Wolfgang Puck
The Travel Diaries
Holly Rubenstein
4.5 • 813 Ratings
🗓️ 27 September 2022
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With over fifty restaurants, multiple Michelin stars and innumerable celebrity fans, Wolfgang Puck is one of the world’s most famous chefs and global restauranteurs.
Born in Austria, he began cooking alongside his mother who was a chef, before starting his formal chef training at just 14 years old, quickly going on to cook at some of France's best restaurants. But, it wasn't an easy childhood, and Wolfgang is incredibly honest about the abusive relationship he had to endure with his step father at home, and how that has shaped who he is today, and where he still can’t bring himself to travel to as a result.
It was far away from Austria, in Los Angeles, California, where Wolfgang really made a name for himself, garnering the attention of the Hollywood elite, arguably becoming the world’s first ‘celebrity chef’ and spearheading a revolution of Californian cuisine with his flagship restaurant, Spago. For over thirty years he has also been the official caterer of the Oscars, lining the stomachs of every gong hungry nominee, and he was even awarded his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
When you have global restaurant empire like Wolfgang you spend a lot of time travelling, and this episode takes us to some fabulous locations all over the world from Sardinia to Mexico, Capri to Japan.
Destination Recap:
- 45 Park Lane, London, England
- Spago, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, USA
- Austria
- