LEADER OF THE PUCK

The pioneering celebrity chef who built an empire, WOLFGANG PUCK, talks to naseem randhawa on his childhood, success, and lessons with the release of his first ever documentary film.

Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck opens up on his childhood, success, and lessons with the release of his first documentary film

Wolfgang Puck doesn’t have an endgame, perhaps that’s why at age 71, he is still in the game.

Growing up poor in a small town in Austria, Wolfgang opens up on the hard beginnings of his childhood where living in meagre means also meant no running water in his house.

“We were very frugal back in Austria,” recounts Wolfgang. “I remember my mother making a vegetable soup and if she chopped up a celery stalk, we still kept the leaves and roots to use later. Whatever was left from lunch we had to eat for dinner as well.”

“I think my childhood difficulties back then have been embedded in me so much, that even now when I see a rotten apple in my fruit bowl at home, I tend to get upset over it. Food wastage is something I avoid as it really upsets me,” says Wolfgang.

With a strict stepfather who constantly nagged that Wolfgang would never amount to anything, he often found himself escaping to the kitchen to help his mother cook. This is where Wolfgang credits his developed interest for food.

But his actual love for cooking revealed itself when he was only 14 years old. Wolfgang’s first gig was at the Park Hotel in his hometown surrounded by professionally trained chefs, where his main assignment was peeling potatoes. Soon, Wolfgang made a career defining change and moved to Paris where he received training as an apprentice under Raymond Thuilier at L’Oustau de Baumanière at Hôtel de Paris in Monaco.

At age 24, Wolfgang’s resolve and love for the culinary world was set in stone. He moved to Los Angeles and had the offer to become chef and co-owner of Ma Maison, where he eventually turned a struggling French restaurant into the hottest place to be.

His personality and practise of greeting diners and talking about the dishes was not as common then as it is today. Chefs back then stayed in the rear of the kitchen, but not Wolfgang. He wanted to be front and center. This, his ex-wife and business partner Barbara Lazaroff says, played a big part in his success.

From actively appearing on cooking programs, talk shows, and even TV series, Wolfgang became a household name and the first to create the concept of a “celebrity chef ”, paving way for more celebrity chefs on TV like Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, and the late Anthony Bourdain, to name a few.

“Many ask me what it takes to be a celebrity chef. To me, the most important thing is always the food, their personality and hospitality. At the end of the day, what’s most important is the food on the plate,” says Wolfgang.

In 1982, Wolfgang took on the biggest risk of his career, quitting Ma Maison and opening up his first restaurant, Spago, an instant hit from the very first day it opened. Many celebrities soon flocked to the fusion restaurant on a daily basis, and Wolfgang became a part of their tight-knit circle, even being enlisted to cater for the Oscars which went on for decades.

Fast-forward to the present, Wolfgang’s empire now includes the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. and Wolfgang Puck Catering. With almost 30 fine dining restaurants and more than 80 Wolfgang Puck Express operations, kitchen and food merchandise, including cookbooks, canned foods, and coffee products, Wolfgang finally feels that he is ready to be part of his namesake documentary. From director David Gelb ( Jiro DreamsofSushi), and the creators of Chef’s Table, Wolfgang is a candid, inspiring and emotional documentary on Disney+ that finally tells his story.

“I always admired what David has done so far for the culinary world. I thought if I could do a Chef’sTable or be in a movie, that would be great! But David really saw that it should be a bigger story, so we ended up with a documentary,” says Wolfgang, who admits watching the finished product opened up some old forgotten wounds.

“Well maybe the documentary was a way for me to heal myself, but when I watched it, I relived the bad childhood memories and it was still painful like it was years ago,” says Wolfgang.

He also reflected on having had his marriage with Barbara end, and what the entire journey of his life thought him as he struggled to balance his home and workaholic habits.

“In life, the most important thing is to find balance, and it was really hard for me to find that. If you have family, no one wants to be left alone and it took me years and years to realise this,” reveals Wolfgang.

“Working was always my passion, it is my love. I had a hard time letting someone else in the kitchen to do my job,” he says.

Yet, if you ask him now, Wolfgang says he wouldn’t change a thing about his life. “It got me to where I am today. So to those out there chasing their own success, if you have the passion and courage to face adversity, you will eventually get there.”