Maybe Puck Can Cater the Meeting

What do Wolfgang Puck, Joachim Splichal, Michel Richard and Mary Sue Milliken have in common? None of the super chefs/entrepreneurs have been invited to join a new as-yet-unnamed chefs’ club organized by Fred Eric, chef/owner of Vida on Hillhurst and Octavio Becerra, chef at Splichal’s Pinot Bistro in Studio City.

It’s not that they aren’t good enough. It’s just that Eric and Becerra and the other-members feel that these well known chefs have already had their day in the sun. “We don’t want any of those old-school, ‘80s-wave people,” says Eric. “They’ve had their thing and are busy opening patinettes and citronettes everywhere. It’s not doing anything for the city’s culture base.”

Besides Eric and Becerra, members of the new not-yet-famous chefs organization include Josie Le Balch of Remi, Francois Kwaku-Dongo of Mi Piace, Josiah Citrin and Raphael Lunetta of Jackson’s, Tommy Hirose from Nouveau Cafe Blanc, and Francois Meulien of The Bistro Garden at Coldwater. The group, which first met at Vida and again last month at Pinot Bistro in Studio City, plans to help each other out through networking.

“I’ve been cooking for 22 years in Los Angeles and nobody knows who I am,” says Le Balch, who has made a list of ideas to take to the next meeting. “I have no idea how to market myself. And I want to ask Fred Eric, ‘Who gave you money to open a restaurant?’ ”

“It would be nice to agree on a direction L.A. could take to make the city more respected in the country (for its food),” adds Eric. “But we have to start from the ground up by creating restaurants that deserve that promotion.”

HERE TODAY . . . : Chef Brian Keller, who was brought in by Peter Morton to oversee the kitchen at his new quarters in West Hollywood, has left Morton’s. Sources say burger baron Morton hasn’t been happy with the food at his watering hole since the move across the street, and that serious customers are defecting to Drai’s.

In the meantime, says Morton’s maitre ‘d Todd Thurman, sous chef Gerry Garvin has replaced Keller in the kitchen. Thurman refused to confirm whether the rumors that Keller had been fired were true. “I can’t comment on that,” he said, “you’ll have to talk to Peter.” Peter Morton was out of town and not available for comment.

CHEF MOVES: Michael Shaheen, who cooked at the Grill and previously Morton’s until Peter Morton replaced him with Brian Keller when the restaurant moved, will cook at Carson, the restaurant Joe Stellini is opening in Beverly Hills. Stellini closed his 16-year-old eponymous restaurant, a hangout for sports figures and fans, last August. No doubt Shaheen will be making those spare ribs from the recipe Stellini appropriated while he was maitre d’ at the Luau in Beverly Hills. . . . David McMillan, who formerly cooked at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, is now at the Gate, the Hollywood nightclub/restaurant with a limo entrance for those special guests. . . . Ghazaros Mahroukian, former owner of Al Kasar in Sherman Oaks, is now cooking Mediterranean-Middle Eastern cuisine at the Lighthouse in Encino.

PASTA & PEANUTS?: Francois Kwaku-Dongo is negotiating to open a place of his own later this year. In the meantime he will continue cooking at Mi Piace in Pasadena. The African-born chef, who left Spago a year ago to take the position as executive chef at Mi Piace, intends to feature basic Italian cuisine with an African flair, “something,” he says, “nobody has done yet.”

CIAO/ADIEU: Just when you thought you had the whole Fennel/Pazzia/Pazzeria situation figured out, owner Mauro Vincenti has gone and changed his mind again. The La Cienega restaurant reopens a week from Monday with new partners, a new concept and a face-lift. The back section, or fine-dining area, Pazzia, will feature such dishes as grilled chicken, lamb chops and sauteed spinach and veal stew with grilled polenta. The lower-priced front section, formerly Pazzeria, is due to open later this month. It will now be called Alto Palato (Italian for high palate) and will feature pizzas, pastas and takeout. And what about Fennel? “It disappeared,” says Vincenti, “gone back to France.”*