January 13, 1982

Poland says it has paid about $200 million of the $500 million in overdue interest it owes Western banks, a West German bank reported today. However, bank officials reached in London, Frankfurt and Vienna said that, as of Monday, they were not aware of any significant payment. In a statement released by the Dresdner Bank, the West German bank that has coordinated Western banks' debt rescheduling talks with the Polish authorities, the bank said that its chairman, Hans Friderichs, and the board member responsible for East European lending, Christoph von der Decken, had traveled to Poland Monday. The statement reported that Poland's Finance Minister, Marian Krzak, had told them Monday during a visit to Warsaw that Poland had paid all but ''less than $300 million'' in the interest arrears that it had promised to pay by the end of 1981.

President Reagan, in an abrupt policy change prompted by his advisers' warnings that he was being viewed as racist, called today for legislation to outlaw tax exemptions for organizations that discriminate racially. However, the President's announcement leaves in place a new policy of granting tax exemptions to segregated private schools until Congress outlaws Text of statement is on page A11. it. The result is a contradictory state of affairs in which the President is proposing legislation to end a practice initiated last week with his blessing. Four days ago, Treasury and Justice Department officials, with Mr. Reagan's direct personal approval, announced that the Internal Revenue Service would no longer deny tax exemptions to nonprofit institutions, particularly private schools, that practice racial discrimination, as the service had done since the Nixon Administration.

WHAT equipment is needed in setting up a basic modern kitchen? What dishes - and what techniques - are appropriate for the neophyte cook? Pierre Franey and I recently worked out a series of recipes for ambitious beginners, and in doing so compiled a list of utensils that we consider essential to those who want to cook wisely and well. The recipes start with the preparation of a white sauce and proceed to the making of French pastry for an apple tart. While not enormously complicated, they do require a certain sense of adventure. And those who work through them successfully will be ready to move onto more elaborate and sophisticated culinary undertakings. Our menu be gins with what I call ''mock eggs Benedict,'' which includes the making of a basic cream sauce that was one of the first things I lear ned to master myself in the days when a classic hollandaise w as beyond me. There are also a broiled dish, a casserolethat involves poaching a chicken, a fine but elementary red wine stewand, finally, the tart.

A fire investigator for the state has termed ''accidental'' the 1980 fire that killed 26 people at Stouffer's Inn in Harrison, N.Y., and has said in court papers that an assistant district attorney told him not to write reports about it. An affidavit by the investigator, Edson F. White, accompanied a motion filed today by defense lawyers to dismiss an indictment against Luis Marin, a former Stouffer's coffee waiter charged with arson and 26 counts of murder. ''My opinion based upon analysis in depth o f the facts that we weredealing with an accidental fire was directly delivered to Mr. Fleming,'' Mr. White wrote. ''His response wa s, 'I don't want you to write any reports.' ''

One day recently, the acting principal of Jamaica High School in Queens got a letter from the Board of Education's testing division asking that he let his students participate in a pilot examination to help construct a new test. Realizing that the Schools Chancellor had directed that testing be minimized to preserve instructional time, the acting principal was reluctant to grant the request. He finally assented, however, feeling that some schools had to cooperate if new citywide tests were to be developed. The acting principal and the Chancellor happened to be the same person, Frank J. Macchiarola, and the incident exemplifies one of theof the many w ays in which he has discovered the difference between issuing order s from headquarters and carrying them out in the field.