Amateurs Take Over at the Stove

Even though tickets were $500 and $5,000 a couple for the gourmet five-course dinner prepared by 27 amateur sous chefs, there was an overflow crowd for Planned Parenthood’s Men’s Dinner XI at DC-3 restaurant in Santa Monica. To accommodate the crowd, 32 volunteered in advance to sit in a side room and one table of eight agreed to dine in the kitchen.

This year, Mickey Bodek chairs the Los Angeles Planned Parenthood Guild. That meant that her husband, Gordon Bodek, automatically became chief sous chef under tutelage of Bruce Marder, DC-3 chef proprietor, and Bill Hufferd, executive chef. The chefs studied assiduously; now they’re experts at fish stew and chocolate souffle pie.

There are lots of prominent names among the new members of The Bachelors: William Howard Ahmanson, Peter Aronson, Geffrey Clark, Whitley Collins, Bradley Farwell, Robert Fuelling, George Hotaling II, Craig Lewis, Peter McDonnell, Chancey Medberry IV, Keith Presher, John Sandberg, Grafton Tanquary III, John Turner and William Haven Williams. Their official Stag Dinner is Dec. 7 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

ON RECORD: Said chairman Tony Moiso: “We got lucky--by birth--because we can enjoy being a part of these traditions of California.” He was speaking to more than 400 at the First Century Families “Neighborhoods of Los Angeles” luncheon at the Regent Beverly Wilshire.

The first speaker, Ann Babcock (great-great-granddaughter of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis), noted that today’s courthouse stands on what was once known as Poundcake Hill. Elita Hotaling (great-granddaughter of Thomas Lorenzo Duque, one-time owner of the San Felipe Rancho of San Diego County) said that Westlake Park, now MacArthur Park, was once the city dump.

Cynthia Forgie Biersteker (great-great-granddaughter of Don Mateo Keller, who owned the 13,000-acre Malibu rancho) said that because of Mrs. Alphonzo Bell’s travels in Italy, many of the roads in Bel-Air, developed by her husband in the 1920s, have Italian nomenclature.

FLIGHT: Barbara and Frank Sinatra’s “Magic Carpet” weekend to benefit the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center at Eisenhower Medical Center takes flight Friday. Former Ambassador (to Belgium) Leonard and Caroline Firestone, Houston’s Mary and Vincent Kickerillo, Susan and Robert Sangster, and Natalie and Danny Schwartz are among couples donating $25,000 for the weekend at Bally’s Las Vegas.

HIGHLIGHTS: Randy Stockwell’s 40th birthday party for his wife, Carolyn. . . .

The 1990 rollout of the Rolls-Royce motor cars at the Regent Beverly Wilshire with president and CEO Howard Mosher demonstrating a triple white Corniche III. . . .

California State University Chancellor W. Ann Reynolds’ party for the American Council for the Arts at her Bel-Air home, including Council President Milton Rhodes and Chairman Gerald Blatherwick. . . .

Villanova Preparatory School in Ojai festivities for the school’s 65th anniversary and William P. Clarke Jr., who’s giving a gymnasium. . . .

The Music Center dinner for its new grand patron--Selim K. Zilkha, who has pledged $1 million to the Music Center Unified Fund. . . .

The Women at Work luncheon for mountaineer Arlene Blum. . . . Fete for UCLA alumnus Leon S. Gold hosted by Chancellor Charles and Sue Young and J. Clayburn La Force, dean of the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management, and his wife, Barbara. The event saluted Gold’s $5-million pledge to the Anderson Graduate School.

SOCIAL SCENE: Amalia Ramser and Janet Wagenseller chair the Los Angeles Chapter ARCS Foundation luncheon Monday at the Beverly Hills Hotel with James A. Abrahamson, retired Air Force lieutenant general, keynoter. . . .

Encore (past presidents of the Philharmonic Affiliates of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn.) lunched at the home of Joan and Fred Nicholas and got clued in to progress of the Walt Disney Hall Committee. . . .

Jane Borrmann and Patte Barham Boyne are giving a series of brunches at Los Angeles Country Club. . . .

Alpha Delta Pi members lunched at Wilshire Country Club with Tova Borgnine giving tips on de-wrinkling.

THE LOYAL: Loyola has its own busy circuit. The Law School saluted distinguished alumnus attorney Roger Sullivan at dinner at the Biltmore. . . .

Ralph Bellamy was honored with the first Hal Roach Entertainment Award by Loyola Marymount University Communication Arts Department at Ma Maison Sofitel. . . .

And 13 have been elected to LMU’s board of regents to be chaired by Gloria N. Griffin. New members include Ted Allen, Maria Contreras-Sweet, H. Trevor Jones, Suzanne Marx and Jane Pisano.

FAREWELL: Shelton Ellis, the popular manager of Gumps in Beverly Hills, is moving his headquarters to Gumps in San Francisco, but the Mannequins Auxiliary of the Assistance League of Southern California got his blessing to have its patrons’ reception at Gumps Beverly Hills.

Mannequins showed off Gumps’ finest jewels, and guests got carriage entrance red carpets.

QUOTABLE: “The world doesn’t need more dishes, but it can do with more loving.” That’s what the whimsical Victoria Mackenzie-Childs told the chic who breakfasted on fruit at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills.

She and her husband, Richard, breezed into town to show their hand-painted ceramics. And Neiman’s John Martens invited the Patrons of Cuisine A’Roulettes and the Wolfgang Puck Charitable Foundation to see it all. In the crowd were Debbie Lanni, Ann Johnson, M.M. Miller, and Sister Alice Marie Quinn (Sister Sam), who administers St. Vincent’s Meals on Wheels to the elderly.