It’s a Puckish world

Chef Wolfgang Puck does it all -- from his playful trademark California cuisine to catering to the stars, restaurants on both coasts, cookware and now a spotlight show on the Food Network.

By PAMELA DAVIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 21, 2001

[Times photo: Dirk Shadd] Wolfgang Puck sells the sizzle -- and a lot more -- in his appearances on HSN, where his trademark cookware moves fast and furiously. He’s a natural salesman. His newest venture: a Food Network cooking show.

ST. PETERSBURG -- The bright lights aren't a problem, nor is the guy behind the hand-held camera, capturing the steaks as they pop and sizzle in the pan. Nothing shakes Wolfgang Puck's concentration while he's on the kitchen set of the Home Shopping Network.

The Puckster is in his own world here, one where everyone laughs at his jokes, eats off his plates and buys all his products.

"This is not like fine hosiery or pajamas. You can have it forever," he said about the pots and pans he sells on TV.

Earlier this month, the California-based chef was at HSN to sell the line of stainless steel cookware that bears his name.

Puck is a savvy showman. He's quick with the one-liners and has a bawdy sense of humor.

"Cleaning is my least favorite part," Puck said on the air. "That's why I always tell everybody to spend more time in the bedroom than in the kitchen."

"He's very playful that way. He likes to see how far he can push it," said HSN host Colleen Lopez. "You know that when you work with Wolfgang it's just no holds barred. I think the viewers enjoy it because they can see that he is being spunky and spontaneous. It's not just your basic sales pitch."

Not only does the cookware meet his standards, so does the food that's in it. The steak, shrimp and fish have been brought in from his cafe in Orlando.

"Even for television I like to have the right quality. Sometimes we buy things at the market too, but I know the difference right away. It makes me happier to cook, because I know it's the right quality."

Though he owns more than 35 restaurants, has a successful line of gourmet grocery store foods, appears on his own cable television show and caters prestigious entertainment events such as the Academy Awards, Puck regularly appears on HSN because the medium works for him. Last year, he had more than $10-million in sales and is expected to generate $15-million this year.

"He's excellent because he's fun, a little unpredictable and vivacious," said HSN executive vice president of marketing Paul Guyardo. "The only difference between us and the Food Network is we have an 800 number at the bottom of our screen so you can call directly and purchase the product."

Though Puck only recently hooked up with the Food Network, his HSN gig is two years old.

His cookware line, sold only on HSN, includes omelet and saucepans, a stockpot, a fondue set, a stir fry pan, a roaster and a casserole. The items range in price from $18.50 to $193.50. During his most recent visit, Puck's goal was to sell his 21-piece set. According to HSN, he moved more than 10,000 of them in about 133 minutes.

Dressed in his ever-present chef whites with W. P. stitched on the top, black pants, white socks and black loafers, the 51-year-old Puck looks different than the photo on his latest book jacket. Both his hair (now spiky and gray) and his body are thinner. He attributes the weight loss to walking his sons to school and then jogging the three miles home.

We notice this change in his appearance, not because it's so drastic, but because we feel like we know Wolfgang Puck so well. We see him all the time on television. He pops up on Entertainment Tonight, the E! channel and Good Morning America. His new Food Network show, Wolfgang Puck, airs Friday through Sunday. Then there are his HSN appearances.

"Celebrities are surprised that of all the things they do, how many people actually watch the Home Shopping Network, see them and associate them with HSN," said Lopez, the host with whom Puck works with at least one show per visit. "I think it's more powerful than they realized."

Lopez works frequently with actor and cookbook author Suzanne Somers, who sells jewelry, lounge wear and other items on HSN. While telling viewers that Somers only uses Puck's cookware in her home, the chef jumped in with a comment.

"She's one of my favorite customers because she's beautiful and she likes to eat. That's the best combination, I think."

The first 'uber' chef

Wolfgang Puck was the first in what has become a long line of celebrity chefs. Way before anyone could even pronounce Emeril Lagasse they knew about this Austrian native, his distinctive accent and the restaurant that made him famous.

That restaurant, Spago Hollywood, will close next month. But you won't catch Puck crying about it.

