LAZAROFF SANS PUCK = INDIAN WELLS’ ZAPOTEC

In the European “mom-and-pop” (or husband-and-wife) restaurant tradition, one half of the couple--usually the man--is hidden away in the kitchen while the other half serves as maitre (or maitresse ) d’hotel and/or keeps a hawk eye on the receipts.

Los Angeles’ own most prominent restaurant twosome of the moment, Wolfgang Puck and Barbara Lazaroff (of, it scarcely need be said, Spago and Chinois on Main), do things a bit differently: He is indeed often in the kitchen, but the kitchen is out in plain sight; often, too, he is not in the kitchen, but working on one project or another (like a new line of frozen pizzas) or off in Tokyo, Texas or New York attending to one important corporate client or another.

She, meanwhile, functions not as manager or watchdog, but as restaurant designer and visual coordinator, detail-person and all-around animating spirit. This obviously doesn’t give her enough to do.

Lazaroff’s latest endeavor is a $2-million, free-standing restaurant adjacent to the $80-million Grand Champion Resort scheduled to open early next year in Indian Wells, a few sand dunes down from Palm Springs. The big surprise, though, is that she is doing not just the interiors and related design but the architecture, the “food concept” and even the initial hiring. She calls the new place Zapotec, after the Mexican Indian tribe of the same name, which hails from the vicinity of Oaxaca.

“It’s not going to be just a Mexican restaurant, though,” she says. “There’ll be some Mexican dishes, but also tapas , some Southwestern food and some contemporary Latin American things, including dishes from Chile and Peru.” There also, she says, will be a “salsa room” serving up nightly Latin entertainment and light food. What there will not be, everyone involved is swearing, is any participation whatsoever by Mr. Puck. This is completely Lazaroff’s baby, she says, as she plans food-finding trips to Spain, Mexico, and South America. “In fact,” she says, “it was either this or have a baby.”

WHAT’S COOKIN’: A special eight-course Iraqi dinner will be offered next Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at Saadoun’s Cuisine of Baghdad in Costa Mesa, with proceeds going to the Fund for Afghan Refugees, to aid Afghanis who have fled the Soviet invasion of their homeland. The meal is $25 per person, with a no-host bar and live entertainment. Information: (213) 823-6636. . . . The Cafe Plaza in the Century Plaza Hotel begins a two-week “Mexican Fiesta” tomorrow, featuring specialties prepared by Celedonia Herrera, sous-chef at the Camino Real Hotel in Mexico City. . . . Ravel, in the Sheraton Grande Hotel downtown, inaugurates a series of monthly “Grande Evening” dinners Friday with a five-course feast including baby artichoke hearts stuffed with bleu cheese and grilled noisettes of venison, at $40 per person (or $55 with wine). . . . La Tasca is new in Encino, specializing in seafood. . . . John C. Groene and Robert Blaisch are about to launch Menagerie, described as an “Appetizer Dining Bar” (what hath Primi wrought?) on Motor Avenue in Palms near Culver City. . . . And from back Gotham way comes word that Barcelona/New York restaurant personality Montse Guillen has sold her rather new and very trendy El Internacional and is looking into the possibility of opening a smaller, quieter Catalan restaurant in another Manhattan location.

EGGS ‘N’ SUCH: Unless you’re a very late sleeper, you’ve probably still got time to put on your Easter bonnet and hop on down the bunny trail to one of the many local eating places doing something special to gastronomically celebrate the holiday today. Among them are: Pierre’s Los Feliz Inn, with a $12.95 champagne brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Gaylord’s in North Hollywood, with champagne brunch and complete Easter dinners; Anna’s in Sherman Oaks, with a buffet champagne brunch; the Wildwood in Calabasas, where Easter brunch and holiday dinners will be served; Cafe Pierre in Manhattan Beach, where the champagne (or sangria, or orange juice) brunch starts early, at 9:30 a.m.; Buster’s in Buena Park, where things start even earlier, at 9 a.m.; Knoll’s Black Forest Inn in Santa Monica, where $18 will get you a particularly fancy repast and the Belle-Vue (which is currently celebrating its 49th anniversary) in Santa Monica, where a full-scale traditional Easter dinner will be offered from 12:30 p.m.

FROM SCRATCH: Dining out is always a bit of a gamble, but it is now literally so at the Acapulco and Los Arcos restaurants in Southern California: with every order of fajitas at one of the chain’s 21 locations, you will be given a free California Lottery ticket.