EDIBLE: Cal Stamenov debuts zesty menu, honors international legends.

Dateline: Monaco, theaffluent 2.8-square-mile city-state on the Mediterranean coast of France, where luxury yachts line the harbor and ornate architecture populates the streets. I’m at its best restaurant, Le Louis XV Alain Ducasse, inside five-star Hôtel de Paris.

A 7-meter-wide chandelier soars over 700 unique pieces of glass assembled around a dining room of chrome, wood, leather and polished steel – and plates of such craft many eaters call the Michelin 3-star spot the best in the world.

I remembered to pack a suit to honor the dress code. I keep expecting James Bond to walk in the door. Finally, after all the ballet-like service machinations and clinking of the Dom, we get to order. The venison for me, the rabbit rillette for her. Jackpot and jackpot. Later we wander over to all marble-and-gold Casino de Monte Carlo and I hit on a green double zero in roulette. Jackpot all over again.

OK, not really.

But because of the new menu from Cal Stamenov at Bernardus Lodge’s Lucia (658-3595), I can have the Chef Alain Ducasse-stylevenison, roasted with thyme and accompanied by chanterelles ($38), and the rabbit rillette with foie gras and black truffle ($21), in Carmel Valley.

All chefs present a mélange of the kitchens and cooks they’ve worked with, but until now none of them have celebrated them so directly. For Stamenov’s brand-new “Mentors’ Menu,” he has assembled two dishes from his five most storied stops of a wide-ranging career.

Jean-Louis Palladin of Jean-Louis at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., tops the list and was the first for Stamenov chronologically; the tributes are an abalone “rouge” served in shell with enoki mushroom butter ($28) and seared Hudson Valley foie gras with pink pearl apple gastrique ($28).

It’s hard to overstate Palladin’s local sourcing influence on Stamenov.

“He was the original,” Stamenov says. “All the best places on the East Coast did was import from France. He was known for his ingenuity with local cuisine.”

From there Stamenov headed to Monte Carlo and Ducasse, working for free in what he calls “the most beautiful kitchen in the world.” The main takeaway there, he says: “decadence.”

He says he would’ve worked for free with Michel Richard at Citrus Restaurant in L.A. just to observe how creative he was with his sauces. “I still use his combinations,” says Stamenov, who attended Richard’s memorial this month. His two tributes: a smoked salmon terrine with wasabi crème fraîche ($22) and scallops “Ali Bab” in honor of the pre-Escoffier Bible for chefs ($34).

New York followed, with Eric Ripert at landmark Le Bernardin, and a romance with dishes trailblazing in their simplicity and use of fresh fish, expressed at Lucia by the fennel-steamed Big Sur vermillion cod ($32) and pounded yellowfin tuna ($19).

Next came Philippe Jeanty, with Napa’s Etoile at Domain Chandon, and a chance to work with a kitchen garden for the first time (Bernardus recently completed the latest expansion of its chef gardens) and, yes, lots of wine pairing. (Stamenov adds that each stop on this menu was Wine Spectator Grand Award-caliber.) In Jeanty’s honor arrive the coq au Cal braised chicken ($26) and smoked trout salad ($16).

Crafting the menu has clearly been a labor of love for Stamenov as he’s cracked open casefuls of recipes, foreshadowing a cookbook on the horizon.

“It shows a little bit of my chef backbone,” he says. “I don’t have tattoos.”

~ QUICKBITES ~