Supper for 400 Is a Triumph : ‘Art of Dining’ Affair Defies Dictum, Delights Star Chefs

Sunday night’s “Art of Dining” at the Four Seasons was a succes fou from a culinary viewpoint, but one that is best judged from a certain perspective. Preparing dinner for upward of 400 people is no mean feat, and, as any one of us who has ever attended a wedding, banquet or similarly large-scale dinner can attest, there’s only so much that can be done at these events, no matter who is putting them together.

It just wouldn’t be reasonable to expect, for example, the ecstasy one might experience during dinner at Julia Child’s house, or even, for that matter, from the individual attention of any first-rate chef.

Still, the dinner was nearly flawless in its conception and execution. A lot of people deserve congratulations.

Heading the list of the deserving has to be Joachim Splichal, the German-born chef who has stunned, delighted and provoked Los Angeles area foodies in his various habitats, such as the Regency Club, the Seventh Street Bistro and the all-too-brief Max au Triangle. Splichal acted as coordinating chef for the event.

Also instrumental to the evening was Michael Mercado, a fourth-generation wine entrepreneur. Mercado generously donated the six different wines and spirits, all of his own choosing, which accompanied the eight separate courses that composed the dinner. This was quite an expense: One can only imagine how astronomical the donation would have been had the wines been of the quality one would encounter on celebrity-chef wine lists. Suffice it to say that they weren’t.

The evening’s first course, quenelle of wild pheasant mousse with cranberry sauce, was the creation of Michel Pieton, the executive chef of the Four Seasons Newport. On the plate were three feather-light cylinders of mousse, almost floating in a silken-smooth crimson sauce of cranberries and orange zest. If only Thanksgiving could be like this.

At first, the combination seemed a bit odd, but magically, it worked. The only complaint: The taste of the pheasant in the quenelle did not come through as much as the duck liver used to bind it.

Pieton’s work was followed by something truly wonderful, an eggplant-bell pepper terrine by Michel Richard of Citrus Restaurant in Los Angeles. The mercurial Richard is a master of understatement in cooking, and his food tends to be rich in color and texture.

This terrine required a lot of labor-intensive pepper peeling and eggplant skinning, but the result, 40 terrines for 430 people, was a simple triumph. The terrine, really just layered vegetables sliced into a square and doused with good olive oil and a sauce with green herbs, was almost embarrassingly light.

Accompanying the first two courses was Washington state Chardonnay, a 1986 Columbia Crest, complex, and appropriately on the fruity side.

The next two courses were magnificent. Their creators were two of the young lions of cuisine, Jean-Louis Palladin and Alain Ducasse. Palladin, of Jean-Louis Restaurant in the Watergate in Washington, prepared a magnificent, clarified consomme with red and green cabbage and Santa Barbara shrimps. The consomme was full of the flavors of fine sherry and the tang of the sea, and the shrimps melted in the mouth.

Ducasse, of the Hotel de Paris in Monaco, recently won his second star from France’s bible of the restaurant industry, the Guide Michelin, faster than any chef in history. His offering, a filet of turbot nouvelle Provence, was my favorite dish of the night, again something delicate and light. The dish is basically steamed turbot with two sauces atop it, one of pureed tomato and fennel, the other of shallot and mushroom, in a pool of beurre blanc with black olives. It may have been the only dish to suffer a bit in the long trip from the kitchen to the banquet table, but it still came off beautifully.

These two courses were accompanied by the evening’s star wine, a 1985 Simi Chardonnay, a big wine with oak overtones and a beautiful straw color.

Now it was Splichal’s turn in the spotlight, a place where he obviously feels comfortable. His dish, mini-turnips stuffed with wild mushrooms and parsley sauce, demonstrated his demonic energy. For it, 900 mini-turnips were handpicked at the Chino Ranch and stuffed with a duxelle of mushroom. Think about it.

The lady across from me gushed that the turnips were the best she’d ever had. And the sauce of chanterelle, button mushroom, and shiitake was a real winner.

With it, a Wolf Blass 1986 Sauvignon blanc from Australia was poured. The Australians have been building a big rep recently. They had better hide this one.

The only meat course was prepared by Denver’s Jimmy Schmidt, chef of the Rattlesnake Club and the only American-born chef participating in the menu. Schmidt is French-trained but chose something closer to his roots, a Southwest-influenced roasted duck with achiote and ginger sauce, flanked by three-color polenta.

Achiote (annato seed in English, if that helps) has a strong flavor, and is an acquired taste for many, but the duck was cooked perfectly. The dish didn’t seem on line with the others, but in and of itself could not have been faulted. I can’t say the same for the Christian Brothers 1985 Cabernet Sauvignon that came along, with its gorgeous color and unpleasant nose. Sorry, but nobody at our table had more than a sip or two.

Desserts are the one course you can depend on at a big event. Transporting them is rarely a problem, unless some chef is crazy enough to make souffles. Not likely. San Francisco’s Gerhard Michler, who has worked with some of the best, created an imaginative, colorful plate with a pastry cornet filled with a pale-pink, plum-wine sorbet, perched on beet-red slices of plum compote with cardamom. It was a real refresher, but the chefs weren’t through.

The grand finale, something called chocolate delicacy on a honeybee nest with chicory sauce, was one of the most intricate and delicious desserts I’ve ever seen. More impressive even than the name was a little spun-sugar bee sitting on top of the “nest.” Imagine making 430 of those things. This dessert was created by Andre Mandion, Splichal’s father-in-law.

What a family. What an evening.