At Four Seasons Napa Valley, New Chef Evan Neumann Earns Auro Its Fourth Consecutive Michelin Star

At the Michelin Guide California ceremony in San Diego on June 24, 2026, Auro at Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley earned a Michelin star for a fourth consecutive year, its first under Executive Chef Evan Neumann. The kitchen has a sharper, more refined point of view now: contemporary American cuisine built on French technique and a Japanese influence, with Napa Valley ingredients leading every plate. No other restaurant in Calistoga holds a star.

An Evening Worth Remembering

Rogelio Garcia opened Auro in 2022 and earned its first star eight months later. After he stepped away, Four Seasons took time to select the right chef before entrusting the kitchen to Neumann, who joined in April. From the reopening, the team shared a single intention: to give every guest an evening worth remembering, and to honour the standard the star represents. Sous Chefs Lika Nevarez and Luis Patino held the kitchen steady, and when Neumann arrived in April the team built the new menu together, course by course. Confident in the work, the kitchen let the Michelin Guide know it had a new leader at the pass. The inspectors returned within months, and the star remained.

“You inherit a kitchen. You don’t inherit a Michelin star. We had under three months before the inspectors returned, and every service counted. I’m proud of what this team put on every plate,” says Evan Neumann, Executive Chef of Auro.

“When there is a chef change at this level, you expect the kitchen to feel the transition. This one never did. Evan joined us in April and found his stride immediately, alongside a tenured, talented culinary team already in place,” says Robby Delaney, General Manager of Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley.

From the Coast through the Farm to the Vineyard

Neumann’s new dish, Razor Clam: From the Valley to the Shoreline, sets the whole idea on one plate. Wild California razor clams come off the coast. A sauce smoked over dried Napa Valley vine shoots, with local verjuice for lift, brings in the vineyard. Coastal seaweeds and fennel tie them together, finished with finger lime and sea beans. The plate reads as a conversation between land and sea.

French technique and a Japanese influence anchor the menu. A sea scallop arrives with Japanese curry sabayon, sake gel, farm-grown charred broccolini, and a delicate genmaicha tuile, a balance of richness, freshness, and umami. A pre-dessert follows, built around Marshall’s Farm honey and Gipson Golden bee pollen and expressed through a bavarois, crémeux, crisp tuile, lemon thyme emulsion, and a touch of olive oil, a nod to the purity of the Napa Valley season before the final course.

“Everything starts with the ingredient. The clam from the coast, the herbs from the farm, the vine shoots from the vineyard, they tell me what a dish wants to be. We are early here, and I can’t wait to see where this kitchen goes,” says Neumann.

The aim reaches past technique. In the guest reviews, one note repeats: people remember how the meal made them feel, and how it connected them to Napa Valley. That sense of place, and the memories guests carry with them, is what the kitchen is after, course by course.

From Avignon to Calistoga

Neumann grew up in Avignon and entered his first professional kitchen at 14. He trained at the École Hôtelière d’Avignon and became an executive chef at 21, a rank few reach at that age in France. The decade that followed took him through some of the world’s most demanding kitchens. He trained under Joël Robuchon at Hôtel Métropole Monte-Carlo before joining Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée in Paris, where he worked the cooking and sauce stations. He later served as sous chef to Anne-Sophie Pic at La Dame de Pic, Le 1920 at Four Seasons Hotel Megève, where the restaurant earned its first Michelin star during his time. In New York, he became executive sous chef at Daniel Boulud’s Restaurant Daniel before leading the kitchen at Essential by Christophe as chef de cuisine in Manhattan, where it earned a Michelin star under his leadership. Across those kitchens, he has cooked in restaurants holding a combined eleven Michelin stars.

At the Table

Resort Beverage Manager Derek Stevenson, a 2026 James Beard Award semi-finalist for Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service, runs a wine program of more than 4,400 bottles across 750 labels, recognized in Wine Spectator’s 2026 Restaurant Awards with its Best of Award of Excellence, the program’s fourth consecutive year of the honour. He begins with Napa Valley and its local growers, then reaches to rare Old World finds, drawn most to the stories told less often. The list favours the people behind the bottle as much as the place in the glass.

Savour the Stars

Set within a world-class Napa Valley vineyard, the Savour the Stars package pairs an overnight stay with a Michelin-starred dinner for two at Auro, the Signature Tasting Menu with wine pairing curated by James Beard Award semi-finalist Derek Stevenson. Available for select dates through March 31, 2027. To book, call 707 709 2100 or click here.

Auro is open Wednesday through Saturday from 5:00 to 9:00 pm. Reservations are available online or by calling 707 709 2160.

Auro shares updates on Instagram at auronapavalley and through the resort’s monthly newsletter.