With a new documentary about his life, Wolfgang Puck stops by his Georgetown restaurant to chat about life, food and where to travel next—all revealing how he’s very much still in the culinary game.
PORTRAIT BY MARCO BOLLINGER
With a new documentary about his life, Wolfgang Puck stops by his Georgetown restaurant to chat about life, food and where to travel next—all revealing how he’s very much still in the culinary game.
When Wolfgang Puck is in the house, there’s a palpable buzz. Not simply because he’s one of the planet’s most accomplished chefs, who has some of Hollywood’s most important celebs, directors and producers among his friends. There’s a buzz because Puck is a cook, and cooks make noise. It’s quality turbulence and commotion, the kind that involves high-minded chatter among his staff, teaching moments, spice comparisons, random tasting and even laughter. I arrive at CUT (wolfgangpuck.com), Puck’s Georgetown restaurant on 31st Street inside Rosewood Washington, DC, and the great chef is busy prepping a chicken. Making noise. An assistant reminds him about the interview, and pulling him away from his craft is challenging work. After all of this time, he clearly still loves the allure of the kitchen. A new documentary, Wolfgang, recently began streaming on Disney+ after its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival. It’s a sprawling film that reveals as much about persistence as it does culinary brilliance. Puck possesses both, and when we finally sat down, I learned the man’s X factor is the art of conversation. We could have talked for hours. Well, I could have. The great chef had places to go. When we wrapped up the interview, I asked Puck what he was doing that night, suggesting he might visit a few prime DC venues. He looked at me, incredulous, and said, “Oh no. I’ll be right here. Prepping for dinner and our guests.”
What was it like to see the grand sweep of your career on film?
You know, it’s so interesting to look back. Because for me, my first 17 or 18 years were the worst of my life. I didn’t have a happy childhood. My stepfather was crazy and like a terrorist, so I called him that afterward. He terrorized the family, and I think that’s why I left home when I was 14. I moved 50 miles away—at the time, that was a lot. Then I moved to France. And thank God, when I was 19, I really found my mentor, Raymond Thuilier, at Baumanière, and he changed my life. His passion rubbed off on me. I remember when famous people like Elizabeth Taylor, George Pompidou or Picasso came to eat, he brought them into the kitchen, talked to them and showed them around, because that was his domain, really.
Celebrities are drawn to your restaurants, and you’ve famously become a chef to the stars—do those relationships come naturally?
I think we make these people larger than life because we see somebody in a movie, [but], at the end of the day, they’re people who want to talk and enjoy their lives. So, to me, if somebody is really great at their profession, I’m very inspired, and I love to talk to them. [That said], I think we pay a little too much attention to celebrities and not enough to scientists. And through this pandemic, we [learned] scientists are superstars.
What do you hope people take away from the documentary?
I really think it’s important for young people to see how to overcome adversity. So, a lot of young kids today… we coddle them too much, maybe? Many young people have a lot of enthusiasm, but no endurance. As soon as they face obstacles, they go to the next one.
What were some of your early obstacles?
I had a lot. Even when I left Austria at 17 and moved to France, I didn’t speak the language at all. I arrived at the train station in Dijon with my little suitcase, and I had the letter from the restaurant where I was working, so I had to give it to the taxi outside the train station, and that was it.
So, how old were you when you moved to the States?
I was 24 when I arrived in New York. By that time, I had cooked for 10 years. And then I didn’t like the New York restaurant [where I landed] because I worked in all these three-star restaurants in France like Maxim’s in Paris, Hôtel de Paris in Monaco, L’Oustau de Baumanière. A friend found me a job in Indianapolis. I loved auto racing; it was my favorite sport in Europe. Formula One is like the biggest thing, you know?
Auto racing was the lure? All right...
[Laughs] So, when I heard Indianapolis, I thought it must be like Monaco. It must be an amazing city. I had a little money left and took the Greyhound bus from New York to Indianapolis. Then reality hit. Indianapolis is not like Monaco at all! [Laughs]
A little out of your element, I’m guessing.
Yeah, oh, my God, it was so different. Then I started as the chef at this restaurant called La Tour. I think I cooked more steak well-done in one year than I have the rest of my life. I tried to undercook it, keep a little pink inside. I said, ‘Turn the lights down in the dining hall,’ [laughs] but people figured out that the steaks weren’t well-done, and they sent it back. It was crazy.
Then you headed to Los Angeles?
