'Live, Love, Eat! The Best of Wolfgang Puck' By Wolfgang Puck Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. -- 2002 Buy it on Amazon
With an accent thicker than anything a knife can penetrate, a bevy of successful restaurants and a line of signature canned soups and frozen pizzas, hearty Austrian celebrity chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck has made quite an impact on modern cooking in the U.S. Having studied cooking in France before becoming executive chef at the esteemed Los Angeles eatery Ma Maison, he's commended for the rise of California cuisine, inspired by refined French cooking techniques and flavors.
WIth a philosophy of "Live, Love, Eat!," chef Puck imparts his passion for fresh and flavorful cuisine in his recipe collection, "Live, Love Eat! The Best of Wolfgang Puck."
See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
What do chefs eat when they need a palate cleanser after so much fancy restaurant fare? When they take off their aprons, they reach for the same indulgences we do -- perhaps just with an upgrade. Slashfood asked celebrity chefs to share their favorite cravings.
Mario Batali When orange-clogged chef and television personality Mario Batali isn't reinventing Italian cuisine, he's still got it in the bag -- of Doritos, that is. "I love two things: good gelato and, strangely enough, Doritos and salsa. It has to be Doritos, though. I especially like the lime-flavored ones with chili."
Nigella Lawson Which foods make domestic goddess Nigella Lawson feel sinful? None! Nigella, who is famous for her intimate, relaxed cooking style says, "I don't have any guilty food pleasures. The only thing one should ever feel guilty about is not taking pleasure."
See what snacks Bobby Flay, Tom Colicchio and other celebrity chefs sneak after the jump.
Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck has been sued over his attempt to develop the .food domain in cyberspace.
Minds+Machines, a company that had partnered with the Spago restaurant owner on the project, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Tuesday alleging breach of contract as well as tortious interference and fraud on the part of Puck's wife, Gelila. The suit demands $5 million from the Pucks.
Earlier this year, Wolfgang Puck and Gelila Puck had announced their partnership with the company to develop .food Internet addresses.
"This is a great way for the finest food enterprises to stand out from the crowd on the Internet," Puck said in June. "Owning a .FOOD address is like opening a business on the best street in any city in the world."
OK, so if you watched last night's season premiere of "Top Chef," that statement might ring a tad premature considering that that most obvious wearer of throat ink ended up being the first to go home.
But if you're looking to Bravo's increasingly popular cooking competition to discern new and exciting trends in the culinary world, you could do worse than to single out "oddly placed chef tats" as this year's food foam.
Relocating to Vegas has seemingly brought out the bad-to-the-bone personas of the 17 brash, mostly young contestants. Or at least that's what their carefully edited, perfectly timed snotty remarks would have us believe.
There's Jennifer, self-proclaimed "bitch in the kitchen" and queen of the "you got a problem with that?" shrug. As long as her dishes continue to be as seemingly spot-on as the bright prawn ceviche she whipped up for the Quickfire challenge, she suits us just fine.
Designated jerk in the group: "Jersey Mike," who managed to denigrate women, cancer survivors and the entire 40-something population in deeming elimination-immune Robin "one less old lady I have to worry about."
Though some Jewish food mavens may beg to differ, we think few dishes are as associated with the children of Israel as gefilte fish. While not as easy-to-love as blintzes, as versatile as horseradish or as soothing as chicken soup, the ubiquitous balls of ground fish make a fine appetizer for almost any holiday meal.
Gefilte fish, which takes its name from gefüllte, the German word for "stuffed," was traditionally made using finely ground pike or carp mixed with eggs, onion, flour, seasonings and either matzoh meal or challah bread. It was then packed into the skin of a deboned fish, poached with onions and carrots, chilled and sliced. Today gefilte fish is typically formed into patties and served cold. It is often preserved in a jellied fish broth and commonly accompanied by horseradish and a slice of carrot.
While gefilte fish isn't one of the symbolic foods on the Passover Seder Plate, it is a traditional part of the meal in many households. Part of its popularity lies in the cultural significance underlying its preparation: Since one can buy it deboned, it doesn't require work at the table, which means that it can be eaten during the Sabbath when work is forbidden. Another benefit is that fish is parve, so kosher consumers can eat it on the same plate with either meat or dairy foods.
Another reason for the aqueous critter's lingering popularity lies in its economy. Originally developed in Europe's Ashkenazi Jewish community, gefilte fish balls incorporated cereals and fillers to stretch the fish itself. The fish was class-free -- accessible enough for the poorest member of a community, yet glitzy enough for the most wealthy.
Today gefilte fish continues to be a popular and enduring cultural motif. On one end of the spectrum, enterprising chefs like Wolfgang Puck are finding ways to make it more exciting; on the other, a strong market for the traditional ground fish and stuffing survives. Brett Werner, manager of Miami Beach's popular Roasters' n Toasters deli, estimates that his store has sold approximately 200 quarter-pound pieces of the fish for this year's Passover already!
Right now, anything organic is hot in the food industry. That's one reason that soup making giant Campbell's Soup Company bought the Wolfgang Puck line of organic soups from Country Gourmet Foods. In addition to purchasing the soup line for an "undisclosed sum," Campbell's Soup had to negotiate a licensing agreement with Wolfgang Puck Worldwide to keep using Puck's image on the soup.
Campbell's Soup may have made forays into the organic or natural market with a few products, but according to Advertising Age the brand is really hoping that the Wolfgang Puck line will add some prestige, not to mention get their foot in the door at Whole Foods.
