♪ haslinda: hello and welcome to "high flyers," the show that gives you a 360 degree preview of asia's business elite. today, we are joined today by one of the world's leading chefs. after running his trade at top restaurants in europe, and moved to the u.s. he has gained attention of the hollywood elite, so much so that he hosted the oscars dinner more than 20 times. let's meet wolfgang puck. ♪

haslinda: luxury steakhouses, high-end asian dishes, and homemade pizza. all that can be found in the wolfgang puck empire. he has more than 100 restaurants around the world. his culinary skills go beyond the kitchen. he has tv shows and an online cooking school. wolfgang: i'm sure you will enjoy it. ♪ haslinda: it's time for this "highflyer" to join us and give us his menu for success. ♪ haslinda: chef wolfgang puck, it's such a pleasure to have you on board. wolfgang: thank you. i am so happy to be here. i am just going to look at you. [laughter] haslinda: you are such a celebrated chef. but it started when you are very young. and your mom, maria, had a great

part to play. wolfgang: absolutely. i grew up in a small village in austria. i think we had more cows and people in the village. my mother was a professional chef in the summertime at a resort. i used to visit her when school was out. and i started to cook with a pastry chef, mainly because i love sweets. i still do. but it really started with my mother. she was the most patient person and the nicest person. and she was a very good cook. she could make something taste really delicious. haslinda: what was your first dish you cooked with your mom? wolfgang: the first dish was saturday morning, we always made a cake. i used to love mixing the butter and the sugar with the eggs eating half of it. [laughter] wolfgang: that, i always remember. and to use to make wiener schnitzel. that is a veal cutlet. the smell of it, i used to love it.

so, i go back and just think about it. when i was a kid, i ate half of it. i said, i will say the rest for tonight or for tomorrow. haslinda: but it wasn't always smooth sailing. your dad was dead set against it. wolfgang: my dad was totally crazy. i should have fired him a long time ago. [laughter] wolfgang: but he said cooking was not a profession for men, it was a profession for women. you should be a masonry carpenter or anything like that. he told me i was good for nothing. when i left my little house and went to the train station, he said, "you are good for nothing. you will be back in a month, i know." haslinda: you did try construction. wolfgang: i had to help them bring the bricks and do this and that. all of my friends were playing soccer.

i had to work. i did not like that. haslinda: it almost never happened. when you are giving your apprenticeship in the kitchen at about 14, you suddenly went out of potatoes. and that almost cost you your job and your life. wolfgang: and my life. it was a crazy thing. after one month, and i told my father i would never come back. "i will kill myself before i come back home." so, after one month, we been out of potatoes during lunchtime on sunday. that was the big meal. the chef called me over and said, "you are good for nothing. you will have to go back home to your mother." i said, "i cannot go home." he just fired me. so then, that day, at night, i went on the river. we had a big bridge. and i said, i am going to jump in the river. haslinda: what went through your mind? wolfgang: i am not going home. he doesn't want me. what else am i going to do? i am going to kill myself and jump in the river."

after standing for an hour, i said, "you know, maybe the chef was drunk. maybe he didn't mean it. i am going to go back the next day." so, i would home and went to sleep, and did not sleep all night. the second apprentice saw me coming in and said, "i thought you got fired." i said, "i cannot go home." he said, "i will hide you in the vegetable cellar and you can peel potatoes." [laughter] haslinda: back to potatoes. [laughter] wolfgang: back to potatoes, really? two weeks later, the chef came down, and i was sitting down there peeling potatoes. he said, "what are you doing here?" and i said, "i cannot go home. i will jump in the river before going home." he called the owner of the hotel. the owner came down and the chef said, "i don't know what to do with this little guy. i fired him, and he doesn't want to leave." and in the owner got a little nicer, and then he said, we have another hotel.

