RESTAURANTS / Max Jacobson : Elegant Guests Find All in Good Taste, Thanks to County’s Top Chefs

Every year great chefs from all over the country go to Los Angeles to cook for Wolfgang Puck’s star-studded charity Meals on Wheels dinner. And every year foodies pay $150 a head for the privilege of tasting some of the best food in America. But last Sunday’s benefit for the National Kidney Foundation (entitled “The Great Chefs of Orange County”) proved that you don’t have to drive all the way to Los Angeles to eat well while doing good.

Twenty-two Orange County chefs dazzled a crowd of almost 500 foodies, also demonstrating beyond a doubt that they are a culinary force to be reckoned with.

Elegantly dressed guests paid $75 apiece to gather in the main ballroom of the beautiful Dana Point Resort and attempt to balance wine glasses, forks and plates while eating their way through about 50 different dishes. (The amount raised for the Kidney Foundation was not available at press time.)

The success of the event, both as a fund-raiser and as a culinary showcase, proves that Orange County deserves its growing reputation as a first-rate place to dine. Much of the food was wonderful, and many dishes made me eager to visit the restaurants where they can be found.

Consider the Towers Surf & Sand in Laguna Beach. Chef Earl Schryver, a young, personable fellow with a big smile, created a tiny “egg roll” with a skin made from shaved potato containing a rock shrimp in a spinach mousse. I can’t wait to taste what he is serving in the restaurant.

I’m also planning to get back to JW’s at the Anaheim Marriott hotel. That restaurant appears sedate and conservative, a throwback to the quiet elegance of the ‘40s and ‘50s. But talented chef John McLaughlin is definitely one of the Moderns. I can’t stop tasting his bittersweet chocolate terrine, which may have been the event’s best dessert.

McLaughlin is known for his sauces rather than his desserts, but this is the best dish of his I have tasted. The terrine was served on a plate covered with a palette of little fruit sauces and had a creamy, bitter complexity. McLaughlin insists that his secret is an extra-bitter Swiss chocolate called Vollrone. I think he is being modest.

Some chefs are new to the area. Michael Shafer, who recently took over as executive chef at Dover’s in the Doubletree Hotel, has redone the entire menu. A California native, Shafer has worked in Norway and Austria and just returned from the culinary Olympics in Germany where his team won 11 gold medals. His two dishes--grilled chicken with a candied peach salsa, and spinach tortellini in a black and white sesame butter sauce--made me understand why.

I have never been impressed by Las Brisas in Laguna Beach, but after tasting Chef Godfrey Carrillo’s dishes, I think I had better take another look. His blackened shrimp, Mexican style, featured a ruddy sauce with cayenne, chili, garlic, thyme and oregano. It was among the best dishes of the evening. Las Brisas is a beautiful restaurant, and if the food is going to remain at this level, it may become one of the hottest tables around.

I will also want to stop at Morell’s in the Irvine Hilton, which has a reputation as the best hotel restaurant in Orange County. Chef Paulo Kautz did nothing to tarnish that reputation as he dished up rich and wonderful fare. Both the lobster ravioli in sauce Americaine and the veal roulade with duxelle of yellow chanterelle were excellent.

And I am tempted to take another look at Mr. Stox in Anaheim. Mr. Stox may cater to the convention crowds, but it is a serious restaurant. And chef Scott Raczek, who served an impressive boneless rack of lamb surrounded by a chanterelle and chicken mousse, proved that he is a serious chef.

Savannah Grill of Newport Beach and Prego of Irvine were remarkably well represented. Chef Jeff Dugger of the Savannah served a simple vine-ripened tomato with grilled asparagus in a balsamic vinaigrette, as well as a spectacular chocolate ganache with a pecan crust in homemade caramel sauce. Chef Tim Dobrovolskis of Prego served an even better rotolo di formaggio (a roll of mozzarella and fontina cheeses with sweet basil in a fresh tomato salsa); he also served a state-of-the-art tirami su.

The event was staged in the main ballroom at the Dana Point Resort, which does not have the spectacular view of the Pacific that you get from their beautifully appointed Watercolors Restaurant. And looking at the menu, it is clear that chef Peter Striffolino’s selection--beef rouladen with Madeira sauce, spinach and basil rigatoni in a red pepper sauce, and a bufala mozzarella spread with basil and prosciutto--was only a small indication of what the chef can do. But all three dishes were delicious, and I can’t wait to try the complex dishes that fill his menu.

And I won’t wait a year before going back.