Robin Leach, the former host of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” calls Wolfgang Puck “the most famous chef in the world.”
Besides winning an Emmy for a cooking show, Puck’s celebrity credits include a cameo on “The Simpsons,” an appearance in “The Muse”—a movie starring Sharon Stone—and catering contracts for many of Tinseltown’s most talked about parties.
Puck is no newcomer. More than two decades ago he was already regularly appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“He is the chef to the stars and a star chef in his own right,” Leach says. “Wolf started the whole [celebrity chef] movement. His kitchen became a stage open to the guests to watch him perform his craft.”
Along with all the fame has come notable fortune. In 1999 Puck was the first chef to be named to “Forbes’ Celebrity 100” list, which is based on name recognition as well as earnings, and he has appeared on that list every year since.
Puck’s 14 fine-dining restaurants, more than 80 grab-and-go concepts, widely distributed frozen pizzas, a canned soup line and a full line of kitchenware post systemwide annual sales of approximately $350 million. And at 57, Puck is the youngest person to be named a Fine Dining Hall of Fame Legend. “I think I’m too young for that,” Puck says.
“He deserves the accolades and rewards,” says Patrick Terrail, Puck’s former employer who now publishes “85 South/Out and About,” a paper based in Hogansville, Ga. “He doesn’t have a short memory. He remembers the people who helped him. And his success and millions have not gotten to his head. He is still the same big teddy bear he was when he first came to Ma Maison,” which Terrail owned in Los Angles.
“He has done a lot of good for the industry,” Terrail adds. “A great chef is not a great chef unless he has the ability to impart his knowledge to others and make them great chefs. Look at all the cooks who have come out of his establishments. He is generous when he sees talent that really wants to succeed.”
Leach says: “More than anything, I’m impressed with his honesty and loyalty. It’s a testament to him that so many of his partners and staff have been with him for the complete run.”
Sharing a piece of the pie Running a food empire requires a large team of dedicated staff and partners. “The most important thing is I give people part of the business, and I pay them well,” Puck says. “It gives them incentives to stay around. I believe you treat them well and give them freedom.” Tom Kaplan, now senior managing partner with Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group based in Las Vegas, started out as office manager at Puck’s first restaurant, Spago in Hollywood, Calif., which debuted 25 years ago. “When Wolf would introduce us then as ‘my partner’—that was priceless,” Kaplan says. BORN: 1949 in St. Veit, Austria CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: opening the first Spago in Hollywood, Calif.; winning first cooking competition at approximately 15 years of age; raising money for charities starting in 1982 with Meals on Wheels MOST POPULAR DISH: smoked salmon pizza with chive cream and caviar ANNUAL SYSTEMWIDE SALES: approximately $350 million from Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, Wolfgang Puck Catering and Wolfgang Puck Worldwide Inc. MOST PROFITABLE FINE-DINING RESTAURANT: Spago in Maui, Hawaii HIGHEST REVENUE PER SQUARE FOOT:Cut steakhouse in Beverly Hills, Calif. “And it continues now,” he adds. “There are at least 20 people who have a partnership, and that is why we have this great infrastructure of people who are still with us. The staff knows that we’re an extension” of Puck. “Part of the way we grew in the ’80s and early ’90s was to accommodate talent,” says Kaplan, who adds that these days decisions are made by following a more formal business plan. But early on, Puck opened many restaurants in order to make room for growth and opportunity for the staff. One of the reasons why he was so successful and could open so many restaurants is because he offered “sizeable partnerships” within the organization, Kaplan says. Leading by example and by stirring the pot “It starts with Wolf,” Kaplan says. “He is one of the most humble, generous and humane individuals I’ve ever met. At the same time he is extremely passionate, extremely driven and a great leader and inspirer.” Among the Puck protégés who have moved on and been inducted into NRN’s Fine Dining Hall of Fame for their own restaurants are Hiro Sone of Terra in St. Helena, Calif., and the founders of Los Angeles’ Campanile, Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton. Chef Jennifer Jasinski worked her way up from line cook to corporate chef of the cafes during her 11-year tenure with Puck and before moving to Denver to open two popular outlets—Rioja and Bistro Vendôme. She says Puck was a master at picking “people who had great talent, but there just for themselves.” When Puck was first building his businesses he was also stirring the pot, literally. “When we would open a new restaurant, Wolf would say to the staff, ‘Eight hours is a half day’s work,’ and about half of them wouldn’t show up the next day,” Kaplan says. Besides weeding out the weak, Puck led by example. “He was the first to come and the last to leave,” Jasinski says. And it didn’t matter how