Wolfgang Puck

Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, Wolfgang Puck Catering and Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. | California

The name Wolfgang Puck is synonymous with the best of restaurant hospitality and the ultimate in all aspects of the culinary arts. The famed chef has built a brand that encompasses three companies: Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, Wolfgang Puck Catering, and Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc.

Puck was born in Austria and began cooking along side his mother at a very young age. A chef herself, she encouraged Wolfgang and inspired his passion for food. So driven and inquisitive to learn, he started his formal training when he was just fourteen years old. 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 2-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.

In 1975, Wolfgang came to Los Angeles and very quickly garnered the attention of the Hollywood elite as chef 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. Wolfgang was 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.

Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group

After leaving Ma Maison, in 1982 Wolfgang opened his first flagship restaurant, Spago. Located in West Hollywood on the Sunset Strip, 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 international gourmet map. 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 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 multiple times.

In 1983, following the success of Spago, Wolfgang opened 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 Thai Town with his French and California-based cuisine in a fine dining setting. Chinois on Main brings diners a fresh and imaginative Asian-fusion menu that laid the groundwork for fusion cooking in America.

After 15 years in West Hollywood, in 1997 Wolfgang moved Spago to an elegant setting on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills. His menu blazed new ground, with a combination of updated Spago classics and newly conceived items. The seasonal menu drew inspiration from Wolfgang’s favorite childhood dishes, offering a selection of Austrian specialties such as Wienerschnitzel and Kaiserschmarren. Spago Beverly Hills garnered two coveted Michelin Stars, one of only three Los Angeles restaurants to achieve this accolade. In 2012, Wolfgang fearlessly transformed Spago through a complete renovation in both menu and design.

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 among numerous other top accolades including Restaurant of the Year by Esquire Magazine from noted food critic John Mariani.

Wolfgang has changed the way Americans cook and eat by combining classic French techniques with California and Asian influences as well as the freshest and finest ingredients. He has also 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 an acclaimed dining destination.

After opening Spago in the Forum Shops at Caesars in 1992, Wolfgang went on to open six additional restaurants in the Las Vegas including the now closed Postrio Bar & Grill at The Venetian in 1999, Trattoria del Lupo at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in 1999, Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill at MGM Grand in 2004, CUT at The Palazzo in 2008, Cucina by Wolfgang Puck, located in The Shops at Crystals in 2010, and his first off strip restaurant, Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill, in the burgeoning neighborhood of Downtown Summerlin. In 2018 Spago moved to the prestigious Bellagio Hotel.

Wolfgang Puck Catering

Wolfgang formed Wolfgang Puck Catering (WPC) in May 1998 alongside partner. The company brings a new level of innovation and inspiration to special event and contract dining services for cultural, corporate and entertainment venues across the country. WPC offers a restaurant-quality experience in a special event setting for 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 over 20 years, as well as global business summits, film premieres, and presidential galas.

Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc.

Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. is a privately held corporation that includes a rapidly growing portfolio of company-owned and franchised locations of casual dining and fast-casual restaurants, as well as consumer products including Wolfgang Puck packaged food and beverages, book publishing, and other licensing and merchandising projects.

The Wolfgang Puck casual dining segment includes a wide variety of concepts in varying venues globally. From airports and universities to hospitals, casinos and street-side restaurants, these concepts include over 50 locations with a portfolio that continues to expand. The menus rotate new, seasonal specials throughout the year, highlighting the local produce of the season, as well as organic options where possible. Locations featuring a bar also include a boutique wine list and cocktails developed by Wolfgang’s beverage team.

Wolfgang Puck has made a name for himself as a communicator. He 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 2001 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 has written seven cookbooks including his latest book, “Wolfgang Puck Makes it Healthy” which debuted in spring 2014. This year, Wolfgang opened The Rogue Experience, a new restaurant located within the experimental test kitchen of the Wolfgang Puck corporate headquarters in West Hollywood, CA. Rogue presents an intimate, and untraditional tasting menu experience for eight guests each night.

The chef is known to millions of television viewers who see him regularly on Home Shopping Network (HSN), 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, his breakthrough pressure oven and other kitchen gadgets and tools.