Wolfgang Puck Biography | Wolfgang Puck Television | Wolfgang Puck Pictures

Wolfgang Puck Bio

Wolfgang Puck

Australian transport Wolfgang Puck has become synonymous with the Hollywood elite and fine dining. He’s not only an expert on French and Californian cuisine, he has also created his own cuisine, called Fusion. Add to that his restaurants that cater to a more casual clientele, a food product line and the occasional guest spot on TV, and it’s clear why his motto is, “Live, love, eat!”

Born as Wolfgang Johann Topfschnig on January 8, 1949 in Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria, his father abandoned the family, and his mother Maria, remarried Josef Puck who adopted Wolfgang. His mother worked as a pastry chef and taught young Wolfgang how to cook. Yet, yearning for more instruction, instead of going to a culinary school, Puck worked as an apprentice in France. Moving to the United States, Puck took his culinary talents to Indianapolis, Indiana, and eventually landed in California where he picked up the state’s recognizable cuisine. He took over as chef and part owner of Ma Maison, turning it into a very thriving business.

Staying true to his original French cooking roots, Puck published a cookbook in 1981, Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen. The following year he opened the first Spago restaurant in West Hollywood, with exotic dishes such as gourmet pizzas topped with smoked salmon and caviar. It became so successful that in 1994 it earned the title “Restaurant of the Year.” A new restaurant was opened in 1983, Chinois on Main, where Puck created his own Fusion cuisine, a blend of the Asian communities and the typical fine dining cuisine with which he was already familiar.

Not content with just making a splash on the literary end of retail, in 1986 Puck released an instructional video, called Spago Cooking with Wolfgang Puck. One year later, Puck appeased his customers with a line of frozen food for those that wanted a little touch of Spago in their own home. He opened yet another restaurant, Postrio in San Francisco, which was inspired by the area’s multi-cultural society, and Granita in Malibu, which boasted a mix of flavors from France, Italy, and the Mediterranean. All this gave Puck the recognition he deserved, as he received an Outstanding Chef of the Year award. Another food service concept was begun as well, utilizing some of Puck’s classic dishes with the idea of quick service, deemed Wolfgang Puck Express.

To keep his franchise going, Puck began opening up branches of his restaurants in Las Vegas, and also decided to add a more informal experience, Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill at the MGM Grand. It was Puck that opened the market up for other famous chefs like Emeril Lagasse to bring their restaurants to Las Vegas as well. All the pieces were in place, and all Puck needed to do was expand his franchise more, and begin spreading the restaurants and merchandise out worldwide.

Puck isn’t content, though, to just open up restaurant after restaurant and sell cookbooks and frozen foods. He has expanded his retail to include cookware that he sells on the Home Shopping Network, and caters The Academy Awards, as well as some of the finer museums and art galleries across the country. Tribune Media Services employs Puck to write a weekly syndicated newspaper column to share tips and recipes, called Wolfgang Puck‘s Kitchen.

No matter his talents and other ventures, it’s entertainment that Puck can’t seem to stay away from. Not only does he appear frequently on talk shows such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show, he has filmed segments for cooking shows such as Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters and Celebrity Cooking Showdown. Puck has appeared as himself on shows such as Frasier and The Simpsons, and in the movie The Weather Man. Occasionally he has acted, appearing as Tom in another episode of Frasier with Kelsey Grammer. He also appeared in the made-for-TV movie, Rhapsody in Bloom, with Penelope Ann Miller and Ron Silver.

Puck is estranged from his second wife and engaged to Gelila Assefa. He is also the father of three children. It’s clear no matter what he does in his life, Puck is living by his motto.