Home boy Larry Forgione of An American Place (well, OK, St. Louis also shares him with a little town on the east coast) is one of the featured chefs at the 2009 James Beard Foundation Dinner and Auction, which will be held Wed. Nov. 11 at the Four Seasons Restaurant in that same little town. Forgione will share kitchen duties with an all-star cast: Dan Barber of Blue Hill in NYC; Charlie Palmer of Aureole in NYC and Vegas; Alfred Portale of Gotham Bar and Grill in NYC; and pastry chef Gale Gand of Tru in Chicago, who also happens to be writing the foreword for John Carney’s soon-to-be-released second cookbook. Tix are a mere $450.

On a related note, St. Louis restaurant legend Richard Perry forwarded me a note about the 25th reunion this past weekend of the inaugural group of inductees into the James Beard Who’s Who in American Cooking. The relation? Both Forgione and Perry were on the list, along with St. Louis native Judy Rodgers. Here’s the astounding entire list:

Len Allison, Colman Andrews, Richard Arrowood, Ella Brennan, Dick Brennan, Laura Chenel, Julia Child, Craig Claiborne, Marion Cunningham, Marcel Desaulniers, Paul Draper, Dafne Engstrom, Mats Engstrom, Michael Foley, Larry Forgione, Richard Graff, Jeff Hvid, Barbara Kafka, Paul Keyser, Edna Lewis, Michael McCarty, Mark Miller, Robert Mondavi, Marian Morash, James Nassikas, Patrick O’Connell, Richard Perry, Steve Poses, Paul Prudhomme, Wolfgang Puck, Justin Rashid, Ruth Reichl, Seppi Renggli, William Rice, Michael Roberts, Judy Rodgers, Jimmy Schmidt, John Sedlar, Lydia Shire, Gordon Sinclair, Jeremiah Tower, William Tuttle, Patricia Unterman, Alice Waters, Jonathan Waxman, Nahum Waxman, Jasper White, Barry Wine.