he sent me to the other hotel. over there was a lady chef. she had kids my age. she was nice to me. she liked that i ate breakfast in the morning and that i did my work and did not say anything. then i started to move up. haslinda: your 100-mile journey is quite something. you went from austria to paris. and then to the u.s. what was the turning point? wolfgang: i left austria for france when i was 17. i worked in a restaurant in burgundy. i found out there were three-star restaurants. naturally, i looked and said, "the restaurant i worked in only had one star." i said, "i cannot go to austria before working in the three-star restaurant." i started to write all these fancy restaurants. the first one who accepted me said, "you could start working

in april." so i went there. and that was really an a tiffany for me. it was something that was really an epiphany for me. it was something totally different. the owner was 72 years old, but he had such passion in the kitchen. he was amazing. he owned the three-star restaurant. he was the chef. everything has to be the best quality. he had such intensity and passion. haslinda: you turned around a restaurant, and that was the time when you learned to be a businessman. your paycheck had bounced. and in return, you asked for part of the business. wolfgang: exactly. i worked one year in indianapolis, and then i moved to los angeles. and i worked in a restaurant. and because they had one fancy investor named gene kelly, you know, the famous actor? i said, "ok, i will work there." i did not know they were financially insolvent.

when i got my first paycheck, the bank was two blocks away. i walked to the bank, gave them my paycheck to cash. the bank told me, "there is no money." i said, "what do you mean there is no money?" "there is no money in the account." i went back and i said, "what happened? there is no money." he said, we are going to deposit tomorrow. so, he gave me some cash and some more cash the next day. he said, "maybe i will pay you a little less and you get part of the restaurant." so i became his partner. and i stayed there for six years. and i took a restaurant that made $18,000 a month. when i left six years later in 1981, we grossed $350,000 a month. haslinda: and you left to set up your own restaurant. wolfgang: exactly. that's when i said, "i want to be my own boss." before leaving there, i said, "i found this new restaurant, but we have to form a management company and we own it together 50-50." he said, "no way.

i always own 51%." i said, "well, me too." [laughter] wolfgang: so we had to split up. we got a very nasty divorce basically. you know, then i opened spago. two years later, after i opened spago, it became a big success. i wanted it to be a little neighborhood restaurant. we had all the old people going back. elizabeth taylor, jimmy stewart, paul newman -- all these people came to the restaurant. some of them were very young like sean penn, madonna, michael jackson. so we had this mixture of people. haslinda: the smoked salmon caviar pizza was a draw. but people may not know is that back then, when you came up with the idea, it wasn't even on the menu. you had to send the pizza to them.

wolfgang: spago was a lot of firsts. we had an open kitchen. totally. i built it that way. that way i can see the customers and manage the restaurant at the same time. and then, one day, when i served smoked salmon, normally we used brioche, then it came into my head, i will just cook the pizza dough with some ions. because smoked salmon and onions go well together. and i put some cream, some fresh dill, and shallots on top. then put the cold salmon because hot and cold goes well together. soft and crispy goes well together. and then i taste and said, wow! a glass of champagne with that would be perfect. everybody tasted it. i used to send it to all the people that i knew. they had never saw anything like that. ♪ haslinda: next on "high flyers" -- wolfgang: we never hear about them. [laughter] ♪

♪ haslinda: so, chef, whenever you do a google on wolfgang puck, the first thing that comes up is celebrity chef. yet, the term celebrity chef is not one you want. wolfgang: absolutely not. i want to be known as a chef. do know, i work in my restaurants. and we have a lot of famous

people come to our restaurants. but i think i am in the service business. i like to make customers happy. "celebrity chef" -- i don't know what it means. [laughter] haslinda: but having said that, it is the celebrity chef who was helped glamorized the cooking world. wolfgang: it is not be celebrity chefs, it is television mainly that have glamorized cooking these days because there are so many shows about cooking all over the world. it is crazy. when i look back 30 years ago when i founded spago, there were no cooking shows. i remember when the food network in america started, they had a little office and two hot plates. that is where you cooked. but there was not much cooking. these days, every channel everywhere you have cooking shows. haslinda: you are competing with the big names in the industry like gordon ramsay. what does it take to be on top and stay on top? you are one of the most celebrated chefs in the u.s. wolfgang: who is gordon ramsay? [laughter] wolfgang: we have never heard about him. [laughter] wolfgang: i think it's really nice. we can compete against the supermarkets.

