Wolfgang Puck Predicts

If the past is any indicator, we will soon be throwing away our pots and pans and turning our dining rooms into pool halls. Why? Because that’s what Wolfgang is doing.

Wolfgang Puck has been setting trends for 30 years, ever since he first presided over his inspired California cuisine in the open kitchen of his original Sunset Strip restaurant, Spago. Now restaurants all across the country spotlight their star chefs in gleaming open kitchens—and what’s more, so do the trendiest homes, Puck’s included. "Everyone hangs out in our kitchen," he says. "It’s got a big table, sofas, a big-screen TV, and it opens onto the patio. The dining room? I put a pool table in it."

The open kitchens in his many restaurants may be marvels of efficiency, but there is always room for improvement. "Next, I’m working on getting rid of most of the pots," Puck says. "We’re using big grill and griddle surfaces more. It streamlines the cooking and makes cleanup easier. Even at home, you get back from work, turn on the griddle, throw on some diced onion, tomato, maybe some zucchini, maybe a nice piece of fish, a little seasoning—and in 10 minutes, you have a fabulous meal." Home cooks are obviously on the same wavelength, he notes, since the best-selling gadget on his Web site is his electric grill/griddle.

These days, puck is concentrating on the two newest additions to his restaurant empire: Source, in Washington, D.C., to open this spring, and CUT, a steak house and "ultra lounge" in Beverly Hills. Noting the resurgence of steak houses across the country, Puck says, "I’ve wanted to do one ever since I saw the steaks sell out every time at Spago. Now the time is right for me. Cooking a steak correctly is a real art—and so is finding the absolute best beef."

Of course, foodies will find Kobe beef, the rich rarity from Japan, on the menu, but Puck says, "No one does beef better than America. We have special beef bred for us in Idaho, part Black Angus and part Japanese Wagyu. It’s the best—just as marbled as Kobe, but even better in flavor."

Don’t expect the usual red leather banquettes here. Though dramatic décor has always vied for attention with the food in Puck’s restaurants, he’s raised the stakes by hiring world-famous architect Richard Meier to design CUT’s interior. The minimalist maestro behind L.A.’s Getty Museum and Atlanta’s High Museum of Art created a light-filled space in his trademark shades of white. "Architects are the new rock stars, you know," proclaims Puck. "That’s why I love working with them. My Minneapolis restaurant, 20•21, is in the fabulous new Walker Art Center, designed by [Pritzker-Prize-winning] architects [Jacques] Herzog and [Pierre] de Meuron. And maybe I’ll be doing something soon in L.A. with Frank Gehry."

Cities all over the world recognize the drawing power of these new "rock stars," as more municipalities spring for signature cultural buildings. Puck believes the trend to locate high-end restaurants in these magnets is a natural. "It’s great for business—people come for the art and architecture and stay for the food, and vice-versa. And the museums have a great place to entertain."

And now, finding good food on the journeys between cultural icons is a little easier, thanks to the 14 Wolfgang Puck Express restaurants in airports such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Atlanta, among others. Puck takes his mission to improve airport food seriously, perhaps because he travels 200 days a year himself. "By this time next year, I hope that all 14 of them will be completely organic. It’s good to know and support local food sources. I’m also using more organic products in my prepared foods. Just today, I am sampling a new, all-organic pizza for my frozen-food line. Organic is my niche in prepared food. Just three years ago, it was only 5 percent of our sales, and now it’s 38 percent."

The chef who first made a name for himself by fusing flavors from around the world continues to search for new inspirations in his travels. Indian spices intrigue him now. "The older I get, the more flavor I like in my food. Traditional French cooking just doesn’t do it for me anymore," he says. "At CUT, for instance, we do a very popular short rib dish, rubbed with an Indian spice mixture we blend ourselves and served with a raisin-onion chutney."

Though Puck has always prided himself on offering great wines from around the world, he still seeks the new. "I have my eye on some South African wines," he says. "Their climate is perfect for wine, but their production is still too small for now."

One thing Puck resolutely refuses to embrace is the avant-garde movement toward "laboratory cooking," using liquid nitrogen, for example, to transmogrify familiar foods into fantastical creations. "I don’t like foam," Puck states, referring to the frothy essences emerging from the high-tech kitchen at El Bulli, the trendsetting Spanish restaurant some call the best in the world. "It’s all air. Food should taste like what it is. Traditional methods work best—like at CUT, we use open fire and only hardwood, like apple, to grill the steaks."

If puck’s food empire just keeps expanding, it’s because America’s taste for sophisticated food is keeping pace. "When I first came to this country, being a cook wasn’t very glamorous. Now it is—there are great cooks everywhere, not just in the big cities. My chef at 20•21 is a local guy from Minneapolis, and he was very happy to go home. They are all working with regional foods and bringing their own personal style into their work."

Home cooks, take heart. Now, if we could just breed our own beef.