“The thing that makes me most proud is longevity.” Wolfgang Puck told the crowd at the Generational Tasting Tour dinner on April 30 at Cut off in Las Vegas.
The legendary boss was in Venetian casino-vacation to cook alongside his son, Byron Lazaroff-Puck, and show the importance of tradition and innovation. Wolfgang has seen so many competing restaurants come and go since he opened CHINESE in Los Angeles more than 40 years ago, and he reminded guests of his heritage on Thursday as he served beloved oysters Chinois with curry and salmon roe, before belting out other greatest hits from his diverse repertoire. Kärntner käsnudel, a cheese-filled pasta stuffed with caviar, paid homage to his Austrian heritage and his mother’s cooking. Angry Lobster Chinois showed how Puck was at the forefront of proper fusion cuisine.
Byron, meanwhile, showcased the skills he developed at globally renowned culinary destinations such as Baumanière, Alinea and Le Bernardin as he combined innovative dishes with local ingredients. He evoked the desert with Nevada beets and nopales in a beautifully composed dish that also showcased the sugar blowing skills he learned at El Celler de Can Roca. Dinner guests included Michelin star chef Phillip Frankland Leewho was in town to play in a high-stakes poker tournament. Lee marveled at the pastrami that Byron served along with Liberty Farms duck breast with cherries and bourbon.
While guests enjoyed Wolfgang’s apricot strudel and Byrblack forest cherry dessert, gasps could be heard in the back of the dining room. A guest had proposed to her, and she said yes, while Wolfgang stood by and saw another memory being made at one of his restaurants.
The Pucks will make all kinds of memories as they embark on a worldwide journey for their Taste of the Generations Tour. Byron told the Observer he is excited about the sponsorship support from Doordash (which has made a big push in bookings after buying SevenRooms for $1.2 billion last year) allows it to source the best seasonal ingredients in different cities.
Earlier Thursday, the Pucks spoke at length with the Observer about the generational tasting tour and how they constantly balance tradition and innovation. Wolfgang, who is 76, still receives five newspapers from around the world on Saturdays. And the menu for the generational tasting tour that guests received was a 16-page brochure inspired by a newspaper. But there was a QR code that you could scan to give you an uncomfortable augmented reality of the cover on your phone.
Byron is using the AI chatbot Claude daily to help optimize business at his family’s restaurants, and Wolfgang would be fine with chefs exploring AI to develop recipes.
“If something is delicious and I want to eat it again and again, I don’t really care how someone put the recipe together,” Wolfgang told the Observer. “HE can give you all these ideas, but you still have to cook it right. At the end of the day, it’s the execution.”
The Generation Tasting Tour may mean Wolfgang is ready to pass the torch, but he has no plans to retire anytime soon. He could imagine himself in the kitchen for another 50 years.
“That would make me 126,” he said. “I’d be fine with that. I’ve signed a life-long lease.”
Lately he has taken up painting, but he doesn’t know what he would do with all his time if he retired. So he plans to stick around and remind his son and his employees what food Wolfgang Puck was, is and should be.
“I think something that my dad has carried with him throughout his life is that we don’t want to overcomplicate our food,” Byron said. “We want it to look good. But most importantly, it has to taste good. It’s all about highlighting the ingredients in the best possible way. ‘Buy great ingredients and don’t waste them’ is Wolfgang Puck’s constant saying.”
The ethos behind the food remains the same, but Pucks are constantly looking for new technologies and platforms. They love working with DoorDash because it does verse in a digital marketplace that reaches customers they’ve never had before.
“It’s about building experiences,” Byron said. “People buy experiences the same way they buy clothes online.”
“I think apps and learning how to communicate with young people is a really important avenue for us in the restaurant business,” Wolfgang said. “If we want to continue to be successful, this is the way to go.”
Technology, of course, now plays a big role in customer retention.
“I always tell the story of Bernard (Erpicum), our original maitre d’ at Spago,” Byron said. “He knew every diner who walked into the dining room by name, knew the table they liked, knew their wine preferences and their food preferences. It was that proactive style of service that you look for in fine dining. And what SevenRooms in its CRM allows us to do is train all of our teams to be like Bernard.”
It also allows the Pucks to keep tabs on what’s happening in Los Angeles as they travel around the world. There are 14 stops on the Generations Tour, including Istanbul, Singapore, Bodrum, Shanghai, London and New York.
In Las Vegas, DoorDash (which has large billboards on the Strip promoting some of its partner restaurants) is also working with The Venetian on Culinary Crossroads. This is a series of high-end, storytelling-based food events featuring the resort’s star chefs. In addition to the Puck dinner and a previous event with Bouchon’s Thomas KellerThe Venetian has announced a live show and dinner on May 31 Market meatS ‘ Jose Andres. This evening will be inspired by the future of the chef Spain My way cookbook. Other Culinary Crossroads events will be announced soon.
“We are working with our partners in Cote AND He is black to create experiences and there will be more,” Julian GriffithsSVP of food and beverage at The Venetian, says Observer. “We’re trying to create one-night, one-of-a-kind events. It’s an opportunity for guests to really understand and see the creative process and the stories that go into the food. What makes it special for us is the intimacy.”
Like Pucks, the Venetian wants to showcase tradition and innovation. This is a resort where newcomers like Gjelina, Scarr’s Pizza and Howlin’ Ray’s share the spotlight with Puck, Keller and Emeril Lagasse. Three very distinctive steakhouses (Cote, Bazaar Meat and Boa) opened in the casino last year.
“It’s a marriage of the heritage of who we are and the foundation we have and what our future looks like,” Griffiths said. “But all these chefs are evolving. They’re not standing still.”
And Wolfgang Puck, who has recently been thinking a lot about how mixing colors in paintings is a lot like putting ingredients together in a recipe, is a great example of a Venetian chef who just won’t give up.
“I know a lot of seniors have trouble with change,” Wolfgang said. “I like the change. You have to change when you’re in charge. You can’t change when business slows down. Then it’s too late. Cooking is a constant evolution. I think it’s really important to keep improving, to keep doing new things, to get people excited about new dishes.”