"I was ready 41/2 years ago for the change, so it's not like it just happened," he said. "It's like if you have a Chevrolet for 20 years and it's falling apart, and you can't get to work on time because this and that is wrong, and somebody gives you a new BMW and it works perfectly. How do you feel about the Chevrolet? You throw it away and get the new one."

Puck's "new one" is Spago Beverly Hills, which opened three years ago and features French food with Asian influences.

"I want to be different, really. I want the people who come to our restaurants to have an experience they can't get somewhere else. That will make us successful," he said.

Two of Puck's trademarks are his pizzas and Asian-inspired food. He has been called the creator of California cuisine (along with chef Alice Waters of Berkeley's Chez Panisse) and is a lover of fusion cooking.

He now teaches people how to make his creations on the Food Network. Puck's presence was noticeably absent from the cable channel until this year.

"Before, it was really like the Mickey Mouse network, not the Food Network," he said. "But over the last few years it's gotten better and better."

Puck's main qualm about hooking up with the Food Network was that it was based in New York and he is on the other coast. It is the same reason his visits to Good Morning America have decreased.

Once the Food Network arranged for Puck to do his show on the West coast, everything fell into place. He said the Food Network program is the most difficult of all his TV appearances. HSN is much easier.

"Here you are not really teaching the people cooking. You're not really the host. You're the assistant host, basically. You don't feel like you're 100 percent responsible," Puck said about HSN. "With the Food Network show, I feel like I'm responsible. I feel like I have to do the presentation but also be the director, because it has to go the way I think it should go."

He might not be the host when he's on HSN, but he has come a long way as a salesman.

"He's become really comfortable in the environment of selling," Lopez said. "What we do is different. For the first time, it's kind of like the celebrity isn't necessarily the star. The product really becomes the focus."

On air, Puck takes a quick peek at the fish he's slipped into the oven. Then it is back to the shredded potatoes frying in a pan on the stove. He stirs and pours and wipes as he talks up the cookware's handle rivets.

He likes takeout, too

When he is in St. Petersburg, Puck likes to eat at the Salt Rock Grill in Indian Shores, but he admits he hasn't had time to sample many of the area's restaurant offerings.

"I don't go to eat like to have wine and make it real elegant," Puck said. "We have to leave after a certain time, so we eat at the hotel mostly."

Puck enjoys Thai and Chinese cuisine. When it comes to comfort foods, he reaches for the flavors of his homeland, Wiener schnitzel or a soup with semolina dumplings.

"It's still so comforting to me after so many years, but, at the same time, when I leave for days or weeks, I always want to eat the prosciutto pizza when I get back."

Puck left Austria when he was 14 but returns when he can. He was there a year ago for his father's 80th birthday. His 75-year-old mother used to be a hotel chef.

"My mother is much better with less ingredients. That's the way they grew up, having very little. I'm a little bit more extravagant."

When visiting his parents, Puck lets his mother do all the cooking. He also leaves the cooking up to others in his own home. Dinner for him, his wife and business partner, Barbara Lazaroff, and their two sons often consists of takeout from Spago.

An average day for Puck starts out at 7 or 7:30 a.m. After jogging home from the kids' school, he goes to work, sorts through mail and talks to his assistant about plans for the day.

Then, he'll go down to his restaurant kitchen or pop in to his office across the street, the one that handles business for Puck's line of cafes, and eventually make his way back to the kitchen to prepare lunch.

"Now, do I go and peel carrots or do things like that? No."

One of the smartest things Puck has done while building the Wolfgang Puck Food Co. is to delegate responsibilities. He may have the Midas touch, but he is not omnipresent. He recently closed a deal with ConAgra, the nation's second-largest retail food supplier with brands such as Butterball, Healthy Choice, Hunt's and Parkay, which will free him of some of his business chores.

"It will make it easier for me and liberate me from going out and raising money and doing all that stuff."

What he would rather be doing is cooking.

"It's my hobby. I feel the most comfortable when I'm in the kitchen," he said.

It doesn't matter where the kitchen is. Puck could be creating magic in the back of his Postrio restaurant in San Francisco or browning scallops on the HSN set in St. Petersburg.

"Even when his segment is over, he'll go back in the kitchen and finish the dish," Lopez said. "The lights are down, the cameras are off and he's in there making sure that it's all finished so that people will be enjoying his food."

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