Sitting Down With Legends
Wolfgang Puck
Interview by James Whitman
“I love this city. There’s a great customer base
and people appreciate consistency, quality,
and being taken care of”
For more than four decades, Wolfgang Puck has defined what it means to be a celebrity chef. Long before TV shows like Hell’s Kitchen and Top Chef turned chefs into household names, Puck was drawing Hollywood stars into his restaurants and sending them home raving—not just about the food, but the old-fashioned hospitality that has been at the center of his success.
On a recent visit to his Washington, DC, steakhouse CUT overlooking the C&O Canal inside the Rosewood Hotel, we sat down for a meal with him to talk about our region’s food scene and the lessons he’s learned over a lifetime in the kitchen.
Puck has had a presence in DC for more than 20 years. “I love this city,” Puck says. “There’s a great customer base, and people appreciate consistency, quality, and being taken care of.”
He’s also deeply impressed by the region’s local bounty. “Twenty years ago, we didn’t have handmade goat cheese like I see in Edible DC now,” the pioneer of local ingredient–driven California cuisine notes. “It reminds me of the evolution I saw in California—it’s exciting to watch that happen here.”
From produce to protein, his kitchens source locally whenever possible. His signature duck, used in dishes like Peking duck and duck leg fried rice, is sourced from nearby Jurgielewicz Farm. Even the bubbles are local: Puck partnered with Thibaut-Janisson Winery in Charlottesville, Virginia, to produce a custom blanc de blanc served exclusively at his restaurants.
Puck’s approach to hospitality is disarmingly simple: Treat every guest like a star. “The most important person in the restaurant business,” he says, “is the guest. They’re the ones who vote with their dollars. When you make them feel welcome and special, they come back.”
But behind the pass, he knows that the kitchen isn’t always so welcoming. Puck is candid about his own past—leaving an abusive home at 14, only to land in a kitchen led by a chef who ruled with his fists. Puck found himself falling into a similar pattern, and it wasn’t until a mentor, Raymond Thuilier, the founder of the hotel and restaurant Baumanière in Les Baux-de-Provence, France, showed him a different path—one grounded in respect and a love for food—that he found his way. That formative experience shaped not just his leadership style, but his broader philosophy. “You can demand excellence without cruelty,” he says.
That ethos lives on in his team. Executive Chef, Andrew Ho, a veteran of DC’s culinary scene, has led the kitchen at CUT for eight years. And then there’s the remarkable story of Ari Rosenson, who as a young fan sent Puck a letter for a junior high project. That student went on to intern in Puck’s kitchens, attended culinary school, and has now worked with him for over three decades.
While Puck’s name is known globally, he remains deeply connected to the roots of his cooking. He speaks fondly of bringing his children back to Baumanière in Provence where he apprenticed early in his career. “Now they know why I’ve talked about that leg of lamb for 40 years,” he laughs.
We’ve invited Chef Puck back to give him a deeper dive into the local food scene on future visits. Stay tuned for when we share those discoveries, through the lens of a chef who helped build the bridge between food and fame.