Yes. I got my green card in Indiana. I was the only one at the immigration. Once I got that, the company I worked for sent me to Los Angeles, and I bought myself a Cadillac. I put a U-Haul on the back and whatever I had—a mattress and some other stuff—and I was off to Los Angeles.
Cauliflower dishes at CUT DC PHOTO COURTESY OF CUT BY WOLFGANG PUCK
You worked at the famous Ma Maison on Melrose Avenue, and your California nouvelle concept paved the way for Spago, which opened in 1982.
At Ma Maison, I became friends with Orson Welles, Billy Wilder and people like that. So that helped a lot, for sure, and people knew me already. I got really good reviews. Ma Maison was Bangkok when I started, and, five years later, it was like the restaurant in L.A. And then I opened Spago. And it became turbocharged even more so than Ma Maison,
And then there’s your work with the Oscars party.
That’s right. [Irving] “Swifty” Lazar did the Oscar party, and he did the dinner during the Oscars. Everybody came—older stars like Elizabeth Taylor and younger ones like Madonna and Sean Penn, who were in their 20s. When Swifty died, the academy asked me to do its big dinner. So, for the past 25 years, we’ve done the official dinner for the academy.
How do you keep the passion?
I can come in here and [prep] a chicken and I’m totally happy—or cook a steak or something—because if I get the right ingredients and I know it’s good, I love it. So, to me, I was always worried when I was young; I saw so many old chefs, they were just schlepping along, and, you know, they did not really feel the passion. They couldn’t wait to retire; they couldn’t wait to go back where they came from, to their village. And so I [stay engaged] by opening more restaurants—and different restaurants, from Spago to Chinois; they’re so different from CUT.
Keep on learning, and if you keep on doing different things, I think you really can keep the passion. For example, four years ago, there was an article about me, and the writer asked, ‘What is your dream?’ I told him it was to go to Harvard [laughs]. I never went to high school. A few days later, the dean of the Harvard Business School called me and said, ‘Wolfgang, when do you want to come to Harvard?’
I said, ‘Sir, I never went to college.’ He said, ‘Well, that’s fine. You’re running a business.’ And then I went to Harvard for three months; I stayed in the dormitory and ate in the cafeteria—the chef cooked special meals for our group. I learned a lot.
I hear you still go to the farmers market in Los Angeles.
Yes. On Wednesdays, I still go to the farmers market, and I go downtown to the fish market, which I love. I don’t mind getting up at 6 in the morning. I went to the market last Wednesday, and there’s a company at the market called Harry’s Berries; they have the best strawberries—including one called Mara de Bois. Just the smell of it is amazing. And we have one farmer who brings out peaches and nectarines; he brought some white nectarines whose scent perfumed my car. I love ingredients. I love to look at food. I hate to go buy suits [laughs].
The warm-toned interior at CUT DC PHOTO COURTESY OF CUT BY WOLFGANG PUCK
What do you think the restaurant industry is going to take from this pandemic? Any positives?
Obviously, I feel for the small family restaurants who had to close down because they ran out of money and the landlord kicked them out; there are thousands of them around the country, which is very sad. I think the positive part of the pandemic is that we learned how to be better operators.
For example, at my Maui restaurant for New Year’s Eve, we normally serve 350 customers; this year, we cut it to 150. We raised the prices slightly and gave people more. Everybody got an ounce of caviar, agnolotti with white truffles and a glass of Cristal to start the meal. So, it was really a luxury experience; the people were really happy and not too rushed. The employees and the waiters made more money than they ever did in one night. And the kitchen was happy because they didn’t have to go so crazy to get 350 meals out. And in the end, we made a better profit.
The New York sirloin at CUT. PHOTO COURTESY OF CUT BY WOLFGANG PUCK
We’re back to traveling, thank goodness—which food cities are at the top of your list to visit again?
I love Tokyo; it’s a great food city. The second city is probably San Sebastian in northern Spain in the Basque Country. They have great restaurants. The city has all of these tapas places, pintxos spots, where you can walk around; have a glass of wine; eat the freshest, perfect seafood, vegetables, porcini mushrooms, you name it. I also had a great time in Barcelona. I would also like to return to Mexico City because there are a lot of young Mexican chefs who are doing really interesting work. When I went to Punta Mita, they had a young Mexican chef at the hotel. I told him I’d love an [authentic] Mexican dinner—not a French dinner. He made me a Mexican dinner, and it was amazing.
The chef made you a Mexican dinner at a French restaurant. That’s awesome.
[Laughs] Yeah. It was amazing.
Photography by: CUT by Wolfgang Puck
