REVIEW : Chefs Cook Light, and Benefit Dinner Really Soars

The show must go on, and so it did at “The Art of Dining V,” the annual benefit dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel for the Newport Harbor Art Museum.

This year’s extravaganza, Sunday night, was another unqualified success despite special problems caused by the unrest in Los Angeles. Coordinating chef Joachim Splichal of L.A.’s Patina restaurant had to put out extra effort and do some smooth talking to get food purveyors--many located in Los Angeles--to deliver goods on schedule.

Then there was the logistical problem with regard to the visiting chefs. David Burke of New York City’s Park Avenue Cafe had to land in Ontario; Debra Ponzek and Drew Nieporent of New York’s Montrachet were obliged to cancel.

There were those who felt that the dinner ought not to proceed, in light of the circumstances. But as Newport Harbor museum director Michael Botwinick was quick to point out in his welcoming speech, “Art has the power to change lives for the better.” The 420 in attendance doubtlessly were in agreement. They raised close to $200,000 for the museum.

This is a dinner that gets better every year, perhaps because it also is getting lighter. Sunday’s first course, a modest tuna and shrimp salad with a soy ginger dressing, was the handiwork of Nobu Matsuhisa of Matsuhisa restaurant in Beverly Hills, and would have looked at home atop any sushi bar.

That modest dish set the tone for the entire evening. Splichal invited only local and New York chefs to participate this year, as opposed to previous years when he brought in a more cosmopolitan group. “There is a recession, after all,” he said.

The second course--black sea bass with curry kafir broth, a small chunk of fish over a light broth replete with fresh corn, kafir leaves and a brunoise of vegetables--had been conceived by no-show chefs Ponzek and Nieporent. But no problem. Patina’s chef de cuisine, Octavio Bezerra, acted as able proxy for the preparation.

The next course, from Celestino Drago of Drago restaurant in Santa Monica, proved a bit controversial. Drago plied us with a risotto with zucchini blossom and sage, a simple-looking concoction that some thought plain.

In any case, from there the dinner soared. Four Seasons resident executive chef Michel Pieton triumphed with an intense wild pheasant consomme with truffles, mushrooms and tiny quenelles of pheasant.

Burke followed with what many considered the star dish of the evening, poached hen with artichoke strudel vegetable court bouillon. Emcee Michael Mondavi, whose winery provided the event with fine wines from Oakville’s Robert Mondavi winery, was quick to inform everyone that the gamy, wonderfully moist hens had come directly from Amish country, Lancaster County, Pa.

Matthew Tivy of the Maidstone Arms in East Hampton, N.Y., then wowed our fading appetites with little mignonettes of juniper venison with celery and parsnip, a wonderful match for the ’86 Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon poured from magnum.

The end came when Splichal and Patina’s Bruno Feldeisen served up a banana creme brulee with a tart, fudgy chocolate sorbet smeared over the crust, and the chefs all came out to take a bow.

When Splichal introduced the chefs, there was enthusiastic applause, but when he introduced Feldeisen as his “thousand-calorie man,” the silence was deafening.