Small bites for Oscar attendees

For the 84th Academy Awards, Wolfgang Puck is whipping up a laid-back Oscar-night meal at the Governors Ball featuring plenty of sophisticated small bites, reports the Los Angeles Times. There will be no main course, only 10 small plates, cold appetizer and sushi platters, and plenty of tray-passed bites. These include Chinois lamb with cilantro-mint vinaigrette; crab and lobster Louie with horseradish panna cotta and marinated tomatoes; Shanghai lobster with coconut curry, jasmine rice and pickled ginger; and gold-wrapped baked potatoes with caviar and crème fraîche. And there will be the traditional tiny chocolate Oscars.

At the prodding of the academy's new chief executive, Dawn Hudson, Sunday's meal at the Grand Ballroom is forsaking a formal sit-down dinner in favor of a relaxed, restaurant-style format in which the stars can arrive and be guided by a maitre d' to sit with any one they'd like.

Spago pastry chef Sherry Yard has created an Austrian chocolate cake resembling a staircase leading to a giant edible Oscar statuette that is iced in a way that makes it pop into relief when viewed through the 3-D glasses presented with the dessert. Some people think everything is better in 3-D.