Award for best chef in the Southeast. He left to open Seeger’s, which closed in 2006. He is currently working as a food consultant in New York.

Guenter Seeger/credit: AJC