Wolfgang: Genial Doc on Wolfgang Puck Charts the Birth of the Celebrity Chef

By Karen Gordon

Rating: B

These days, the celebrity chef with a TV show, books, restaurants, and star status, occasionally at rock-star levels, is normal. But, as we’re reminded in the easygoing documentary Wolfgang — about Wolfgang Puck, one of the biggest celebrity chefs in the world — it wasn’t always so.

Back in the day, the chef was the faceless guy in the kitchen preparing the food and, as venerable food writer Ruth Reichl points out, it was a blue-collar job. The real star, the public face of the establishment, was the restaurant owner, who may or may not have had any attachment to the food at all.

Was Puck one of the reasons for that shift? In Wolfgang, director David Gelb (Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Chef’s Table) makes the case that he was. Without consciously setting out to do anything more than cook and serve wonderful food and make people happy, Puck changed the image of the chef and redefined our ideas about food in a major way.

In the 70s-era restaurant scene, what was taken most seriously was generally focused on the U.S. east coast, specifically Manhattan. Despite some defining west coast figures like Alice Waters and Jeremiah Tower, California cuisine wasn’t taken seriously.

Puck, who had moved to the U.S. in 1973 at the age of 24, took L.A. by storm two years later. It started when he took over as executive chef at Ma Maison, a French restaurant with a so-so reputation. By applying the things he’d learned particularly in France, he turned it into a local and then nationally renowned hot spot.

The restaurant was so in-demand that the owner delisted the phone number. People had taken notice of the young Austrian chef who’d turned the place around.

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

With the encouragement of his wife and business partner Barbara Lazaroff, Puck left Ma Maison and the duo set up their first restaurant, where he could serve what he wanted, exactly the way he wanted it. Lazaroff, who had a background in theatre, designed the restaurant with a view into the kitchen so the patrons could see Puck and his staff at work.

From its opening night, Spago was a hit, drawing Hollywood A-listers and movers-and-shakers like super-agent Mike Ovitz, who became the chef’s agent.

Spago took a fresh approach to American food, notably redefining pizza, which was no small thing at the time, and arguably changing the game forever. The affable Puck, working the front of house, was himself a draw and, with his agent, soon became a TV star.

Puck, who learned his craft working in Austria and France, may not have invented California cuisine, but he became the face of it, and played a role in changing the way we — those of us interested and/or obsessed with cooking and cuisine — think about food.

He also seems to have moved seamlessly from success to success with little or no stumbling blocks, false moves or scandals. Even his exes and former boss speak well of him.

What drove him? Did he have demons? To give the story some drama, director Gelb takes Puck back to his hometown in Austria and looks at where his love of cooking came from, and the way his life and his insecurities were shaped by his abusive schmuck of a stepfather, whose constant put-downs left their mark in a deep, abiding insecurity.

Those questions of self-worth and wondering about what is most important in is life while aiming to reconcile the past frame the story.

Like so many recent documentaries that focus on cultural icons, Wolfgang isn’t a deep dive but more of a profile, and an appreciation.

To give us a sense of the man, the film turns to a handful of people who talk glowingly about the chef, including his Lazaroff, Ovitz, several chefs including Nancy Silverton and the late Mark Peel, and his son Byron who is following in his father’s footsteps.

For some perspective, the film turns to two food writers, Los Angeles-based Laurie Ochoa and the venerable Reichl, longtime editor of the once-influential, now defunct Gourmet magazine who watched Puck’s career blossom.

It makes for an agreeable film but is it wrong to have wished for a bit more here?

Even though Puck had become the face of California cuisine, his work didn’t happen in a vacuum. There were others who had paved that road, and who were part of what was happening in the food culture of California. Some were well-known in food circles as well, even if they didn’t get that magic formula that launched Puck into the stratosphere.

Maybe it’s my personal interest in cooking, food, and food culture in general that makes me wish that Gelb had gone a bit deeper in this direction, adding context from some of those other voices.

At the end of the day, that’s not a sin. Gelb has directed this with a light touch. The way he tells it, Puck is a talented man, who was lucky enough to find his passion early in life and have the focus, talent, and luck to make good things better.

Despite his successes in multiple directions, Puck seems to be a man at peace with himself, and still in tune with a love with cooking and serving food to people. In a cynical world, that’s a wonderful thing.

Wolfgang. Directed by David Gelb, written by Brian McGinn. With Wolfgang Puck, Christine Puck, Barbara Lazaroff, Ruth Reichl, Laura Ochoa, Mark Peel, and Nancy Silverton. Available June 25 Disney+