we compete against a lot of restaurants. i think it is up to us to get a good reputation and get the best word-of-mouth. slda: it's easy to have control over your restaurants if you have one, two,r even three restaurants, but you have over 100 restaurants. how much of wolfgang puck is in each and every one of them? wolfgang: we really have our own talent pool. so, we don't open a restaurant and then i have to go to gordon ramsay and ask him for a chef. no. [laughter] wolfgang: we have are own homegrown chefs and managers. that's what makes the big difference. they know our culture. and not to say that the other people do not have great restaurants, but every culture is a little bit different. what makes us successful might not be gotten the same dna that makes somebody else successful.

we could open 10 restaurants a year. we have so many people who want us to be all over the place. but i decided, you know what? we only open restaurants if i know the chef or the pastry chef and the manager. haslinda: you are so sought after. you have hosted the oscars dinner more than 20 times. wolfgang: yeah. haslinda: is the latest one any different than the one you did before? wolfgang: the oscars are always very exciting. it is probably the biggest party in america, in hollywood for sure. so everybody comes there. the fashion world is there. obviously, the music world is there. everybody celebrates the oscars. everybody celebrates the movies. for us to do the big oscar dinner every year is exciting as it was the first time we did it. the only difference is now i know what to expect. the first time, i was not sure, but now we know what to expect. so we are prepared for everything. haslinda: so, it is as exciting

as before? serving the chocolate statuettes to the celebrities? wolfgang: we have a little bit of home-cooked comfort food. but also innovation. we make a good mixture. people like barbra streisand who comes and she always wants our chicken pot pie with truffles. [laughter] wolfgang: totally. we make it every year. we do it for so many years, i know most of the customers really well. so, it is really easy. haslinda: ok, so leonardo dicaprio was nominated. wolfgang: yeah. haslinda: did you have in mind if he would win and you would serve him a certain dish? you think about that? wolfgang: i think about it, but i don't really do it. i don't know if they are going to win.

i think it's an interesting thing. i made a giant king crab from alaska, so we gave him a giant king crab, but i cut it up in small pieces. i served it with an asian, almost singapore flavor. haslinda: do you have to cater to all the differences? wolfgang: you know we are going to have some budgetary and or vegans. i have eight chefs to do special requests. so, we are ready for everything. if you want singapore noodles, we will make them for you. haslinda: if someone wants a specific cut of meat? wolfgang: we are ready. martin scorsese had dinner and then he said, "i'm still a little bit hungry. can you make me a little pasta?" i was sitting with him and john travolta. and i told the chef, make us a little tomato basil garlic pasta. make it a little spicy. we ate pasta at 1:00 in the morning. he said, "this is perfect." haslinda: i know there is one person you would like to cook for. that would be the pope. why? wolfgang: i was born catholic. even though i am not practitioner. i cooked for everybody from the queen of england to all of the movie people to the presidents.

you know, so i thought i never cooked for the pope. that would be a challenge. haslinda: the pope, if you were watching. what would the dish be? wolfgang: i really think the pope is a very simple person. i would not make up something with truffles and caviar. i would make something my mother or grandmother would make for me when i was a child. we have austrian ravioli. i know he is from argentina, they like pasta, we make it with potatoes and cheese and a little mint. and then just served with parmesan and butter. i think he would like that. [laughter] haslinda: coming up -- wolfgang: i said, "johnny, what you going to do with the pizza?" "i'm going to put them in the freezer." "i'm not going to give them to you anymore if you treat them like that." ♪

♪ haslinda: chef wolfgang puck, you have six cookbooks to your name. the latest one is slightly different. it comes with recipes but also exercise tips. what that's about? wolfgang: i did the cook book because cooking is only part of our life. you know, it is important to cook really healthy food, good food, good ingredients. not to use all the store-bought

stuff that is full of salt, sugar and preservatives. among people to eat really good food and people to exercise. when i started to exercise, i started to feel so much better. so, it is not about being skinny, but about being in shape. haslinda: so come a reflection fitness journey as well? wolfgang: exactly. i have two young children. i have to play tennis with them. i want to go skiing with them. so, i want to stay in shape and live until i am at least 85 or 90. haslinda: and speaking of one of your sons, one of them would not get out of bed until you say i am going to cook eggs. wolfgang: i have two sons who are really into cooking. bryon right now is at cornell, and then i have oliver, whis only 10 years old. he loves to cook. if he doesn't want to get up, he loves scrambled eggs with toast and a little marmalade. if he doesn't want to get up in the morning, i tell him i will

