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Chef Profile - Wolfgang Puck

Wolfgang Puck, in the eyes of food lovers and experts is the most famous chef in America and arguably the world. He has spawned a culinary empire that includes fine dining, casual dining, catering, publishing, cookware, television, radio and internet programming, consumer packaged foods, franchising, licensing and merchandising.

Wolfgang - whose first name alone identifies him across America - left Europe in 1973 at the age of 24, having already learned his craft as a classically trained French chef in the master kitchens of the Hotel de Paris in Monaco, Maxim's in Paris and L'Oustau de Baumanière in Provence. Fame and acclaim quickly followed - a combination of a dynamic personality and a culinary brilliance that bridged tradition and invention.

Wolfgang has changed the way Americans cook and eat by mixing formal French techniques and Asian and California-influenced esthetics with the highest quality ingredients. He also changed the face of dining in Las Vegas as the first star chef to create a contemporary fine dining restaurant. He has led the way for other celebrated chefs and the city's metamorphosis into a food haven.

His first signature dishes - "gourmet" pizzas topped with smoked salmon and caviar and Sonoma baby lamb with braised greens and rosemary - put him on the foodie map in Los Angeles at Spago West Hollywood, the restaurant launched with his wife and partner, designer Barbara Lazaroff in 1982.

The couple have created an empire of Wolfgang Puck dining establishments including 12 fine dining restaurants in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, Palo Alto and Maui and 34 casual dining and quick service restaurants in nationwide urban centers, airports and supermarkets.

The Austrian-born Puck began his formal training at age 14, inspired by his mother, a hotel chef. His talent and creativity developed at a succession of three-star French restaurants. Encouraged by a friend, Wolfgang immigrated to the United States, and his first stop was La Tour in Indianapolis. Puck moved to Los Angeles two years later, in 1975, and became both chef and part owner of Ma Maison, which quickly became a magnet for the rich and famous, with Puck the starring attraction.

After publishing his first cookbook, Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen in 1981, Puck established Spago on the Sunset Strip. Spago's casual-yet-sophisticated interior of natural woods and trend-setting open kitchen, designed by Lazaroff, coupled with Puck's own trademark gourmet pizzas, catapulted his popularity and fame worldwide. Spago featured a revolving display of contemporary art, and commissioned Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Richard Meier to design wine labels for its own Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Over its eighteen years, Spago earned many accolades including the prestigious Restaurant of the Year award by the James Beard Foundation in 1994.

Wolfgang and Barbara opened their second restaurant, Chinois on Main, in Santa Monica in 1983. Puck's experimentation with a more elaborate menu featuring imaginative Asian-fusion cuisine and Lazaroff's wildly exotic decor earned the restaurant international acclaim. That same year, Puck and Lazaroff were married.

Puck expanded into food retailing with the release of his first instructional cookbook, The Wolfgang Puck Cookbook, in 1986. He launched his first line of frozen food, in 1987, through the Wolfgang Puck Food Company, offering frozen desserts and quickly expanded into frozen pizzas. This was to become a major business in 2001.

Wolfgang's Postrio opened in 1989 in the Prescott Hotel off San Francisco's Union Square. Inspired by the city's multicultural influences, Postrio's menu features signature dishes that include Grilled Quail with Spinach and Soft Egg Ravioli and Roasted Liberty Duck Breast with Mille-Feuille of Curried Peaches and Spiced Duck Confit.

Granita, located in Malibu, opened in 1991, inspired by the colors and flavors of the Mediterranean, and mixing Wolfgang's interpretive classics from the south of France and Italy using local California ingredients. The works of more than 120 American artisans were used by Lazaroff in the creation of this unique award-winning setting near the Pacific. That same year Wolfgang also received the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef.

Also in 1991, the first Wolfgang Puck Express opened in San Francisco's Union Square, innovatively merging quick service with some of Wolfgang's classic dishes - pastas, pizzas and salads - to win new mainstream audiences. Incorporating all fresh ingredients and made-to-order preparations, this concept presaged today's quick casual restaurant industry development by ten years and formed the basis for later franchising development.

Wolfgang and Barbara launched Spago Las Vegas within the Forum Shops at Caesars in 1992. Its meteoric success transformed the culinary scene in the desert city pioneering fine dining and paving the way for other celebrity chefs like Mark Miller, Jean Georges Vongerichten and Emeril Lagasse, to open signature restaurants.

Other Spago restaurants in the Puck-Lazaroff family followed: Spago Tokyo, in 1992, Spago Chicago in 1996 and Spago Palo Alto in 1997. With the opening of Spago at the Four Seasons Resort Maui in 2001, the Wolfgang Puck fine dining operations move into a unique partnership with the world's premier hotel group, the Four Seasons.

In 1993, Wolfgang and Barbara entered the casual dining arena with the opening of a series of whimsical, upscale casual dining Wolfgang Puck Cafés. This full-service casual dining concept is dedicated to providing high quality food at affordable prices. Here Wolfgang combines an eclectic café menu featuring his wood-fired pizzas, specialty salads and pastas with Barbara's design of boldly colored mosaic tile and dramatic custom designed lighting and furniture. In 1994, the new Cafés garnered Wolfgang and Barbara the Hot Concept award from Nation's Restaurant News.

