 In
1973, the 24 year old Austrian-born Wolfgang Puck packed
his bags for America. With a variety of experience as a
classically trained French chef in the master kitchens
of several French restaurants, he was excited about new
opportunities.
After a few initial ventures, Wolfgang Puck opened Spago
in 1982. The restaurant was an instant success! His
first signature dishes – such as "gourmet" pizzas topped
with smoked salmon and caviar and pizza with duck
sausage – put him and Spago on the foodie map in Los
Angeles. These “Gourmet” or West Coast style pizza had
already started to emerge but Wolfgang Puck accelerated
the style to popularity.
Since the opening of Spago, Wolfgang Puck
has won numerous James Beard awards. From his first 1991
Outstanding Chef award to his 2006
nomination for outstanding Restaurateur.
Over the last twenty years, an empire of Wolfgang Puck
establishments emerged. By 2006 Wolfgang inspired
locations include 12 fine
dining restaurants and over 50 casual dining and quick
service restaurants in everything from airports and
supermarkets to shopping malls and free standing
properties. His influence has
even spread overseas with several restaurants in Japan.
Wood Stone first crossed paths with
Wolfgang Puck in 1993 when Keith W. Carpenter arranged a
meeting with Kitchen Design Consultant Hank Sachs and
Wolfgang at Kaiser Grille in Palm Desert, CA. Wolfgang
was in the area to cater an event, and around midnight
walked into Kaiser’s place to do some test cooking in
the wood fired Wood Stone oven. After the test,
Wolfgang told Keith that he had never seen an oven that
cooked pizza crusts as evenly as the oven at Kaiser’s.
At the time, Wolfgang was using a variety
of stone hearth ovens in his establishments. The ovens
came from a number of manufacturers, both domestic and
imported. After his test
at Kaiser Grille, Wood Stone ovens became the
oven of choice for Wolfgang’s restaurants (over 70
ovens to date) because of how
they cooked, looked, lasted, and also because of
their efficiency.
Today, Wolfgang continues to purchase and
install only Wood Stone ovens with his current ovens of
choice being our RFG-IR gas fired Mountain Series ovens.
“If I could only have one piece of cooking equipment in
my kitchen, it would be my Wood Stone oven.” “I’ve used
a lot of ovens, and Wood Stone is by far the best in its
class.” – Wolfgang Puck |
