Wolfgang Puck booking

Category / genre: Celebrity Chefs

Request a quote Check availability

The name Wolfgang Puck is synonymous with the best of restaurant hospitality and the ultimate in all
aspects of the culinary arts. The famous chef has built an empire that encompasses three separate
Wolfgang Puck entities: Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, Wolfgang Puck Catering, and Wolfgang
Puck Worldwide, Inc. Puck began cooking at his mother’s side as a child. She was a chef in the
Austrian town where he was born, and with her encouragement, Wolfgang began his formal training at
fourteen years of age. As a young chef he worked in some of France’s greatest restaurants, including
Maxim’s in Paris, the Hotel de Paris in Monaco, and the Michelin 3-starred L’Oustau de Baumanière in
Provence. At the age of 24, Wolfgang took the advice of a friend and left Europe for the United States.
His first job was at the restaurant La Tour in Indianapolis, where he worked from 1973 to 1975.
Wolfgang came to Los Angeles in 1975 and very quickly garnered the attention of the Hollywood elite
as chef and eventually part owner of Ma Maison in West Hollywood. His dynamic personality and
culinary brilliance that bridged tradition and invention made Ma Maison a magnet for the rich and
famous, with Wolfgang as the star attraction. He had an innate understanding of the potential for
California cuisine, and was pivotal in its rise to national attention during the late 1970s.
From Ma Maison, Wolfgang went on to create his first flagship restaurant, Spago, originally located in
West Hollywood on the Sunset Strip. From its opening day in 1982 Spago was an instant success and
culinary phenomenon. His early signature dishes, such as haute cuisine pizzas topped with smoked
salmon and caviar, and Sonoma baby lamb with braised greens and rosemary, put him and Spago on
the gourmet map, not just in Los Angeles but throughout the world. Wolfgang and Spago earned many
accolades during its popular eighteen years in West Hollywood, including winning the prestigious
James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Chef of the Year, twice, in 1991 and 1998, and the
James Beard Foundation Award for Restaurant of the Year in 1994. Wolfgang is the only chef to have
won the Outstanding Chef of the Year Award two times. In 1983, following the success of Spago, Puck
went on to open Chinois on Main in Santa Monica. His early exposure to Southern California’s
multicultural population intrigued him, inspiring him to fuse the Asian flavors and products of
Koreatown, Chinatown, and Thaitown with his French- and California-based cuisine in a fine dining
setting. Chinois on Main brought diners a fresh and imaginative Asian-fusion menu that laid the
groundwork for fusion cooking in America. In 1989, Wolfgang opened his third restaurant, Postrio, in
the Prescott Hotel off San Francisco’s Union Square. Postrio also draws upon the multi-ethnic nature
of its surroundings. Its contemporary American cuisine, with its emphasis on local ingredients,
continues to draw rave reviews in Northern California’s highly competitive culinary market. In 1997,
Wolfgang moved Spago to an elegant setting on Cañon Drive in Beverly Hills. His Beverly Hills menu
blazed new ground, with a combination of updated Spago classics and newly conceived items created
by the award-winning talents of Managing Partner/Executive Chef Lee Hefter and Executive Pastry
Chef Sherry Yard. The seasonal menu also draws from Wolfgang’s favorite childhood dishes, offering
a selection of Austrian specialties such as Wienerschnitzel and Kaiserschmarren. Spago Beverly Hills
recently garnered two coveted Michelin Stars, one of only three Los Angeles restaurants to achieve
this accolade. In 2006, Wolfgang opened CUT, a sleek, contemporary steakhouse at the acclaimed
Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel. After only one year, CUT earned a prestigious Michelin star.
Wolfgang has changed the way Americans cook and eat by mixing formal French techniques and
Asian- and California-influenced aesthetics with the highest quality ingredients. He also has changed
the face of dining in cities throughout the nation, first in Los Angeles, then in Las Vegas, where he was
the first star chef to create a contemporary fine dining restaurant, paving the way for other celebrated
chefs and the city’s metamorphosis into a dining destination. After opening Spago in the Forum Shops
at Caesars in 1992, Wolfgang went on to open five additional restaurants including Chinois in the
Forum Shops at Caesars in 1998, Postrio at The Venetian and Trattoria del Lupo in the Mandalay Bay
Resort and Casino in 1999, Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill at MGM Grand in 2004 and CUT at The
Palazzo in 2008. Since 2001, Wolfgang and his Fine Dining Group have opened restaurants across
the United States from Atlantic City (Wolfgang Puck American Grille at the Borgata Hotel Casino &

