September Will Dazzle With Galas

The unusually savory stew of galas to be given in September will include benefits for fish, infants and contemporary art.

After the Sept. 16 opening of the new Stephen Birch Aquarium-Museum at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, it will cost $6.50 admission to tour a facility already described by insiders as among the most dazzling of its kind.

But those who wish to part with a few hundred dollars more can preview the exhibits of exotic marine fauna at “Windows to the Sea,” an extravagant gala Saturday to mark the aquarium’s grand opening. The event will include tours and the chance to go eyeball-to-eyeball with creatures looking out from behind the windows of the 33 tanks containing undersea life from the Pacific Northwest, California coast, South Pacific and Sea of Cortez. Guests also will tour the La Jolla kelp tank exhibit, stocked with giant kelp plants and nearly 30 species of local sea creatures. The two-story tank features an acrylic viewing window that, at 21 feet wide and 13 feet high, is the largest in California.

The activities will be accompanied by champagne, cocktail chatter and a lavish seated dinner. In deference to the residents of the establishment, seafood will not be featured prominently on the menu. The black-tie evening will conclude with dancing. Chairman is Peggy Preuss, with Bea Epsten as co-chair.

Attendance is possible at several price levels, beginning at $250 a person for regular seating and rising to $450 a person for preferred seating. Poseidon Patrons can reserve a table for 10 at $5,000 and receive several benefits, including museum membership, invitations to the annual Scripps Oceanographic luncheon and permanent recognition on the aquarium’s benefactors’ list. For more information, call Dyanne Hoffman at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 534-6945.

The Sept. 19 March of Dimes fund-raiser will be the “Fete X Five,” which translates as feast times five. It promises a five-course meal prepared by an equal number of nationally recognized chefs and will be held at Sheraton Harbor Island hotel’s Champagne Ballroom.

A novelty this year is the participation of “Food & Wine” magazine, which rounded up the culinary talent. The five participating chefs were chosen from those named in the magazine’s annual “America’s Best New Chefs” awards program, which is regarded by many restaurant folk as the Academy Awards of the culinary industry.

The 1992 “Fete X Five” is much less dominated by New Yorkers than in previous years, and in fact includes only one Manhattan chef, Thomas Colicchio of Mondrian. Colicchio is, however, regarded as one of the Big Apple’s kitchen luminaries, and is noted for his “produce-driven” cuisine, which emphasizes intense flavors coaxed from vegetables and herbs.

The other four will bring a good regional balance to the evening’s menu. Tim Anderson of Goodfellow’s in Minneapolis will provide “professional home cooking,” or dressed-up robust fare, while Kevin Graham of the Windsor Court Grill Room in New Orleans will offer the elaborate fare for which he has become quite well known. Rounding out the program will be Jack McDavid of Jack’s Firehouse in Philadelphia, another practitioner of stylish American fare, and Lissa Doumani of St. Helena’s Terra, currently regarded as one of the hottest restaurants in Napa Valley. Each of the chefs will be responsible for an appetizer for one course of the dinner. The Bill Green Orchestra will provide music for after-dinner dancing.

Tickets to the black-tie gala are $250 a person for regular admission, $350 a person for preferred seating. Marla Blom is heading the event with the assistance of three co-chairs boasting a long history of involvement in cuisine-oriented events: Martha Culbertson, Audrey Geisel and Dixie Unruh.

Proceeds will benefit the March of Dimes Campaign for Healthier Babies, which seeks to prevent birth defects and to curb infant mortality. In 1991, the March of Dimes contributed more than $1.7 million to San Diego County research institutions and educational programs. For more information, call the March of Dimes, 576-1211.

All that glitters will undoubtedly be glitz at “C’est Magnifique,” the Sept. 25 benefit for the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.

The committee--headed by Barbara ZoBell and co-chairs Karen Cohn, Judith Harris and Valerie Preiss--originally considered naming the gala “C’est Magninfique,” since it will be hosted by the I. Magnin specialty department store chain as the grand opening of the new Magnin store in Fashion Valley.

The event replaces, for this year only, the annual Monte Carlo Ball usually given at the La Jolla museum in mid-August; the museum’s expansion and renovation plans precluded giving the Monte Carlo affair in 1992.

The evening’s highlight will be the presentation of the complete fall collection of haute couturier Chanel, exactly as given on the runways in Paris. The show will be given in an elaborately decorated pavilion to be built behind the store and will follow a reception and buffet dinner inside the completely remodeled store, which includes a spiral-designed marble floor copied from the Mal Maison chateau in France.

The museum has announced a fund-raising goal of $100,000 for “C’est Magnifique.” Tickets are $125 a person; a limited number of tickets that guarantee front row seating are available at $250 a person. The event also will feature a raffle for a large selection of prizes, including a $2,000 certificate toward the purchase of a Chanel outfit. For more information, call Debra Palmer at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 454-3541.