Swiss Stake Well Served at Dinner

Cheese, chocolate, a raffle-prize watch, a yodeler--all the props were in place at the Orange County Protocol Foundation’s “Swiss Dinner” on Sunday.

Foundation members and their guests filled 111 seats at the Mezzanine restaurant in Irvine’s Brinderson Towers for a four-course meal of traditional Swiss foods and a chance to hear about Switzerland from its Los Angeles-based consul general, Kurt Welte.

The dinner--one of four internationally themed events hosted by the foundation each year--was designed to “increase appreciation of Swiss culture,” said Mary Jones, the county’s chief of protocol.

Setting

Brinderson Towers are those two black cubes you’ve seen just north of Interstate 405 at MacArthur Boulevard. The stark facade is no less austere inside, where walls of smoked-glass windows cast a shadowy light on acres of black and white marble. Clean lines and zero clutter--how Swiss! And tucked in the basement of one is an executive lunch spot co-owned by brothers from Gstaad: Christoph and Juerg Boo.

For the banquet, the Boo bros decorated their restaurant with colorful flags from their homeland’s cantons --the Swiss states, Christoph explained. The banquet menu, planned with party chairwoman Eva Schneider, began with cheese fondue soup (a variation on traditional fondue devised, said Christoph Boo, “because the fumes (from the burner) offend some people”). Next came an appetizer platter of bundnerfleisch (“mountain air-dried beef”) with baby pickles and onions. The entree was roasted breast of grain hen, followed by Swiss chocolate mousse with raspberries. Guests chose among imported Swiss wines and beers to quench their thirst.

Speeches

The parade to the podium preceded dinner greetings from Gayle Anderson (president of the Protocol Foundation’s board of directors), Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder and chief of protocol Jones.

Then came Consul General Welte, with a scripted, 20-minute speech dominated by an analysis of Switzerland’s future with the European Economic Community--the plans to unite much of the continent through free trade and travel scheduled to begin next year. To date, the Swiss are not among the 12 countries slated for EEC membership.

“This is the crucial question today in my country,” Welte said. “There is a great diversity of opinion, (from) categorical refusal . . . (to) supporters who would like Switzerland to be part of a community growing increasingly integrated.” At issue for concerned politicians and citizens are Switzerland’s historic neutrality, its environmental protection laws and restrictions on the number of foreigners allowed to live in Switzerland.

Welte also breezed through an outline of his country’s 700-year history and its philosophical and economic allegiance with the United States--”our sister republic,” he called it.

“I apologize that this was a little bit longer than usual,” Welte concluded, “but you’re not 700 years old every day.”

Who’s Who

Among guests were native Swiss Thomas Gurtner, manager of the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach, and his wife, Nui, (a Chinese native). The Gurtners sat at Table 18--”the European table,” as one guest called it--which also included Trudy Buck (born in Lucerne, Switzerland, now living in Monarch Beach), Joan and Ernest Treichler (he’s from Zurich), Annemaria and Dolf Ballin (they’re German) and the Weltes (Kurt and Elisabeth).

Also seen: Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley and his wife, Emma Jane, Mary Lou and Scott Hornsby, Elaine and Bill Redfield, Kittie and John Rau, Ginny and Kay Smallwood, and Mary and Jim Thompson.

“Swiss entertainment”--as promised on the invitation--was provided by Fred Burri of Long Beach, who wore a native costume, played a hand accordion, sang and yodeled.