El Torito Grill in Newport to Reopen 3 Months After Fatal Explosion

El Torito Grill in Fashion Island will reopen for dinner on Wednesday, after a three-month closure that resulted from a water tank explosion.

The Aug. 1 accident left one man dead and five people injured and damaged several rooms inside the restaurant.

The renovated restaurant features a new patio, new uniforms and a revised menu.

During the first week of business after the reopening, El Torito Grill said it plans to donate 25% of food sales to four Newport Beach organizations: the Patty and George Hoag Cancer Center, the Newport Beach New Central Library, Share Our Selves and the Newport Harbor Art Museum.

The restaurant chain’s executive vice president, Russ Bendel, said the restaurant would like to repay the community for its support. While El Torito Grill was closed, other businesses offered its employees temporary jobs, he said, and donations to the family of the deceased man, Antonio de Santiago, who was a bartender at the restaurant, were generous.

951 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. (714) 640-2875.

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Two local chefs, who also happen to be husband and wife, have launched a newsletter for amateur cooks. “The Cooks Corner” plans to collect recipes from area restaurant chefs and adjust them for production in a home kitchen.

The newsletter is the work of William J. Bracken, executive sous chef at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach, and Michelle Bracken, pastry chef at Zov’s Bistro and Bakery in Tustin.

In the eight-page premiere issue, the Brackens have included tips on nutrition, buying fish and cooking with various kinds of wood chips. They promise to dedicate one or more recipes in each issue to healthy cooking.

The subscription price is $22 a year for six issues.

For more information, write to “The Cooks Corner,” P.O. Box 50116, Irvine 92714.

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The Chart House chain has begun a frequent-diner program.

The first “Aloha Club” member to dine at all 65 restaurants will win a pair of around-the-world airline tickets. That may take some effort, though, since Chart House restaurants are situated from Maui to Maryland.

Aloha Club members, who pay no membership fee, also earn 10 points for each dollar they spend; 5,000 points results in $50 worth of dining certificates.

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Claude Koeberle, executive chef and food and beverage director of the Ritz restaurant in Newport Beach, has been invited to help prepare a James Beard Foundation dinner in Scottsdale on Sunday.

Six other chefs from around the country will be joining Koeberle, whose course is dessert. He will be making a caramelized walnut cappuccino with roasted spiced pear and huckleberry coulis .

Proceeds from the dinner will benefit the foundation.

880 Newport Center Drive. (714) 720-1800.

Anne Michaud is a staff writer for The Times Orange County Edition. Information for the Newsbites column can be faxed to (714) 966-5663, or addressed to: Newsbites/OC Live!, The Times Orange County, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626. Or call (714) 966-7898.