Cooking Up Special Memories : Author Reveals Recipes for Schwab’s Soda, Brown Derby Salad

“The common denominator is they’re all history-- gone, “ author Betty Goodwin says of the restaurants discussed in her new book, “Hollywood du Jour” (Angel City Press).

She penned the 88-page book, which contains recipes from beloved Hollywood eateries such as the Brown Derby, La Rue and Perino’s, because she understands “there is a direct connection between taste buds and memory,” she told guests at a recent meeting of Round Table West at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.

“People can cook this food and re-live the special times they had at those restaurants,” she said. “They were special occasion spots, the sort of places where you celebrated birthdays and anniversaries.”

Goodwin shared the fact that her dad gave her mom an engagement ring over lunch at La Rue, the Sunset Boulevard spot that was a haunt of Jack Warner and Walt Disney.

“Later, I came along and was lucky enough to visit a lot of these restaurants,” she said.

Of the 25 recipes featured in the book, Goodwin has a few favorites. “I love the Cobb salad from the Brown Derby. It’s so good. And the chicken salad from Ma Maison is out of this world.”

She also likes the sauteed chicken with roasted garlic and candied lemon from Trump’s, an ‘80s hot spot where “agents and publicists lunched with their clients because it was flooded with sunlight and everyone could be seen, but tables were spread far enough apart to make eavesdropping difficult,” Goodwin writes.

When she cooks up this fragrant dish (which calls for 24 garlic cloves), “I’m right back at Trump’s,” she said.

Other restaurants featured in the publication include the Bullock’s Wilshire Tearoom (“The book’s recipe for coconut cream pie was on the menu from 1929 until the tearoom closed last year , “ Goodwin said); the Cocoanut Grove; Scandia; Schwab’s Pharmacy (with the recipe for its famous chocolate ice cream soda); Don the Beachcomber, and the Luau, where, Goodwin writes, “there were always plenty of celebrities seated around tables made from lacquered ship hatch covers--from Fred Astaire to the Beach Boys . . . Marlon Brando, Hugh Hefner, John Wayne, Norma Shearer, Lee Marvin, Robert Evans and Candice Bergen.”

“I save my mother’s, grandmothers’ and aunts’ recipes,” Goodwin said. “I couldn’t bear for these wonderful memories to be lost.”

Also on the program was Paddy Calistro, co-author with Jack Lamb and Jean Penn of “Cowboy Love Poetry,” and Bonnie Churchill and Robert W. Jensen, authors of “The Young Athlete.”

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Chinese Opera Preview Party: About 100 guests took home Chinese fortune cookies when they attended a recent preview party at the Radisson Park Hotel in Irvine for “An Evening of Chinese Opera.”

But instead of fortunes, the cookies were stuffed with facts about the performance by Shu Rui Yang and Yu Lin Liu, set for March 20 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

During the festivities, where Yang (winner of last year’s Lincoln Center Asian Artist Award) and Liu performed, party organizers explained that the opera, actually a sampling of music from “Farewell My Concubine,” “Flying Tiger General,” “The Legend of the White Snake” and “The Wedding,” would be translated for audience members with the use of surtitles.

“We are anxious for the public to come and see Chinese opera,” said Ann Wu, chairman pro tem of the opera’s presenter, Pan Pacific Performing Arts, Inc. “It is beautiful and fascinating--a great opportunity for people to learn about Chinese culture.”

Among guests were Pan Pacific President Amy Kiang; Sarah Mar, special event liaison for Pan Pacific; Ruth and Dr. Lock Ding; Rosana Chao (whose daughter, Rosalind, was featured in the movie “The Joy Luck Club”); Verna Chou; Julie Shen; Beatrice Sun, and Ann and Dr. Ben Wu.