Wolfgang Johannes Puck is an Austrian-American chef and restaurateur.
Wolfgang Puck Quotes
1. “A lot of restaurants serve good food, but they don’t have very good service.”
— Wolfgang Puck
2. “For me, cooking is an expression of the land where you are and the culture of that place.”
— Wolfgang Puck
3. “Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors – it’s how you combine them that sets you apart.”
— Wolfgang Puck
4. “Only you can judge your life. You have to live up to your own expectations.”
— Wolfgang Puck
5. “A good chef has to be a manager, a businessman and a great cook. To marry all three together is sometimes difficult.”
— Wolfgang Puck
6. “For me, I don’t expect to have a really amazing meal each time I dine out. Having a good meal with your loved ones – that’s what makes the experience.”
— Wolfgang Puck
7. “One thing I always say is being a great chef today is not enough – you have to be a great businessman.”
— Wolfgang Puck
8. “Prep things in advance so that you don’t have to cook everything at the last moment.”
— Wolfgang Puck
9. “When you have made as many mistakes as I have, then you can be as good as me.”
— Wolfgang Puck
10. “Italian food is all about ingredients and it’s not fussy and it’s not fancy.”
— Wolfgang Puck
11. “I like the Japanese knives, I like French knives. Whatever’s sharp.”
— Wolfgang Puck
12. “A chef is a mixture maybe of artistry and craft. You have to learn the craft really to get there.”
— Wolfgang Puck
13. “There is no value with just one restaurant or with one person. The brand has to be bigger than the person.”
— Wolfgang Puck
14. “Restaurants are like having children: its fun to make them, maybe, but then you have them for good and bad. You are going to have to raise them and if something goes wrong when they are 30 years old, they will still be your little boy.”
— Wolfgang Puck
15. “When you meet someone, ask about what hobby they have, not what they do. People always ask me about cooking, but I prefer to talk about tennis or boxing.”
— Wolfgang Puck
16. “There’s a lot of processed food in America and I know that can make some tourists who’re used to fresh food feel sick.”
— Wolfgang Puck
17. “I learn more from the one restaurant that didn’t work than from all the ones that were successes.”
— Wolfgang Puck
18. “Young people want to be famous before they know how to cook, before they know how to treat people, before they know what hospitality means. I stayed in France for seven years and Austria for three, so before I was a chef anywhere I was already cooking for 10 years.”
— Wolfgang Puck
19. “I like to be firm. But it is easier to be nice than to be nasty.”
— Wolfgang Puck
20. “What I don’t like is breakfast in the morning. I have a double-espresso cappuccino, but no food.”
— Wolfgang Puck
21. “I really love Paris. It’s my favorite city.”
— Wolfgang Puck
22. “I left school when I was 14 to work in kitchens.”
— Wolfgang Puck
23. “The most important thing for me is to really buy the best ingredient.”
— Wolfgang Puck
24. “Now everybody thinks that once you do Top Chef, then 13 weeks later you’re a chef. Nobody wants to learn to cook anymore.”
— Wolfgang Puck
25. “To me, an airplane is a great place to diet.”
— Wolfgang Puck
26. “I believe that London is the most exciting food city in Europe.”
— Wolfgang Puck
27. “I grew up so poor in Austria that we never took a vacation with my family.”
— Wolfgang Puck
28. “I think it’s really important to keep on staying motivated.”
— Wolfgang Puck
29. “I tell everybody the same thing: You have to make every dish so when you taste it, you should remember it when you go home.”
— Wolfgang Puck
30. “Television in the ’80s was very limited. There was no Food Network.”
— Wolfgang Puck
31. “When I was 27, if I didn’t put 15 things in one dish I wasn’t happy.”
— Wolfgang Puck
32. “A lot of chefs are traditional and do it very well. But the ones who are the most successful are the ones who change things. That is why someone like Heston Blumenthal is a genius.”
— Wolfgang Puck
33. “I think the time of the formal dinners is over.”
— Wolfgang Puck
