If you were planning on dining at any of the world’s best restaurants this weekend, you’re screwed; your chef is in Chicago.

A dozen of the men (sorry ladies, facts are facts) undoubtedly considered the best chefs of our time are assembling here for Charlie Trotter’s 20th Anniversary extravaganza Saturday, a $5000-a-seat, invitation-only dinner with courses presented by Tetsuya Wakuda, Thomas Keller, Pierre Herme, Heston Blumenthal, Daniel Boulud, Ferran Adria and, of course, Trotter himself, the subject of this week’s TOC cover story.

Other legendary chefs will be in attendance (Wylie Dufresne of WD-50, for instance), as will notable food writers such as Ruth Reichl and Harold McGee. But before the big event on Saturday, 22 of the who’s who in the culinary scene will head to Schwa, the 27-seat-small matchbox of a restaurant where the idea-crazed Michael Carlson will attempt to wow them with 14 courses of signature stunners. Carlson is charting out the menu as we speak, but rattled off favorites like the uni ice cream and the quail egg ravioli as possibilities. We’ll be posting the full menu on the blog Friday, prior to the dinner, but do us a favor and don’t show up outside, nose pressed to the glass for a bit of voyeuristic jealousy. The last time miscreants pulled that during a close-down private party, Carlson and crew chased them off by shooting bottle rockets at them. Not kidding.