Spa in 2006) to Maui (Spago at the Four Seasons Resort in 2001). These also include The Source in
Washington, DC (2007), Wolfgang Puck Grille at MGM Grand Detroit (2007), Spago at The Ritz
Carlton, Bachelor Gulch in Colorado (2007), Five Sixty by Wolfgang Puck at Reunion Tower in Dallas
(2009) and Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill at L.A. Live (2009).
Wolfgang formed Wolfgang Puck Catering (WPC) in May 1998, alongside partner Carl Schuster. The
company brings a new level of innovation and inspiration to restaurant and special event catering and
foodservice management for cultural, corporate and entertainment venues across the country. WPC is
renowned for catering such high profile events as the annual Governors Ball, where Puck has been
honored to serve as official chef for the post-Academy Awards® celebrity banquet for the past 14
years, as well as the GRAMMY awards celebration, the ESPY awards, American Music Awards,
presidential galas and fundraisers. WPC is also responsible for catering services at premier locations
in thirteen major markets including L.A. LIVE, Sony Pictures Studios, Hollywood & Highland, and
Pacific Design Center (Los Angeles); Union Station, Reunion Tower, and Nasher Sculpture Center
(Dallas); Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Chicago GSB Gleacher Center, and Spertus
Institute of Jewish Studies (Chicago); St. Louis Art Museum; Museum of Science and Institute of
Contemporary Art (Boston); Walker Art Center (Minneapolis); Indianapolis Museum of Art; Benaroya
Hall (Seattle); Newseum (Washington, DC); Springs Preserve (Las Vegas); Georgia Aquarium
(Atlanta); and La Jolla Playhouse (San Diego). WPC’s strategic partnership with Compass Group has
fueled its dramatic growth over the last four years, including joint ventures with sister company
Restaurant Associates and a national concession agreement with concert promoter Live Nation.
Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. is a privately held corporation that includes a rapidly growing franchise
of casual Wolfgang Puck Bistro restaurants, fast-casual Wolfgang Puck Express restaurants,
consumer products, book publishing, television and Internet programming, and other licensing and
merchandising projects. In 1991, Wolfgang launched a chain of fast-casual restaurants called
Wolfgang Puck Express. The restaurants emphasize freshness and quality, preparing food fresh-toorder at affordable prices. They feature Wolfgang Puck’s signature hand-crafted pizzas, a variety of
pastas, sandwiches, soups, fresh salads and Wolfgang’s classics such as Chinois Chicken™ Salad,
Teriyaki-Glazed Salmon and Rotisserie Chicken with Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Express restaurants
are located in more than 80 locations in major urban and suburban retail centers and airports
throughout the United States, Canada and Japan. Concurrently with his restaurant and catering
operations, Wolfgang Puck has made a name for himself as a communicator. He has written six
cookbooks and has been a regular guest on ABC’s Good Morning America since 1986, the year he
also produced his first instructional cooking video, Spago Cooking with Wolfgang Puck. His Emmy
Award-winning television series, “Wolfgang Puck,” debuted on The Food Network in 2000 and aired
for five seasons. Wolfgang also has made guest appearances on a multitude of television shows
including The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Late Show
with Craig Ferguson, The Ellen De Generes Show, Entertainment Tonight, E! Entertainment
Television, Hollywood Squares, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, Frasier, The Simpsons, The
History Channel, Wheel of Fortune, Las Vegas, Shark and What’s My Line. In 2001, the A&E Network
featured the life of Wolfgang Puck on their popular Biography series. Wolfgang’s syndicated
newspaper column, “Wolfgang Puck’s Kitchen,” appears in 30 newspapers in the United States and
Canada, reaching more than 5.3 million people each week. The chef is known to tens of thousands of
television viewers who see him regularly on Home Shopping Network, where he demonstrates recipes
using his growing line of Wolfgang Puck branded housewares. These include stainless steel
cookware, small kitchen electrics such as panini grills, food processors, blenders and electric grills,
flatware, cutlery, bakeware, and other kitchen gadgets and tools. In addition to his branded
housewares, Wolfgang Puck’s consumer products include a wide range of foods. He launched his first
line of frozen food in 1987 to meet his customers’ desire to enjoy Spago-quality food at home.
Wolfgang Puck All-Natural Frozen Pizzas and Appetizers, All-Natural and Organic Wolfgang Puck
Soups, Stocks and Broths, Estate Grown Organic Coffees and Ready to Drink Coffees and Wolfgang
Puck All-Natural No-Stick Cooking and Baking sprays are available at grocery stores nationwide.

Gelson’s supermarkets in Southern California offer Wolfgang Puck fresh-packaged foods, and
Wolfgang Puck coffee blends are sold through Amenity Services to hotels, resorts, local market office
distribution and websites.
Wolfgang is actively involved in many philanthropic endeavors and charitable organizations, including
his own Wolfgang Puck-Barbara Lazaroff Charitable Foundation. Each year since 1983 the foundation
hosts the annual American Wine & Food Festival, which has benefited the Meals-on-Wheels programs
of Los Angeles and has raised more than $13 million over the past two decades. The Harvard
Business School of Southern California presented additional funds to Meals-on-Wheels when they
presented Wolfgang with their honored Business Statesman of the Year award in 2001. Wolfgang is
also a major supporter of the American Cancer Society, the Alzheimer’s Association, Ireland Cancer
Center at University Hospitals of Cleveland, the Animal Foundation, the Gateway Green, the Special
Olympics, the Cystic Fibrosis Society, the Race to Erase MS, the Carousel of Hope Ball for the
Children’s Diabetes Foundation and the Fire and Ice Ball for Revlon/UCLA Women’s Cancer Research
Program.
Central to all of Wolfgang Puck’s endeavors is his Wolfgang’s Eat, Love, Live ™ (WELL) philosophy.
This stands for culinary passion for eating and dining WELL, which means a commitment to provide
food made with only the freshest and most natural and organic ingredients available, to celebrate local
farmers and seasonal ingredients, and to use only humanely raised animal products. Wolfgang Puck
lives in Los Angeles, with his wife, Gelila, and has four sons, Cameron, Byron, Oliver, and Alexander.