cook the eggs myself without you. and he jumps out of bed and says, "no, no, papa, wait for me. i am coming." he cracks the eggs and beats them. then he cooks them slowly and makes scrambled eggs. for him, it is amazing. he doesn't like school lunch. [laughter] wolfgang: so i have to make panini for him, but he always cooks it. so i put the sausage, meat, or cheese on it. he puts it on the grill and does it. he tells the students i cooked my own sandwich at home. haslinda: you have said that you are a businessman, and you are on the verge of launching your own online cooking school. why? why do you think that will work? wolfgang: we don't know. we never know if it will work out. that's why it's exciting. i founded the online cooking school, because you see the young people today, they do everything online. they learn online. they play online.

they play games online. everything is online. i talked to my son, why not start to cook book online where i do every recipe from a-z? let me show you how to make the perfect fried egg. i'm going to show you how to do it the easy way. it's great. you can see me in your kitchen the way you want to see me. you can slow it down or speed up. i show you how to do each recipe. it's much easier to understand than reading it in the book. you can see it. you get the recipe also, so you can print out your shopping list. but mainly, i did it myself, every recipe. in the springtime, i will add some barbecue recipes. so i do not have to write another cookbook. i just add it already. in a few years, we are going to have an amazing library of recipes. i know people will go to the website and they can cook just

like me. haslinda: innovation is something that you really believe in. wolfgang: yeah. haslinda: why? why is it important to have innovative cooking? you have a test kitchen. wolfgang: when i started spago, i looked at what is out there. i want to be like armani. i did dinner for a fashion show. i said, he not only has upscale, couture clothing, but he has licensing. he has all of those different things. it's a complex business. i said maybe i can base my restaurant concept on that, too. so, we started with upscale restaurants. but then we started to have middle of the road restaurants, and not too expensive restaurants, but still very good. restaurants in the airport. then i started to make frozen pizza and soup in the supermarket. also, we have appliances that we sell on hsn and in different stores.

haslinda: let's talk about the frozen pizza. wolfgang: yeah. haslinda: you have someone to credit for that idea. wolfgang: yeah. haslinda: johnny carson was a regular in your restaurant. he used to buy 10, 20 boxes of pizza. you wondered what he was doing with them. wolfgang: john used to come to our restaurant all the time. he was with his new girlfriend, alex, at the time. he took home 10 pizzas one night, and i said, "what you doing with the pizzas? are you having ather party?" he said, "i put them in the freezer." "you put them in the freezer? i am not going to give y pizzas anymore if you treat them like that." he said, "they are just as good as the ones you make here." i said, "that can't be possible." so i tried them. i said, "it's a little dry." the next one i cooked less and less. then i baked them in home and said, "maybe he's right." then when a supermarket called

gelson's came to me. i know bernie gelson very well. he said, "you know, maybe you should sell some of your restaurants in the store." i said, "let's start with the pizzas." haslinda: you are ok with putting your name on a lot of different things. not just the frozen pizza, but also appliances, utensils. some people may think that is selling out. is it? wolfgang: you know, i really want to help people be better at home in cooking. i do not sell sheets for the bedroom or things for the bathroom. i sell everything possible you could use in the kitchen. if you have a better blender or if you have expensive pots and pans, which help you to be a better cook, i don't think it's selling out. i am really here to empower people to be better cooks at home. haslinda: chef wolfgang puck, you are pushing 66 or 67. wolfgang: only? haslinda: only.

you work six days a week and you travel at least 100 days a year. that is some aggressive -- are you planning to slow down? wolfgang: i am not planning to slow down. you know, like i love to come here to singapore. we just opened a spago here. i think, we always have new projects. as long as i enjoy it, and as long as i have passion doing things i love to do, why stop? haslinda: what is your legacy? wolfgang: if one day i get a tombstone, and somebody writes on it, "he was a good father and husband," that would be it. haslinda: chef wolfgang puck, thank you so much for being on "high flyers." it's been such a pleasure. wolfgang: it's good to be here. good to be here on "high flyers." i did not even get height sick. [laughter] ♪ these days families want to be connected 24/7.

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