No Small Potatoes : Add Mashed Variety to Shrimp, You Have Lure to $400-a-Couple Benefit Bash

Bette Midler loves them. Henry Kissinger knows them. And just about every time Susie and Danny Hernandez visit Patina restaurant in Los Angeles, they order chef/owner Joaquim Splichal’s Santa Barbara shrimp appetizer.

So, of course the Hernandezes will have the item on the menu when they toss a $20,000 supper for 50 guests on Valentine’s Day to benefit the Newport Harbor Art Museum.

“The shrimp is our hottest seller,” says Splichal, whose minimalist bistro on Melrose Avenue recently made New York food critic Mimi Sheraton’s list of the 50 best restaurants in America.

What makes the dish so special? A pouf of mashed potatoes. “Sounds crazy, but the dish simply melts in your mouth,” says museum board member Susie Hernandez of Mission Viejo.

When Splichal describes the $14.95 item, you remind yourself to dine at Patina this weekend (sorry, there is a four-week waiting list.): “We top mashed potatoes with fresh shrimp cooked in a lobster-butter sauce. Then we add a potato chip edged with truffle mousse and top the dish with fried leek.”

The $400 per-couple dinner “Isn’t it Romantic?,” which will be staged in a tent in the couple’s back yard in lofty Canyon Crest, is one of eight private benefits being staged by museum supporters. (The romance theme suits the Hernandezes. Danny is the kind of guy who stashes a diamond bracelet in the glove compartment when he surprises his wife with a Rolls-Royce.)

Splichal--whose French-California cuisine has also been savored by the likes of Kevin Costner--hasn’t decided on the main course yet, but dessert will be a concoction he calls Sweet Dreams. The ingredients? “Chocolate--about 1,500 calories worth--a little orange peel and raspberries,” he says.

Others dinners include an “Art of Collecting”-themed repast which will be staged at the cliff-top Laguna Beach home of Harold and Sandy Price.

The Prices, passionate collectors of modern art, possess a status symbol few can claim--a commissioned portrait by Andy Warhol. Actually, there are two--identical images of Sandy Price with different color backgrounds.

“That’s the way Warhol liked to do them,” says Sandy, who posed for the pop artist in his New York studio in 1986.

“I went one afternoon and he took 50 Polaroids of me,” she says. “He had me put on a kind of Kabuki makeup. It was great, removed every line. All that ends up showing is your mouth, eyes and hair. You look perfect.”

The Warhols grace the couple’s entry in their newly renovated home. Also up for viewing for guests at this $150-per-person April dinner will be works by Jim Dine, George Segal and other post World War II artists.

Price is undecided on the menu, which will be created by Thymes. “But we’ll make sure it’s wonderful,” she says.

Dahhhling! Zsa Zsa Gabor dahhhhlinged ‘em till they dropped at the Balboa Bay Club on Friday during her appearance at a meeting of Round Table West. She was in Newport Beach to promote her book, “One Lifetime Is Not Enough.”

“One lifetime really isn’t enough,” Gabor whispered over lunch (a fruit plate she didn’t touch. “I had a hamburger with my dog, Pasha, before we came,” she explained with a toss of her platinum locks). “There is so much I want to do. I have horses--beautiful horses--and I love to ride them. And I want to write more books and visit more countries. I love spending time with my dahling husband. It doesn’t stop!”

Sweeping into a room packed with 450 women was no easy task, she admitted. “I’m a little nervous.” Of the unrelenting stares and camera flashes: “Adulation bores me.” (The one thing that drove her nutso during lunch was adoring fans touching her as they talked. “Why do they do that?” she demanded under her breath. “They don’t even know me!”)

When she took her place under the spotlight, wearing a floral Valentino purchased “off the rack in Rome,” she relaxed.

Perhaps her advice to a woman who once asked her if she should give back the ring after an engagement summed up Gabor’s fun-loving talk best: “Of course, dahling, you must give back the ring. But keep the diamond.”

Oh, Mandy: Hot fudge, butterscotch and a mountain of ice cream awaited members of the Maestro Society of the Pacific Symphony orchestra on Friday after the Mandy Patinkin concert at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (see review, F2).

But Patinkin, famous for his role as “Che” in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Evita,” and “George” in Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park With George” didn’t go near the Center Club’s sundae bar, set up in a private room.

He stayed near the doorway, flashing a humble smile and bowing slightly as society members applauded until their hands ached.

“We know you can’t stay long, and we appreciate your joining us,” said Pacific Symphony director Louis Spisto.

More than any other arts organization, the Pacific Symphony regularly stages post-performance bashes that feature an appearance by a performer.

“This is soooooo exciting,” said Mandy Sonenshine, who attended the party with her parents, Ygal and Sheila Prell Sonenshine. Upon meeting the teen-ager, Patinkin piped: “Hey! This must be Mandy night!” For sure.