‘Art of Dining’ Soiree Sates Palates, Coffers

Sam and Pam. Get used to the sound.

For the second year in a row, the Gatsbyesque Goldsteins (mention “Sam and Pam” and the cognoscenti know of whom you speak) have put the Newport Harbor Art Museum on the world’s culinary map with “Art of Dining,” a fund-raising feast that lures some of this planet’s hottest chefs and some of this county’s coolest society types.

And, if the swooning heard Sunday night at the Four Seasons hotel in Newport Beach is an indicator, the affair--which had its premiere last April--will be a hot ticket for years to come.

Imagine, if you can, eight breathtaking courses: wild pheasant quenelles, vegetable terrine, consomme with Santa Barbara shrimp, turbot a la Provence, turnips stuffed with wild mushrooms, roast duck, plum wine sorbet and a chocolate honeybee nest, served up to 430 guests at tables glowing with China, gleaming with flatware--14 pieces per place setting--and sparkling with row upon row of crystal wine goblets.

“And to think I had enchiladas from the Price Club last night,” whispered Joan Thagard, a guest at the Goldstein table, taste buds in rapture over the turbot frosted with tomatoes and olive sauce. “I don’t know how the Goldsteins do it.”

How do the Goldsteins do it?

“I’m half crazed all the time,” said Sam Goldstein, dinner chairman, taking a breather before guests arrived. “I love giving parties. And, Pam keeps me on the straight and narrow; she’s my leveling force.”

“On the way over, he was already planning next year’s dinner,” said Pam, a museum board member, elegant in emerald Thai silk. “That’s absolutely insane!

“I said, ‘Let’s just try to get through tonight, darling.’ ”

The idea for the gala, which at $250-per-person netted $60,000, came to Sam two years ago when he noticed that newspaper articles kept popping up about world-class chefs performing culinary magic for charity.

“I was reading about a lot of chef parties in the Los Angeles area,” he said. So Sam, museum development chairman at the time, contacted Joachim Splichal, superchef/consultant at L.A.’s Regency Club.

The rest is culinary history.

Along with the Goldsteins, Splichal helped coordinate chefs for Sunday’s event--chefs who, after guests savored their final nibble of chocolate honeybee nest crowned with a spun sugar bee, strode into the ballroom to a standing ovation.

On the scene: museum director Kevin Consey with Susan; Brenda and Robert Currie, who provided food commentary; Kathleen and Michael Mercado, donor of the $35,000 worth of wine; video mogul Stuart Karl with Deborah (who stashed four sugar bees into her evening bag for their two boys); Jane and Earl Hamner (author of “The Homecoming,” the basis for television’s “The Waltons,” which he created); Judy and Rogue Hemley, museum board chairman; Jerry and Sandy Beigel (a Victorian vision in lace and trailing lavender taffeta); George Thagard; Judie and George Argyros; Cheryl Iverson with Beverly Hills attorney Max Fink; Pat and Carl Neisser; Lillian Fluor; Susan and Michael Porter, and Joan and Don Beall, CEO of Rockwell International.