The James Beard Foundation gave its third award to Wolfgang and Barbara in 1994 when they were both named as Humanitarian of the Year.

In 1995 Wolfgang created a partnership with WP Productions, Inc. for the manufacture and marketing of cookware and other cooking oriented consumer products. This resulted in a cookware line named the Wolfgang Puck Bistro Collection being sold on Home Shopping Network, in retail outlets, and later through online retailers as well.

In 1997 Barbara and Wolfgang created Spago Beverly Hills, amid one of the most celebrated and exclusive retail areas in the world. Using Lazaroff's poem, "Flame of Life," as the underlying motif for the décor, Spago Beverly Hills blends the mystical colors of amethyst, green and golden amber, the rich woods of mahogany and purpleheart, Italian marbles, multi-colored slates and jewel-colored art-glass to create a magic culinary ambience. Puck's menu is a combination of updated Spago classics such as Seared Big-Eye Tuna with Thai Spices and Crispy Cantonese Duck. New creations with an Austrian influence and a wide variety of ever-changing dishes created by executive chef and partner Lee Hefter and pastry chef Sherry Yard blaze new ground in the flagship restaurant's continuing cutting-edge role as a creative force in California cuisine.

Later that year, Barbara and Wolfgang developed the Wolfgang Puck Grand Café in Orlando, Florida in Downtown Disney. The two story, swooping glass and painted steel exterior, 28 foot custom pizza oven, upstairs fine dining, 100 seat sushi bar, and an Express all complement a 500 seat café. Chinois Las Vegas opened in 1998 inside the Forum Shops at Caesars followed by the openings of Postrio in the Venetian Hotel and a new-concept, Trattoria del Lupo ("restaurant of the wolf") at the Mandalay Bay Resort in 1999.

Wolfgang published his fourth cookbook, Pizza, Pasta and More! in 2000 and Spago Beverly Hills was named Best Restaurant by Food & Wine magazine.

In May 2001 Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. (WPW) was established to manage global brand strategy across Wolfgang Puck's business activities in consumer packaged foods, cooking products, media content, and additional licensing and product opportunities planned as part of the Wolfgang Puck global expansion. Also that year, WPW announced a global partnership with ConAgra, the nation's second largest food company. The first product, introduced in 2002, was a newly created line of wood fired frozen pizzas. Later that year, Wolfgang and WPW developed a television show in partnership with the Food Network and Weller/Grossman Productions that began airing in January 2001. The show features Wolfgang cooking live in front of a studio audience, along with short field segments of Wolfgang discussing unique aspects of food on farms, wineries and meeting with industry luminaries such as Julia Child. By the following May 2002, Wolfgang had begun his third season of shows as Wolfgang Puck received the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Service Show.

Wolfgang is seen regularly on ABC's Good Morning America sharing his latest creations on this popular morning show. He has also appeared on a multitude of television shows including The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Entertainment Tonight, E! Entertainment Television, ABC News with Peter Jennings, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, Hollywood Squares, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, Frasier, The Simpsons, The History Channel, Wheel of Fortune and What's My Line. In 2001, the A&E Network featured the life of Wolfgang Puck on their popular Biography series. Wolfgang Puck Catering and Events debuted in May 1998 and moved to their permanent home in the new Hollywood & Highland® entertainment complex in November 2001. The 25,000-square foot Grand Ballroom, residence to the Academy Awards® annual Governors Ball, promises to set the standard in special event entertaining in Los Angeles. The Hollywood & Highland® location is also the site for Vert, the newest Wolfgang Puck restaurant concept opened in February 2002. In addition to the success of its off-site catering operations in Los Angeles, Wolfgang Puck Catering and Events is also responsible for much of Chicago's catering including Puck's at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the University of Chicago's Gleacher Center and Goldman Sachs at the Sears Tower.

Wolfgang and Barbara are actively involved in many philanthropic endeavors and charitable organizations including their own Puck-Lazaroff Charitable Foundation established in 1982. This Foundation supports the annual American Wine & Food Festival, which has benefited Meals-on-Wheels and has raised over $5 million over the past 19 years. The Harvard Business School of Southern California presented additional funds to Meals-on-Wheels when they awarded Wolfgang with their prestigious Business Statesman of the Year award in 2001. Wolfgang and Barbara are also major supporters of the American Cancer Society, the Alzheimer's Association, the Animal Foundation, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Los Angeles & Nevada, the Boys and Girls Club of America, the American Heart Association, Steppenwolf Theater, the Lytton Gardens, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Gateway Green, the Special Olympics, the Cystic Fibrosis Society, the Race to Erase MS and Mazon.

In addition to his many humanitarian awards, Wolfgang was proud to receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Culinary Arts from Johnson & Wales University, Providence, RI in 1998.

Wolfgang lives in Beverly Hills with Barbara and their two sons, Cameron and Byron.