The Main Course — Muriel Stevens: Fabulous Fantasy ‘99 at the Four Seasons a fund-raiser

Friday, Sept. 24, 1999 | 9:54 a.m.

Muriel Stevens' dining column appears Fridays. Her shopping column appears Wednesdays. Reach her at muriel@vegas.com or 259-4080.

"This Time It's Murder," is the theme for Fantasy '99, a major annual fund-raiser for the Lied Discovery Children's Museum. As always, it promises to be an exciting event with many surprises that this time include suspense, mayhem, murder and derring-do. Who done it? Maybe you!

Fantasy will take place Oct. 9 at the Four Seasons hotel.

A sumptuous dinner is always part of the excitement, so this week I joined with Fantasy committee co-chairs Judy Cebulko, Judy Kropid and Dee Snyder, along with Lied's Emily Newberry, Doreen Alvarado, Myra Michalek and Four Season's Catering and Conference Service Manager Tory Cooper for a menu tasting in the First Floor Grill.

Tastings are serious business. The tasters have to choose foods everyone will like. They also have to provide alternate choices for special diets, including vegetarians.

The menu selections were created by Four Seasons Executive Chef Wolfgang von Weiser and his staff. We happily shared and tasted our way through two appetizers, two soups and salads, four entrees and three desserts and talked about each dish as we ate it.

Here's what we sampled: an heirloom tomato salad with aged balsamic vinegar; a plate with three kinds of house-cured Atlantic salmon -- smoked, candied and gravlax; spicy bell pepper soup with small, charred rock shrimp; chicken consomme garnished with slices of chive strudel; spinach and arugula salad with roasted walnuts, anjou pears and dried cranberry dressing; oakleaf lettuce, sun dried tomatoes and marinated feta cheese with an olive pesto vinaigrette.

Each dish was wonderful, but some were standouts. We chose the appealing salmon platter as the appetizer. The spicy bell pepper soup was a delight. Rich and creamy with just a tiny bite, it was a sensation.

We took a break to discuss our choices with the chef, then it was back to the tasting. Chef Wolfgang gave us a good selection of entrees -- roasted salmon with garlic mashed potatoes; a roast chicken breast filled with wild mushrooms; a succulent filet of beef with a perfect red wine sauce; and a grilled veal loin and garlic prawn combination.

Each was accompanied with vegetables and a variety of potato preparations. We mixed and matched the potatoes and meats and made our final choice, a secret until the night of the dinner.

Our most difficult decision was dessert. Pastry Chef Jean Luc Daul's creations were scrumptious -- a dome-shaped white chocolate mousse with truffles, infused with cognac and vanilla beans, topped with a lacy black currant cookie; caramelized lemon parfait with black sesame ice cream in an orange crisp cup; and tiny slices of flourless chocolate cake with a drizzle of butterscotch caramel sauce and a cookie cup of sour cherry ice cream.

The flourless chocolate cake won our vote, but I noticed that all of the dessert plates were clean.

Fantasy '99 includes a cocktail reception/silent auction, the dinner, martini bars and fine wines (courtesy of Southern Wine & Spirits) and entertainment by Marilyn Mayblum Productions. Ticket prices are $250. For additional information call the Fantasy coordinator at 382-3445.

More First Floor Grill: The gracious Four Seasons First Floor Grill is gaining recognition as an outstanding restaurant from national publications.

In its September issue, Diversions, a magazine geared to the medical community, dubbed the First Floor Grill "The Best Restaurant in the City of Las Vegas." The December issue of Esquire rates it "1999's Best New Restaurant in the U.S."

Short orders

Puck caters: Wolfgang Puck and his award-winning interior designer spouse, Barbara Lazaroff, are offering additional options with the catering services at Spago, Chinois and Lupo. Puck's catering has always been outstanding. Now the service can include cooking and wine demonstrations and wine and cigar dinners.

Cooking demonstrations are available at one of the restaurants or a site of your choice. It's the best kind of entertainment. Puck chefs are top-notch demonstrators. Most are award winners. What could be better? Wine Director Greg Harrington teaches the wine demonstrations. Harrington is just one of 38 master sommeliers in the country.

With three restaurants featuring a variety of cuisines and a fourth, Postrio, scheduled to open soon at the Venetian, the array of foods available is outstanding.

It's not too soon to start planning holiday events. Call Catering Director Kimberly Gora at 369-0558 for more information.

Oktoberfest: German-educated Boulder Station Executive Chef Daniel Pfeiffer has created a terrific menu of traditional foods for Boulder Station's Oktoberfestival, Thursday-Oct. 3. Asked to name a favorite dish, the jovial chef declined. "I love all of it," he said. How much does he love the sausages, veal loaf, suckling pig loin, red cabbage, potato dumplings and spaetzle? Enough to eat about 10 pounds of the food each day! He gains at least 10 pounds during each festival and spends the rest of the year working it off at the gym.

New this year is a "Kinder Booth" for youngsters offering Black Forest chicken sticks, hot dogs and ice cream treats.

Also available at the festival: fresh baked Bavarian pretzels, a variety of beers and comforting desserts -- apple strudel, Austrian pancakes with fruit and ice cream, baked apples with cinnamon and ice cream and gingerbread hearts. For more information, call 432-7777.

Seeing red: Those big red signs going up on former Albertson's supermarkets mark the arrival of Raley's Superstores. Raley's has markets in Northern California and Northern Nevada, but this is their debut in the Las Vegas market. The total conversion should be complete by Oct. 7. A city-wide Grand Opening celebration is scheduled for Oct. 8.

Raley's has already made a sizable contribution to our city. As each store is converted all of the private label items and the perishable foods are being distributed to the hungry by the Community Food Bank of Clark County. Executive Director Bessie Braggs is working in partnership with other nonprofit organizations.

Included are fresh produce and meat, canned goods and other staples. The value of this donation is about $2 million.

Raley's is known nationally for its consumer-friendly policies and was voted number one in the nation by readers of Consumer Reports magazine. Readers judged the chain on overall quality of shopping experience.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Raley's. We like your style.