Menu for Governors’ Ball at Music Center Deserved an Oscar of Its Own : Entertaining: For the first time, the Academy Awards’ Governors’ Ball was held outdoors under a tent. Among the meal’s stars were Veal Chops With Lemon Soy Sauce and Wild Rice Pancakes.

Banquet food is rarely much to write home about.

Wilted lettuce, limp vegetables, lukewarm meat, sauces that look and taste like cold oatmeal.

But when banquet food is served to the stars attending the Governors’ Ball at the star-studded 62nd Annual Academy Awards--literally under stars on the plaza of the Music Center--well, then, even wilted lettuce would look good.

Actually, the food served at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences 1990 Governors’ Ball Monday night had its glowing moments.

The menu went through its own screening when a tasting was presented months before the event to 12 members of the Board of Governor’s, including current president, Karl Malden.

“We gave them a choice of four different items, including an elaborate antipasto with quail eggs and bufala mozzarella, but the 12 members tasting the food chose the simpler salmon terrine, which is colorful,” said Don La Pane, sales director of the Pavilion Catering Co., which operates the food service at the Music Center restaurants. According to La Pane, the terrine took 225 hours to prepare because each of the 90 terrines took 2 1/2 half hours to cook.

The star of the menu, however, was actually the second course: Grilled Veal Chop With Lemon Soy Sauce, served with an unusual pancake sandwich of wild rice and sesame seeds filled with shiitake mushrooms. The pancakes were made ahead and heated at the last moment.

The colorful red and yellow peppers, snow peas, baby pattypan squash and baby carrots, used as a side vegetable and colorful garnish on the plate, were blanched ahead and given a quick saute at the last moment on the grills nearby. Dessert, a bagatelle of strawberries, was started on the Saturday prior to the event, with the sauce added at the last moment. Strawberries with white chocolate mousse were served over dacquoise (almond meringue cake circles) and decorated with white chocolate florets.

“One of the horrors of banquet food is that the food gets cold before it ever gets to the table. This way it’s on its way to a table nearby the minute it’s cooked,” said Richard Munies, executive chef of the Music Center restaurants.

The first year the Academy Award ceremony was seen world wide was also the first time a Governors’ Ball banquet was served on the grounds of the Music Center. Dual kitchens set up on either side of the Mark Taper were required to accommodate 1,600 diners under tents raised over more than 40,000 square feet on the Music Center grounds. There were rented semi-trailer refrigerator trucks to store the terrines and barbecue grills to cook the veal chops.

Giant white balloons hovered over glittering twinkle lights strung on ficus trees where 90 tables all dressed in purple and decorated with monochromatic shades of purple cymbidium orchids, covered the area like a sea of waterlilies, an interior design by Jerry Wunderlick.

Each table setting contained ivory china rimmed with gold, French crystal (water goblet, white and red wine plus champagne glasses) and hammered silverplate. Looming over the tables were giant replicas of gold Oscars. At the raised platform where Bill Lohr’s band played was another less known, but equally priceless statue, the familiar Lipchitz’s sculpture “Peace on Earth” on exhibit at the Music Center.

“We’ve never tried it before, but if it succeeds, there is no doubt we’ll do it again next year. It was always a dream of the Music Center to have a tent for the Governors’ Ball,” said La Pane. “Things just fell into place.”

So did the menu.

GOVERNORS’ BALL MENU

Terrine of Smoked Salmon

Grilled Veal Chops With Lemon-Soy Sauce

Wild Rice and Sesame Pancakes

Grilled Shiitake Mushroom Caps

Baby Pattypan Squash

Sauteed Snow Peas

Sauteed Julienne of Red and Yellow Peppers

Assorted Bread Basket and Butter Roses

Strawberry Bagatelle

VEAL CHOPS WITH LEMON SOY SAUCE

8 veal chops

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon minced ginger root

1/4 cup vermouth

1/4 cup chicken broth

1 tablespoon lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns, crushed

Strips lemon zest

Whole chives

Grill veal chops as desired over coals or under broiler 3-inches from source of heat. Keep warm.

Meanwhile, saute garlic in 1 tablespoon butter. Add ginger root, vermouth, chicken broth, lemon zest, lemon juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, mustard, pepper and pepper corns.

Cook over medium high heat until reduced by 1/3. Stir in remaining 2 tablespoons butter, bit by bit until butter melts and sauce is shiny and thickened.

Top each chop with sauce. Garnish with strips of lemon zest and chive. Makes 8 servings.

WILD RICE PANCAKES

4 ounces wild rice

1/4 cup butter

4 shiitake mushroom caps, sliced

1 small carrot, minced

1 small onion, minced

1/4 cup minced celery

1/3 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 1/2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Cook rice according to package directions until fluffy. Set aside.

Melt butter and add mushroom caps. Saute until browned on both sides. Remove and set aside.

Add carrot, onion and celery to skillet and cook until vegetables are tender, but not brown. Gradually stir in flour and sesame oil to vegetable mixture, cooking and stirring to mix well.

Add chicken broth slowly, stirring until smooth. Cook until flavors blend, about 1 minute. Add wild rice. Mix well to make firm mixture.

For each pancake, spoon about 1 heaping tablespoon mixture onto greased griddle or skillet. Press into 2-inch flat pancake. Cook until golden on both sides, turning once.

Place sauteed shiitake mushrooms on each of 8 pancakes. Cover with another pancake (serve like sandwich). Makes 16 pancakes.

Note: If pancakes are prepared ahead, when ready to serve melt 1 tablespoon butter in skillet. Add pancakes and reheat on both sides.