Wolfgang Johannes Puck

Wolfgang Puck in 1988
Born	July 8, 1949 (1949-07-08) (age 60) Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria
Cooking style	California, French, and Fusion
Education	Apprenticeship
Current restaurant(s) Spago Beverly Hills; Spago Las Vegas; Spago Maui; Cut and sideBar (Beverly Hills); Vert (Hollywood); Chinois (Santa Monica, CA and Las Vegas); Postrio (San Francisco and Las Vegas); Trattoria del Lupo (Las Vegas); Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill (Las Vegas); Wolfgang Puck American Grille (Atlantic City); Wolfgang Puck Grille (Detroit); 20.21 (Minneapolis); The Source (Washington, DC); Spago Bachelor Gulch, CO; CUT Las Vegas; Wolfgang Puck Express (numerous)
Television show(s) Iron Chef America, Las Vegas, Frasier; Food Network; Good Morning America

Wolfgang Johannes Puck (born Wolfgang Johannes Topfschnig on July 8, 1949) is an Austrian celebrity chef, restaurateur, and businessman based in Los Angeles. Wolfgang Puck restaurants, catering services, cookbooks and licensed products are run by Wolfgang Puck Companies, with three divisions.

[edit] Biography

He was born to Maria Topfschnig and a butcher who abandoned her before their child's birth. Maria married Josef Puck in 1956, who adopted Wolfgang. The marriage produced another son and two daughters.

Puck learned cooking from his mother, who sometimes worked as a pastry chef. He trained as an apprentice under Raymond Thuilier at L'Oustau de Baumaniere in Provence, at Hotel de Paris in Monaco, and at Maxim's Paris before moving to the United States in 1973 at age 25. After two years at La Tour in Indianapolis, Puck moved to Los Angeles to become chef and part owner at Ma Maison restaurant.

Following the 1981 publication of his first cookbook, Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen based on his Ma Maison recipes, Puck opened the restaurant Spago on the Sunset Strip in 1982. Fifteen years later, in 1997, Puck opened the award-winning Spago in Beverly Hills ^[1], which has been recognized as one of the Top 40 Restaurants in the U.S. since 2004. His success enabled him to launch the Wolfgang Puck Companies which includes the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. and Wolfgang Puck Catering. The Wolfgang Puck Companies encompasses over 20 fine dining restaurants ^[2] , premium catering services, more than 80 Wolfgang Puck Express operations, and kitchen and food merchandise, including cookbooks and canned foods. He is the official caterer for the Academy Awards Governors Ball, and has parlayed his celebrity into acting; his credits include Frasier, a recurring role as himself on Las Vegas and a cameo appearance on The Weather Man. He also appeared as himself on Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters, as well as Cooking Class with Wolfgang Puck on The Food Network, and in an American Idol season finale episode where he introduced unusual foods to Kellie Pickler in comic relief segments. He also made a cameo appearance as himself on an episode of Tales from the Crypt, and appeared in a TV commercial advertising California (along with famous people such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jack Nicholson).

Puck is active in philanthropic endeavors and charitable organizations, co-founding the Puck-Lazaroff Charitable Foundation in 1982. The foundation supports the annual American Wine & Food Festival which benefits Meals on Wheels and has raised more than $15 million since its inception.

Puck is The Honorary Chair Chef for the "Five Star Sensation" Benefit in Cleveland, Ohio every two years helping to bring $10 Million Dollars to support The Ireland Cancer Foundation of University Hospitals. http://www.uhhospitals.org/irelandcancer/tabid/2314/Default.aspx

Puck has two sons, Cameron and Byron, with business partner and former wife Barbara Lazaroff, and two more sons, Oliver (born July 17, 2005) and Alexander (born December 20, 2006) by his Ethiopian-born second wife, Gelila Assefa. On July 7, 2007, Puck married Assefa on the Italian island of Capri.

Wolfgang Puck's favorite food ^[3] is macaroons.

Wolfgang Puck and his wife were sued for $5 million in 2009 for failing to follow the terms of a contract they signed to promote the (now failed) .food domain. ^[4]

[edit] Awards

Wolfgang Puck at the 2009 Academy Awards

Spago Beverly Hills received a James Beard Foundation Outstanding Service Award in 2005. In November 2007 it was awarded 2 Michelin Stars in the 2008 Los Angeles Michelin Guide.

In 1993, Spago Hollywood was inducted into the Nation's Restaurant News Fine Dining Hall of Fame. The next year it received the James Beard Restaurant of the Year Award.

In 2002 Puck received the 2001-2002 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Service Show, Wolfgang Puck.

[edit] Restaurants

• Spago, Puck's first restaurant opened on the Sunset Strip serving California cuisine.
• Chinois, Santa Monica, California Fusion cuisine (1983)
• Postrio, San Francisco (1989) Italian and Asian fusion
• Granita, Malibu (1991) Mediterranean cuisine
• Spago Beverly Hills (1997) Known for serving California cuisine. Spago Beverly Hills, Spago Chicago, Spago Las Vegas, Spago Maui, and Spago Palo Alto followed.
• Postrio and Trattoria del Lupo, Las Vegas
• Cut Los Angeles steak house
• Five-Sixty, Puck's latest restaurant, is located in Dallas, Texas and features Asian-inspired New American cuisine. ^[5]
• Wolfgang Puck's Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
• The Source Washington, DC Asian Fusion located at the Newseum news museum ^[6]
• Wolfgang Puck B&G (2009), in Los Angeles, serving California cuisine. ^[7]
• Cut Las Vegas steak house
• Wolfgang Puck in Walt Disney World. It is located in Downtown Disney.
• 20.21 located in the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota and serves Asian cuiuse.

Wolfgang Puck Express at Sea-tac airport in Burien

[edit] Bibliography

• Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen (1980)
• The Wolfgang Puck Cookbook (1986)
• Adventures in the Kitchen with Wolfgang Puck (1991)
• Pizza, Pasta, and More (2000)

[edit] Television and movie credits

• Top Chef: Las Vegas (Guest Judge) 2009 TV Show Series
• Celebrity Cooking Showdown (Reality Cast Member) 2006 TV Show Series
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes (Remarks by) 2005 TV Show Series
• The Weather Man (Actor - Himself) 2005 Movie
• The Simpsons - The Bart Wants What It Wants (Guest Star) - 2002 TV Show Series
• Wolfgang Puck series 2001 S
• The Muse (Actor - Himself) 1999 Movie ^[8]
• Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters
• Frasier episode: The Proposal (Actor - Himself) TV Show Series
• The Jay Leno Show: Jaywalking (Himself) October 13, 2009

[edit] References

• "Wolfgang Puck: Biography"; WolfgangPuck.com (2005); retrieved January 30, 2006
• "Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group-Spago" retrieved September 26, 2008
• "Wolfgang Puck Answers 10 Questions"
• "2001-2002 Daytime Emmy Awards"

[edit] External links

• Official Website
• Wolfgang Puck at the Internet Movie Database