Southland Chefs Match Recipes, Wine Lovers Trade Toasts

Chefs from all over the Southland will compete Monday in the 24th annual Culinary Arts Salon at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. Sponsored by the American Culinary Federation’s Orange Empire Chefs Assn., it will be open to the public after the judging, which ends at 6:30 p.m. Tickets will be available at the door. For $5 you just get to look, but for $50 you’ll get hors d’oeuvres from 7 to 8, and then a formal gourmet dinner, followed by the awards ceremony. For more information or advance tickets, contact Bob Jones at (714) 642-2148 or culinary show chairman Larry Banares at (213) 435-4511, Ext. 1171.

The fifth annual World of Wines festival will bring wine enthusiasts and winemakers together at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel Nov. 16-18. The tab for the three-day program of seminars, wine-tasting receptions, a champagne brunch and a gala dinner: $450 per person. Single day tickets also are available, however. Tastings of library and California futures wines and Chilean wines will be offered Friday; selections from “the 100 top American wineries” will be served Saturday along with regional American cuisine, and Sunday will include a champagne brunch and a dinner honoring at which author Leon Adams, founder of the California Wine Institute, will receive the World of Wines Lifetime Achievement Award. For information and registration materials, write to World of Wines, the Ritz-Carlton, 33533 Ritz-Carlton Drive, Laguna Niguel, Calif. 92677, or call (714) 240-2000, Ext. 5008.

Alfredo’s Ristorante in Costa Mesa’s Westin South Coast Plaza wants to auction off all premier French and German wines from its cellars Sunday to make room for American and Italian wines. It will all start at 5 p.m. with a wine preview and reception in the Taverna, followed by dinner and the auction in the restaurant proper. The dinner menu includes risotto with porcini, and grilled New York strip steak sliced and served on a pepper base, topped with a lemon vinaigrette. Complementary Mondavi wines will be served. The cost: $30 per person. For information, including a list of wines to be auctioned, call Steven McCleave at (714) 540-1550.

La Chasse is on! The annual fall game festival at Le Midi in Newport Beach continues till the end of the year. There are appetizers made with mushrooms, and four different venison entrees as well as boar steak, elk chop, pheasant and quail. Prices for a la carte entrees average about $20. Le Midi is at 3421 Via Lido. (714) 675-4904.

Continuing the trend of upscale restaurants in large office buildings, Il Fornaio will open in the Lakeshore Towers, under construction by Birtcher at Von Karman Avenue and Michelson Drive in Irvine. This will be the fifth Tuscan-themed Il Fornaio for Larry Mindel (the others are in Marin County, San Francisco, Palo Alto and Del Mar). Mindel co-founded Spectrum Restaurants (MacArthur Park, Prego) but resigned to concentrate on Il Fornaio. The new facility won’t be ready till next August but should be worth the wait . In addition to a 145-seat restaurant, look for a large bakery (take note, fans of the late Il Fornaio bakery in Fashion Island’s Atrium Court) and a retail store with baked items and private-label foods, as well as take-home and eat-in-the-park foods, from rabbit to salads to duck.