The appearance of the celebrity chef and the obvious over supply of high-end restaurant seats has bred an interesting and very underestimated breed of professionals. Today's chef-owners are every bit as talented as the average CEO. They run complex, often multi-million dollar businesses that have sophisticated business models and a very unforgiving client base (you and me). Added to this is their need to perform on cue and to make everything they do look easy and unhurried. It takes money, talent, luck and determination to make a restaurant successful. Probably not the thing to try on a casual basis using your 401k fund as seed money.

Starting a fine-dining restaurant is somewhat like one of those reality shows about hopeful and aspiring singers. Many line up for stardom, most are rudely dismissed by the dining public and only a few go on to become mega-successful and often mega-wealthy in the process. The very best chefs stand out because they deliver something very special. As I review each restaurant, I look for just that special magic ingredient. Perhaps its the menu or maybe the attention to detail. Sometimes its the service or the adherence to a classical restaurant style. Not matter what, you know it when you see it and taste the results.

This week we started our Dallas edition and I spent the week going from place to place in Dallas shooting food pictures and interviewing chefs. Dallas is a booming foodies paradise. There seems to be about three restaurants for every adult (actually the are around 12,000, but who's counting?). One of our first ports-of-call was “Aurora” a New American style restaurant with European influences restaurant. The outside held no clue to the wonders that lay within and let me tell you wonders there were.

Aurora is a relatively new restaurant, opened by Avner Samuel and his wife. It is beautifully decorated with suede leather wall hangings, gorgeous leather couches and subtle lighting. It feels elegant and refined. The Christofle silverware and Limoges china literally gleam. Over half the space, in what is already a modestly sized establishment is given over to the open kitchen. Separating the dining area of twelve or so tables from the kitchen is a glass wall decorated with delightful art-nouveau style etching. Behind that glass lies a custom made kitchen gleaming with copper and stainless steel. This is the extraordinary thing, the kitchen is the stage and the dining area the seats for a performance of culinary mastery.

Avner is one of the few chef-owners who start a new fine-dining restaurant that is almost certainly destined to ascend to the very pinnacle of his profession (remember you read it here first). His fanatical attention to detail, his total mastery of the kitchen and the wonderful food that he prepares every night make this a real destination place to eat in Dallas.

The food is not cheap, the portions are appropriately modest, but the food is divine. As you watch each meal being plated by Avner and his talented assistants, you realize that this really is theater and the arrival of your food the magical climax of the show. This place is a superlative restaurant that, thanks to Avner, offers food and wine in luxurious surroundings that are second to none.

So this is one of those special places. How can you find the one near you? Simple check out the Restaurant Review search engine and read up on a restaurant first before you go. You can also trust your own judgment. We are all much better food critics than we think. You know when the service is not quite right, when the cadence of the meal is disrupted by a long wait or your wine is served at the wrong temperature. We often say that every restaurant has its off days and that we are dealing with a natural product that sometimes goes wrong, but its the way the restaurant handles that problem that matters. All too often you leave a restaurant with a sense that it could have been better. Places like Aurora leave you only thinking about how to plan another trip. Its what fine dining should be. The place is just a little more addictive than the average street drug – so be warned!