It’s a typical day in the life of Wolfgang Puck: The Austria-born culinary phenom is up to his lederhosen in the details of yet another restaurant opening in Los Angeles, home to his self-named company. He just learned that the opening must happen two weeks earlier than previously planned, and that has the already-driven Puck pouring more coals on the fire. At 60, the world’s original celebrity chef is busier than the Octomom on diaper duty, and that, according to friends, is the way he likes it.
Twenty-seven years after opening Spago, his ever-fertile, überimaginative mind is as prodigious as ever, churning out new dishes, restaurants and products for thousands of supermarkets. If an egg sizzling in a skillet was the 1980s symbol for a brain on drugs, then a Porsche unleashed on the Autobahn must symbolize the brain of Puck: perfectly tuned and driven at full throttle.
“He’s always been like that, always running around, very busy,” says Kazuto Matsusaka, chef and co-owner of Beacon and The Point restaurants in Los Angeles. He met Puck at Ma Maison, also in Los Angeles.
Spago “took off so fast that it started to get out of hand, almost,” he says. Matsusaka became manager of Spago’s purchasing, receiving and production processes, which allowed “Wolf,” as friends call him, to focus on food and the famous faces gathering in his dining room.
“He always had friends coming and going in the dining room,” Matsusaka says. “I learned so much watching him.”
As did many other chefs who spotted Puck’s rising star and traveled from around the country to work for the dynamo. Merrill Shindler, editor of Zagat’s Los Angeles restaurant guide, says he’s lost count of the number of chefs who trained under Puck and went on to open other restaurants.
“I can’t imagine Los Angeles without him; there would be a huge hole in our culinary experience as a country,” Shindler says. “It’s like imagining New York without Danny Meyer or San Francisco without Alice Waters.”
Since opening Spago with former wife Barbara Lazaroff, who still remains his business partner, Puck has built his privately owned company into a multifaceted foodservice empire containing three divisions: Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining; Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, which includes the sub-brands of Wolfgang Puck Bistro, Wolfgang Puck Express and Wolfgang Puck Products, such as cookware and packaged foods; and Wolfgang Puck Catering. He has authored eight cookbooks, hosted a TV show and pens a weekly syndicated column read by more than 5 million people.
Abig-picture perspective Michael Ruhlman, author of “The Reach of a Chef,” which examines, among other subjects, how some chefs skillfully build large restaurant companies, says Puck’s ability to create such a dynamic, expanding enterprise is uncanny. In researching Puck for his book, Ruhlman struggled to pin down the peripatetic Puck for an interview. “When I did finally speak to him…he said the hardest thing he ever did was open that second restaurant,” Ruhlman says, chuckling over the fact nearly 150 restaurant and catering operations now bear Puck’s name. “Once chefs like him move into managing their restaurants rather than cooking in them all the time…they can make good decisions without losing sight of what’s important or, just as importantly, not getting buried in the details.” Not only does Puck have a rare ability to balance a chef’s sensibilities with a businessman’s savvy, Ruhlman says, but he’s also able to instill those ideals in his employees. “The great ones can articulate that, and they’re passionate about it,” Ruhlman says. “Thomas Keller happens to be very good at that, too. You don’t find that often.” Puck’s also passionate about his people, say former chefs and his managing partners. Josh DeChellis, executive chef at La Fonda Del Sol in New York, says Puck taught him that restaurant work wasn’t life itself, but part of it. “No one was working 13-hour days,” DeChellis says, referring to his time under Puck at Postrio. His boss was demanding, but kind, DeChellis adds. “He showed me the complete opposite of the frequently depicted, angry, old chef,” he says. Tom Kaplan, senior managing partner of Puck’s Fine Dining Group, says Puck’s ability to grow the company reflects his intuitive knack for hiring the right people, training them well and then empowering them to do their jobs. “He is a macromanager…who’s able to teach his philosophies to management and get that down to the unit level,” says Kaplan, who met Puck at Ma Maison and followed him to Spago. That Puck is generous with employees is essential to the high retention of upper-level management, he adds. Pleasing people’s palates TITLE: chief executive, Wolfgang Puck Cos.BIRTH DATE: Jan. 8, 1949HOMETOWN: St. Veit, AustriaEDUCATION: culinary apprenticeship at L’Oustau de Baumaniére, Provence, FrancePERSONAL: married; four sons Josiah Citrin, chef and co-owner of Melisse in Santa Monica, Calif., worked for Puck at Chinois and Granita. During that time, he says, he witnessed Puck’s innate sense of what customers want. “He just knows what people like,” Citrin says, adding that Puck’s food is ever evolving. “What he did in the ‘80s was really innovative, but now he’s cross-pollinating cuisines. That he’s been so successful for such a long period of time is amazing.”
