The Last Supper: Beau MacMillan Dishes Up Gluttony for XII at elements

By Wynter Holden Mon., Jul. 19 2010 at 10:30 AM

Categories: Events

Chef Beau MacMillan laughs it up with guests at XII's raw bar.

Forget the Biblical connotations of dinner for twelve hosted by a food guru -- XII, the private dining room at Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain's elements restaurant would be an amazing site for any culinary disciple's last meal.

Escargot en croute at XII.

Inside XII, Iron Chef winner and Food Network's Worst Cooks in America co-host Chef Beau MacMillan is able to break from the restaurant's standard menu and create a whopping twelve course gourmet dinner for special guests.

Last Thursday, we were able to preview a slightly smaller version of the XII experience. Of course, we snapped enough food porn to make you salivate twelve times over.

More on XII -- and the secret about Chef Beau Mac you've been dying to know -- after the jump.

Velvet-backed chairs and a stone table make for a sumptuous dining room.

XII is spectacular, with shimmery drapes, funky convex mirrors and a whimsical chandelier made up of small blown glass globes (or as my dining companions cheekily dubbed them, tiny bubbles). Slide the massive wall of glass doors open and guests can mingle at a raw bar in the kitchen right next to the chefs. It's definitely a one-of-a-kind experience.

Chef Beau with his mentor.

Chef Beau was thrilled to finally be at home in his customized professional kitchen after months of schlepping back and forth between the resort's catering kitchen during the extensive renovation period. He was also a little nervous -- not about cooking for the media folks, but about serving his mentor, Chef Francois de Melogue. He needn't have worried. Chef Francois, who now works in the tasting room at Claudia Springs Winery in California, couldn't have been more complimentary.

In between courses, Chef Beau told a touching story about how he spent decades desperately trying to track down the man who inspired his cooking. He also told us how Chef Francois once called him "a dipshit" for forgetting a bunch of sauce recipes and willfully withheld the formula for the mushroom cream sauce young Beau was always begging for -- but that was all in good fun, of course.

As was the bit about Beau being gay, we can presume. "It's my coming out party," MacMillan quipped as he looked doe-eyed at his mentor. Hmm... we always wondered. After a few chuckles and a reminder about Francois' lovely wife, everyone's attention turned back to the food.