How do you feel about Campbell's Soup owning the Wolfgang Puck line? Do you think they are unfairly buying their way into the organic market, or is this an acceptable tactic?
Last week, our friends over at Yumsugar had the enviable task of attending the menu unveiling for California's Governor's Ball. It's made even more drool-worthy by the fact that it was Wolfgang Puck who was doing the unveiling. Sadly, they didn't get a chance to taste any of the goodies. Luckily, picture taking opportunities were many (it's nearly as good as tasting, right?) and there is a gorgeous gallery of food pics up on their site. We have but one warning for you: don't click over if you haven't eaten lunch yet, as these images are certain to make you hungry.
For over ten years now, Wolfgang Puck has been serving the stars at the Governor's Ball - also known as the official "after party" for the Academy Awards, where all the nominees congregate to look glamorous, talk to the press and eat dinner. Not all of the secrets of the Oscar ceremony itself, like what the stage is going to look like, are revealed ahead of time and the menu for the Ball was clearly a bit hush-hush to start. Fortunately, little by little, information leaked out.
The Ball is not going to be a sit-down affair, but an elegant/casual cocktail-type of party, an the overriding theme this year will be "Oscar goes organic." The food, in addition to being organic and/or humanely raised will be small or bite-sized, and will include favorites (and Puck standbys) like sushi, grilled Kobe beef, Spicy Tuna Tartare in a Sesame Miso Cone, Smoked Salmon Oscars with French Farm-Raised Osetra Caviar and Roasted Pumpkin Squash Ravioli with White Truffles. And, of course, there will be plenty of champagne and chocolate Oscar statuettes to go around.
Click past the jump for a preview of the whole menu.
The Academy Awards are just three days away, and I'm sure a number of you are hosting Oscar parties. If nothing else, it gives you good reason to get friends and family together to enjoy some delicious food and drinks - what could be better than that? Over the next few days we're going to take a look at some dishes that you may be able to serve to your guests, Oscar-style, while waiting to find out who wins Best Picture.
I came across this article written by Wolfgang Puck, world-class chef and owner of Spago's plus many other restaurants around the country. Since he has been serving up dishes to the stars since the 1970's (at his restaurants, as well as at the award shows themselves), I decided there was no better way to kick start our own little Oscar party than by spotlighting one of his recipes.
I was first introduced to Chinese Chicken Salad when I moved to LA after college. I don't remember which one was first, but I thought California Chicken Cafe, Feast from the East, and Chin Chin were absolutely brilliant with their renditions of this salad that has absolutely no roots Chinese cuisine. I am going to guess that it should be attributed to the Asian Fusion cuisine of Wolfgang Puck at his restaurant Chinois on Main some time in the early '80s, but I could be wrong.
There are lots of variations of the salad, and pretty much as long as it has chicken and some other ingredient that suggests "Asian," it can be called Chinese Chicken Salad. The base is usually shredded iceberg lettuce and/or Napa cabbage, and then includes but is not limited to: julienned carrots, scallions, either almonds or cashews, snow pea pods, mandarin oranges, and fried noodles or wonton strips. I have even seen recipes that use instant ramen noodles. The dressing is invariably some version of a sesame ginger vinaigrette.
Here are eight Chinese Chicken Salad recipes from around the food blogosphere to inspire you:
Wolfgang Puck Self-Heating Latte cans are currently being pulled from shelves after reports of the cans
leaking chemicals into the coffee or exploding, according to a recent story from beverage industry publication BevNET. The BevNET story
recounts a blame game between licensees, the can's manufacturers, distributors and Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. The
latter apparently requested that the cans be pulled after repeated customer complaints and supposed scrutiny from the
FDA. The cans were originally released last spring. Some complaints included reports of a white substance, perhaps the
calcium oxide used in the can's heating system, floating in the coffee. A Las Vegas woman also claims she was badly
burned by a malfunctioning can that exploded. The cans supposedly heat their contents to 140 degrees. According to
BevNET, the company that designed the cans marketed them with the slogan "It does what?"
NBC's Celebrity Cooking
Showdown premiered last night after weeks of less-than-optimistic reviews. The show, in case you missed it, is
Dancing with the Stars meets Iron Chef America. A celebrity, of whom the most famous is Tom Arnold, is paired with a real
chef, either Cat Cora, Wolfgang Puck or Govind Armstrong. The chef
must attempt to train the celebrity to cook in a mini "boot camp", after which the celebrity and chef will
face off Iron Chef-style against another team. Confused?
Last night's premier episode featured the following teams: Cindy Margolis and Wolfgang Puck, Tony Gonzalez and Cat
Cora, Alison Sweeney and Govind Armstrong. When the show began, the celebs came out. Cindy was almost
not wearing a shirt, Tony was twice as tall as Cat and Cat's hair was styled professionally, like it never is
on Iron Chef America. Alison was wearing a short dress, but seemed to have more culinary prowess than the others based
on her cooking-lesson clip.
The James Beard Foundation has just announced their
nominees for the 2006 James Beard Foundation Awards. The awards are the most prestigious in the industry and honor the
top culinary professionals in every category, from journalists to cookbooks to chefs. There are 62 awards in all this
year. Nominees include:
It's summer, and that means it's time for a good old-fashioned 
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The Academy Awards are just three days away, and I'm sure a number of you are hosting Oscar parties. If nothing else, it gives you good reason to get friends and family together to enjoy some delicious food and drinks - what could be better than that? Over the next few days we're going to take a look at some dishes that you may be able to serve to your guests, Oscar-style, while waiting to find out who wins Best Picture. 
NBC's 
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