Wolfgang Puck
Austrian-born chef who made Spago a global icon.
Last updated
Wolfgang Puck was born in Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria, and learned cooking from his mother, a pastry chef.[1] Puck is the only chef to have won the James Beard Foundation Outstanding Chef of the Year Award multiple times.[2]
Last updated 2026-09-30 from the source article.
Life and work
Puck began cooking alongside his mother at a very young age.[2] At age 24, he left Europe for the United States on a friend's advice.[2] In 1975, he became chef of Ma Maison in West Hollywood, quickly gaining attention from the Hollywood elite.[2] He opened his first flagship restaurant, Spago, in 1982.[2]
Puck co-founded the Puck-Lazaroff Charitable Foundation in 1982, which supports the annual American Wine & Food Festival benefiting Meals on Wheels.[3] House-smoked salmon pizza is among the well-known menu items at Puck's Spago restaurant.[4] A seafood establishment named Granita, which Puck launched in Malibu, California during 1991, ceased operations in 2005.[5] Tribune Content Agency has been distributing Puck's recipes to newspapers and websites across the globe starting in 2003.[6]
What the cited sources add
A Mashed article notes that Puck's first marriage was to Marie France Trouillot in 1975, before his career took off.[7] The same source states that Puck and Lazaroff first connected at a disco in 1979 while Puck was separated from his first wife.[7] According to the article, Lazaroff's creative sensibility paired with Puck's talent helped launch his success.[7] Puck's first-born son Cameron arrived in 1989, and his second son Byron was born in 1994.[7]
An "About Wolfgang Puck" profile states that in 1983, following Spago's success, Puck opened Chinois on Main in Santa Monica.[2] The same profile notes that in 2006, Puck opened CUT, a contemporary steakhouse at the Beverly Wilshire hotel.[2] Maxwell, the son of Cameron, was born in late 2023, making Puck a grandfather for the first time.[7][8]
References
- Wikipedia, "Wolfgang Puck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sissons, "Wolfgang Puck's Kitchen Adventures", The Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2011; Chang, "Strong-willed top chef", Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2010; Peck, "Obama's favorite chef to open new restaurant in UK", The Independent, November 1, 2011; "Wolfgang Puck Inducted", culinaryhalloffame.com (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "About Wolfgang Puck". facts only, no text reused. wolfgangpuck.com
- Wikipedia, "Wolfgang Puck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: TheHollywoodTimes.today, "Wolfgang Puck Receives Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Times" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Wolfgang Puck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "My Signature Dish: Wolfgang Puck's Smoked Salmon Pizza", MICHELIN Guide (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Wolfgang Puck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ochoa, "Granita—Spago by the Sea", Los Angeles Times, August 18, 1991; "Granita Malibu restaurant to close", Malibu Times, September 21, 2005 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Wolfgang Puck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Wolfgang Puck's Kitchen articles", Tribune Content Agency (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Luna, "All About Wolfgang Puck's 3 Marriages", Mashed. facts only, no text reused. mashed.com
- Wikipedia, "Wolfgang Puck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Luna, "All About Wolfgang Puck's 3 Marriages", Mashed (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Wolfgang Puck (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Wolfgang Puck (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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