Class Cooking

Directions: Take a bunch of your tastiest patrons, stir in a dash of celebrity, and season heavily with mirth. That was the recipe for the first cooking class at Spago, the West Hollywood eatery where the rich and famous come and go, talking of carpaccio. The carats on the students' fingers were as big as the carrots , they were chopping. "Most of these women don't even know where their kitchens are,'' whispered proprietor Wolfgang Puck, watching Candy Spelling, Betsy Bloomingdale, and a peck of Hollywood wives tie white chef's aprons over their Armanis and Adolfos. Milton Berle brought his usual accessory, a cigar, and seasoned the warm chicken salad with its ashes as Rod Steiger, Vincent Price, and Janet de Cordova (wife of Tonight Show honcho Fred) looked on. Seeing her amazed expression, Berle thundered, "What are you doing here, Janet? You can't even make cornflakes." "I'm not preparing anything," she answered. "I'm only here so that I'll know what to tell my cook to do." Bloomingdale wanted to know what kind of olive oil to use. "Extra-virgin," responded sous-chef Francois Kwaku. "Extra-virgin?" she gasped. "Don't tell me, I'll believe you." Later the class sampled their work: seafood risotto, bluefin-tuna steaks, and the smoked-chicken salad. By the time they'd washed it all down with five wines, the sign-up sheet for class two was nearly filled. -BLAISE SIMPSON

BLAISE SIMPSON