expensive or inexpensive a dish or ingredient was, she says, “[Puck] put in the same attention to detail. You made it with pride, and you made it right. He also had fun and has a great sense of humor with everything. “The whole restaurant was his thing, not just the kitchen,” she adds. “He had a good idea of what the customers needed.” Puck cooked for many guests himself, and he also named some dishes after a number of his most famous customers. Leach says Puck told him he named a smoked salmon pizza in Leach’s honor. But when Leach ordered the “Rich and Famous” pizza while dining with actress Joan Collins he learned that the pizza, which doesn’t appear on any menu, was identical to the one Puck told Collins was the “Dynasty” pizza created in her honor. “Wolf dubbed the same pizza with two different names, never guessing the two of us would be at the same table at the same time,” Leach says. “It caused a great laugh after a tiny bit of embarrassment. And sometimes now Joan orders my pizza and I order hers, but we wind up with the same.” Kaplan says that salmon pizza can be ordered in Puck’s fine-dining restaurants and is still the most popular Puck dish. But at the new Cut steakhouse in Beverly Hills, Calif., Japanese Wagyu steaks priced at $160 for an 8-ounce grilled rib-eye and $120 for a 6-ounce New York strip have “became signature dishes instantly, like the pizza.” Apath less followed Puck was born into the culinary world. His mother was a hotel chef, and he began formal culinary training at age 14. Within a year or two, Puck doesn’t recall the exact date, he won a market-basket-style cooking competition, and by 20 he was working in the kitchen of the Michelin three-star rated L’Oustau de Baumanière in Provence, France. Next he moved to Paris and worked at the famed Maxim’s. By age 24, he landed in the United States and agreed to work at La Tour in Indianapolis because he says he was a race car fan and thought it would be exciting living in the hometown of the Indy 500. It wasn’t. By 1975 Puck moved to Los Angeles and was the chef of Ma Maison, which was still undiscovered by the star fans who popularized it in following years. In fact, he says Ma Maison was so quiet when he started that his first paycheck bounced. But Puck’s ambitions weren’t deterred. He said he told his then-boss Terrail that as soon as he saved $25,000 he would open his own restaurant. First, however, he accomplished his second goal—he authored his first cookbook, “Modern French Cooking,” in 1981. But he realized his initial estimate for seed money to open a restaurant was a tad low. So together with his now exwife Barbara Lazaroff, he raised $500,000—$60,000 from a bank loan and the remainder from investors Puck said he met mostly while teaching cooking classes. With those funds Puck opened the first Spago. In 1983 Puck established a second restaurant—Chinois on Main in Santa Monica, Calif. And in 1989 he traveled north to San Francisco, where he launched Postrio. The first Wolfgang Puck Express opened in 1991, the same year his third and most recent cookbook was published. The next year a Las Vegas branch of Spago opened in the then uncrowded, chef-driven restaurant market, and by 1997 Spago Palo Alto and Spago Beverly Hills were conceived. Besides building the businesses, Puck has recently added to his family of two grown sons. He and his fiancée, Gelila Assefa, have a 20-month-oldson and a 5-month-old son. The couple is scheduled to marry this summer in Capri, Italy. Even as he dedicates more time to his family, Puck still hasn’t slowed down, notes partner Kaplan. “He is not happy unless he is in the restaurant,” he says. “He will touch each table and not discriminate against anybody. Even if Tom Cruise is there, he will talk to people he doesn’t know. But he may be at Tom Cruise’s table a little longer.” Puck says the biggest drawbacks to his fame have been the demands on his personal time and the public’s interest in his personal life. What’s on the horizon Puck continues to create. The newest fine-dining operation, Cut, a steakhouse with a $130 check average, opened last year in Beverly Hills, Calif. Cut has become such a hit that a second location is scheduled to open in Las Vegas in December and two more are on the books for Dallas and Los Angeles, Kaplan says. “We are going more towards organic and all natural,” Kaplan adds. He says they are in the “discussion stage” of looking “towards the company going greener.” Kaplan says that the company plans to continue partnering with hotels and casinos. “They have been so successful,” he says. “You sort of have a built-in audience when you have a city above you.” The Palo Alto unit of Spago, a standalone unit, is scheduled to close next month. However, fine-dining outlets are slated to open next in Bachelor Gulch, Colo., at the Ritz-Carlton Club and in Detroit at the MGM Grand casino. An Asian-influenced outlet also is planned for the Newseum in Washington, D.C., Kaplan says. And some say Puck’s biggest hit is still in the works. “He still has a great fine-dining restaurant in him,” says former boss Terrail, who envisions the future outlet to be small and serve “the finest food, and [Puck] would be cooking.” Puck says he is focused on the future. “My main thing isn’t what happened, but what is going to happen,” he says.