Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley has appointed Evan Neumann as Executive Chef of Auro, the resort’s Michelin-starred restaurant. Neumann, whose career spans the kitchens of Joël Robuchon, Alain Ducasse, Anne-Sophie Pic, and Christophe Bellanca, assumes leadership of Calistoga’s only Michelin-starred dining room this April.
A New Chapter for Auro
Auro has held a Michelin star every year since 2023 — earned just eight months after opening — alongside three consecutive Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence honours and recognition on the Los Angeles Times’ 101 Best Restaurants in California list. Under Neumann, the restaurant enters its next chapter: a sharpened focus on Napa Valley terroir, precision-driven execution, and a kitchen culture built on mentorship, discipline, and collaboration.
Neumann’s path began early. He entered the kitchen at 14 in his native Provence and trained formally at the École Hôtelière d’Avignon. By 21, he was an executive chef, an achievement rarely seen at that age in French gastronomy. What followed was a decade spent in some of the most rigorous kitchens in the world. He trained under Joël Robuchon — the chef Gault&Millau named “Chef of the Century” and the most Michelin-decorated chef in history, with thirty-one stars at his peak — at the Hôtel Métropole Monte-Carlo. He then worked the cooking and sauce stations at Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée in Paris, the legendary three-star dining room where Ducasse’s philosophy of “naturalité” demanded absolute precision and restraint.
From there, Neumann served as Sous Chef to Anne-Sophie Pic at La Dame de Pic — Le 1920 at Four Seasons Megève, where the restaurant earned its first Michelin star during his tenure. His move to New York brought him to Restaurant Daniel, the flagship of Daniel Boulud — one of the most influential French chefs working in America — where Neumann served as executive sous chef across the restaurant’s two-Michelin-star operation. He then joined Christophe Bellanca at Essential by Christophe as chef de cuisine. Bellanca, known for his exacting standards and meticulous approach to French cuisine in New York, entrusted Neumann with the kitchen as the restaurant earned a Michelin star.
Neumann joins a kitchen with strong foundations already in place. Sous Chefs Lika Nevarez and Luis Patino bring continuity and deep institutional knowledge to the Auro team. Nevarez, who has been with Auro since the opening, was promoted to Sous Chef after leading the reopening of the restaurant following a six-week closure. Patino, who previously held the Sous Chef role, returns to the team to partner with Nevarez under Neumann’s leadership.
From Provence to Napa Valley
Born in Provence and raised in Avignon, Neumann’s approach was shaped by the markets, olive groves, and culinary traditions of Southern France. His first professional kitchen was La Maison de Bournissac, a Michelin-starred restaurant nestled among the vineyards near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
His travels have deepened that foundation, particularly in Japan, where he explored the culture of umami, precision, and deep respect for the ingredient, principles that directly inspires his cooking at Auro. In Napa Valley, he finds a landscape that mirrors that beginning: agricultural, seasonal, driven by the integrity of what comes from the ground. Outside the kitchen, Neumann is drawn to the water. He is an avid fisherman who finds balance offshore, disconnecting from land and reconnecting with the calm and vastness of the open sea.
At the Table
Guests at Auro will experience a refined seven-course tasting menu of contemporary American cuisine, shaped by French technique and influenced by the flavours of Mexico and Japan. Resort Beverage Manager Derek Stevenson — a 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service — oversees a 750-label wine program with a cellar exceeding 4,400 bottles, featuring dedicated collections from Chris Carpenter, Hundred Acre, and Sine Qua Non.
Auro is open Wednesday through Saturday, 5:00–9:00 pm. Reservations are available online or through OpenTable or directly via 707 709 2160.
