Dishing It Out for a Museum

Last year, chef Jean-Louis Palladin arrived late, fresh from cooking up a storm for George Bush. This year, chef Alain Ducasse will leave earlier than planned, to whip up fare for Prince Rainier.

Both chefs--Palladin performs culinary miracles at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, Ducasse at Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo--will be on the menu at “Art of Dining II,” a nine-course feast on March 27 to benefit the Newport Harbor Art Museum.

Joining Palladin and Ducasse in the kitchen at the Four Seasons hotel in Newport Beach will be Michel Richard, chef at L.A.’s hot Citrus restaurant; Joaquim Splichal of the posh Regency Club in L.A.; Andre Mandion of Patisserie Mandion in Biarritz, France; Gerhard Michler, formerly of Restaurant 101 in San Francisco; Jimmy Schmidt of the Rattlesnake Club in Denver, and Michel Pieton of the Four Seasons, Newport Beach.

Event chairman Sam Goldstein promises more than $35,000 in wines will be served at the $250-per-person affair. Dinner begins with wild pheasant mousse by Pieton and ends with chocolates by Mandion.

Speaking of the Four Seasons: Chef Esther Carpenter--who only last week created her mouthwatering lobster-crabmeat strudel for President Reagan in Regency Club owner David H.Murdock’s L.A. manse--left her culinary post at the Four Seasons two weeks ago to begin her own apparel firm.

Dubbed Etouffe, French for stew, the line will showcase fashion for women chefs. “There’s really never been chef’s clothes for women,” said Carpenter, who resides in Irvine. “And now, women comprise 30 to 40% of the industry’s manpower.”

And, speaking of the Newport Harbor Art Museum: Renzo Piano, architect for the museum’s new, $20-million facility, will come from Genoa, Italy, to join museum trustees when they fly to San Francisco for a retreat March 11-13.

The group will hole up at the Portman Hotel “to work on our building program and capital drive,” said museum director Kevin Consey, who along with museum development director Margie Shackelford will accompany the board.

“The Portman hotel is contributing the rooms,” Consey said. “And American Airlines is picking up the round-trip tickets.” Lucille Kuehn, former museum board member, does community relations for the Portman, which Kuehn describes as “brand new, small and elegant.”

My fair lady: A picture of Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder superimposed upon a picture of the U.S. Capitol graces the invitation to Wieder’s first fund-raiser on behalf of her bid for the 42nd Congressional District seat.

“It would be nice to have a lady in the ‘House’ ” is printed at the bottom of the card, which asks supporters to have cocktails and dinner on March 10 at the Old Ranch Country Club in Seal Beach.

Why “lady” and not “woman” in the house? “I regard all women as ladies,” said Irv Wieder, Harriett’s husband, who said the slogan, a play on “it’s so nice to have a man around the house,” was his idea. “Traditionally, women are referred to by men with a certain amount of chivalry. When you think of chivalry, you think of ladies. Lady Macbeth, Lady so and so . . . the whole history of the relationship between men and women. Harriett loved it.”

Irv is involved in Harriett’s campaign as one of her “strategists,” he said. “Yes, I’m part of the team.”

And if Daniel E. Lungren--who holds the 42nd Congressional spot--is not approved for state treasurer? “Then supporters who attend the dinner will have their money ($500 per person) refunded,” said Jackie Campbell of Los Angeles, who, along with being Harriett’s political manager, has been Lungren’s for 10 years.

A royal visit: Judy Rosener, assistant dean of UC Irvine’s graduate school of management, will dine in the company of the Duke and Duchess of York (Prince Andrew and the former Sarah Ferguson, who arrive in Los Angeles today and depart March 6) when she attends a luncheon at Bullocks Wilshire in Los Angeles on Monday.

The luncheon will mark the opening of the Asprey Exhibition “Magic, Music and Motion”--an assemblage of elegant jewelry, watches, clocks and boxes.

Rosener, invited to attend because of her board position with KCET, Channel 28, will watch the royal couple cut the exhibit ribbon along with celebs such as Vincent Price, Michael York, Lloyd Bridges, George Peppard and Morgan Fairchild.

How does Barbara Walters dress for success?With a touch of flash. Her speech in Crystal Court at South Coast Plaza on Tuesday may have been lackluster, but a chunky gold watch and diamond and ruby tennis bracelets glittered on the left wrist of the first woman to regularly co-anchor a network news program. Two strands of baroque pearls swung from her white turtleneck sweater and good-size pearl earrings graced her ears, almost hidden by her wavy, shoulder-length hair. Walters’ wedding ring was conservative, just a sliver of gold. But the length of her Alcott & Andrews’ plaid skirt was decidedly liberal for a woman in her 50s--it hovered at the tippy-top of her very girlish knees.