EX-SAGA CHIEF HAS SOME NEW IDEAS IN THE OVEN

When last we heard from Laurence B. Mindel in mid-October, he had resigned as president and chief operating officer of the Saga Corp. Restaurant Group and was planning “to take the rest of the year off to examine all the exciting possibilities out there.”

Well, the rest of the year in question is long gone by now, and Mindel--who, as co-founder and director of Spectrum Foods (which Saga subsequently bought), helped create and run such successful and high-quality restaurants as Chianti, Harry’s Bar & American Grill, Prego and MacArthur Park--has apparently done enough examining for a while.

Last month, he became chairman of, and major stockholder in, the Il Fornaio Italian-style bakery chain. His new bailiwick includes 11 retail stores in California (the original Il Fornaio chain in Italy, from which the U.S. chain derives, boasts about 1,000 stores in every corner of the country) and two large wholesale bakeries in San Francisco and Beverly Hills, supplying the stores and selling as well to numerous restaurants (including, ironically, many of the Spectrum properties) and upscale food stores. Two of the Il Fornaio units, including the one in Beverly Hills, have modest restaurants attached--raising an obvious question: Does Mindel, who has done so well with Italian eateries in the past, plan to expand this aspect of the Il Fornaio operation?

“It would be premature at this point to make any plans in that direction,” he said. “Right now, I’m just going to spend the next six months putting a management team together.”

RECIPE RIGHTS: Two weeks ago in this column, I reported that about 40 top French chefs--fellows with names like Guerard, Senderens and Maximin--had been complaining about other chefs stealing their recipes and had called for some sort of recipe copyright procedure. At the time, I told you what I thought of the idea--which was, in short, that it was pretty darned silly. It occurred to me, though, that perhaps I ought to ask some of our city’s own top chefs what they thought about the possibility of recipe copyrighting, and about the whole issue of recipe “thievery” in the first place. Here are some of their comments:

Susan Feniger (co-chef and co-owner, with Mary Sue Milliken, of the Border Grill and the City Restaurant in Hollywood): “You get ideas wherever you can get them in cooking. That’s just the way it is. Anyway, I think chefs who feel fulfilled by what they’re doing take imitation as a compliment.”

Michael Roberts (executive chef and co-owner of Trumps in West Hollywood): “The whole idea of recipe copyrighting is just too small-minded for words. Everything’s public domain as far as I’m concerned. Besides, it’s impossible to literally copy anybody else’s dishes. Any chef who makes a dish is going to make it differently from everybody else.”

Joe Venezia (executive chef at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel): “I’m more flattered than anything if somebody uses one of my recipes. But the truth is, that there aren’t that many really new recipes in the first place: You think you’ve come up with something completely original, then you look in Escoffier and there it is.”

Roland Gilbert (former executive chef at Bernard’s in the Biltmore Hotel downtown and now holding the same post at the new Radisson Plaza Hotel in Manhattan Beach): “Which one of us can really pretend that we’ve actually invented anything? If you read enough books, you always find that somebody else thought of it first. But if I copy a dish that another chef has popularized, I will mention the name of the chef--and I will try to copy it as best I can, out of respect for him.”

Wolfgang Puck (executive chef and co-owner of Spago in West Hollywood and Chinois on Main in Santa Monica): “The patent office would go crazy if chefs tried to copyright their recipes! The field is just too big. And, anyway, why shouldn’t chefs be able to use what they’ve learned from other chefs? If you learn something in school, you are free to use it later--why not if you learn something in the kitchen?

“You know, when I was working in Austria a long time ago, it was the pastry chefs who were always so jealous of their recipes. One pastry chef in particular would tell me to add five things to a recipe, then I would have to move to another part of the kitchen while he added two more so that I wouldn’t see him. This chef used to hide his recipe book, and one day, for fun, we stole it. He called the police. When they arrived and the situation was explained, they just started laughing; they thought the idea of a chef being that way about his recipes was so funny.”

NEW TABLES IN TOWN: Bahia Caporales (“El Rey de los Mariscos”) is new on Pico near La Cienega. . . . Tommy Lasorda’s Ribs and Pizza Restaurant will open this week in Marina del Rey. . . . Kikka in the Rodeo Collection in Beverly Hills has debuted with an all-you-can-eat Japanese/Chinese/American theme--$5.99 at lunch and $10.99 at dinner, including valet parking. . . . Chick’s has opened in Encino, featuring rotisserie chicken, barbecued ribs, salads and the like. . . . Whizza is new in West Hollywood, serving take-out, well, whizzas (as in “wheat” and “pizza”), which must be sampled to be understood. . . . And Toi (which is Thai) on Sunset in Hollywood is open for business, offering, in addition to the regular menu, a light Thai pasta menu into the wee hours on Fridays and Saturdays.

TIDBITS: Rebecca’s in Venice has added 25 or 30 new items to its menu (including minced shrimp empanadas of celestial quality). . . . Knoll’s Black Forest Inn in Santa Monica celebrates its 27th anniversary this month. . . . El Cholo in Orange presents a $35-per-person “Ensenada Night,” featuring live Maine lobster (an Ensenada standby?), mariachi music, Corona beer, etc., on Wednesday. . . . And a special sushi-making class will be held at the New Otani Hotel, downtown, next Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m. Tickets are $9 in advance, $10 at the door.