Feeding Oscar: A Peek at How Wolfgang Puck Cooks for The Stars

Imagine being tasked to feed the most beautiful and famous people in the world, who mostly can afford to eat fine dining daily. Imagine feeding these same sophisticated palates when they are famished after fasting the whole day so they could fit into their designer clothes for the biggest event in Hollywood: the Academy Awards or better known as the Oscars! Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, has done this culinary miracle over and over again as the caterer for the Oscars after-party for around 25 years. This blog post tells the story of what happens behind the scenes.

To feed an army of hungry celebrities and movie industry people (reaching around 1,500 diners last year) requires an army. Wolfgang, as its general, marshaled around 220 of the world's best chefs to cook one of the world's most important dinners for the year.

In the video featuring his preparation for the event, Wolfgang mentions that he can rely on his Vice President for Culinary, Chef Eric Klein to make him look good so he can do his main job which is being "Wolfgang". As he passed through the tables where the world's most premium ham, "Cinco Jotas hamon iberico" was being sliced by specialist chefs from Spain, he humbly admitted that he employs people who are better than him. He proves that hiring, developing, and leading culinary geniuses is what a culinary master does. 

It's not all cooking though, Chef Wolfgang also does PR for his restaurant and catering service by presenting to the media what will be served during the banquet. Usually, after that, he goes down to the bar to have a drink socializing with his friends and rubbing elbows with some very high profile people, for example, Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos. 

Things get really serious after the Best Picture is announced. That is the signal for Wolfgang's army of chefs to finish up their preparations and be ready for service. With masterful mise-en-place, the early preparations have already been made in the kitchen, the steaks have been seared and the sushi have already been rolled. This gives the chef army the window to focus on the tasks which require to be done nearer service time like frying food and plating appetizers. Like a seasoned general, Wolfgang, with one confident command, makes the army mobilize, and in a span of minutes, hundreds of plates are paraded out of the kitchen to the banquet hall where the world's most discerning and starving celebrities wait in anticipation. 

It's amazing how despite the sheer number of dishes served, the army is able to allow for personal touches on the dishes like extra truffles on Barbara Streisand's pot pie. In the heat of the preparations for this culinary battle, Wolfgang even has time to entertain rapper Pharell Williams as he snacks inside the kitchen. As expected, as they have done for the past two decades and a half, Wolfgang and his army are victorious.

It's beautiful how humble and dedicated Chef Wolfgang is as he congratulated his staff and told them that the next thing they should do is be better next year. He plans to do it for another ten years or so while preparing to transition it to his son, Byron Puck. 

The videos here and here can give you more insight on what it takes to be the caterer at the Oscars for a quarter of a century and to be a chef to the stars.