A different country every week and hordes of fans clamoring to get a ticket to see you in action is a lifestyle that sounds much more like that of a young rockstar than an established chef. Yet Wolfgang Puck’s upcoming schedule sounds awfully similar.
This fall, the Austrian-born, Beverly Hills-adoptee is heading on the road to visit restaurants across his international empire for a series of one-night-only ticketed dining experiences in celebration of his near-five-decade career. A firm family affair, accompanying him on The Generational Tasting Tour is his son Byron Lazaroff-Puck, who is president of Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group.
Having first trained at Maxim’s in Paris, Hotel de Paris in Monaco, and L’Oustau de Baumanière in Provence, Puck moved to the US and in early 1981 launched the first Spago restaurant in West Hollywood. In 1997, Spago was moved to Beverly Hills, where it remains a local institution and the undisputed home of the smoked salmon and caviar pizza. In the decades since, the Puck empire has expanded with seven other international Spagos, as well as seven Cut steak restaurants.
Held in honor of this legacy, The Generational Tasting Tour started in March at Wolfgang’s Washington DC Cut restaurant, but will pick back up again from September 3 with a one-off dinner at Spago Budapest. Together with executive chef István Szántó, Byron and Wolfgang will create a menu that both celebrates the Puck family’s culinary legacy, but also the fundamentals of Hungarian cuisine.
Exact menu details remain sparse through the course of the series, but guests have been told that they can expect to experience a tasting menu that ‘honors the foundation laid over the past forty-four years while offering a bold glimpse into the next forty-four and beyond.’ Wolfgang will first offer a dish plucked directly from his own recipe rulebook, before his son will reinterpret the traditional technique used in a different, more modern-leaning dish.
Following the Budapest dinner, the Pucks will head to London for a pop-up dinner at Cut 45 Park Lane, the signature steak restaurant at the 45 Park Lane hotel, led by executive chef Elliot Grover. “We are thrilled to have both Wolfgang and Byron in the kitchen at Cut 45 Park Lane on 9th September,” says Grover, who has worked with Puck on his famous Oscars Governor’s Ball menu for the last six years.
“The Generational Tasting Tour is a unique dining experience taking place in cities all over the world from London to Singapore to Spago Beverly Hills, where it all began 20 years ago. I’ll be working closely with Wolfgang and Byron on the evening to create a menu for guests, which has inspirations from London as the host city.”
Following London, The Generational Tasting Tour will head to Maui, Singapore, Shanghai, Bahrain, and Las Vegas, before wrapping up back at the mothership: Spago Beverly Hills.
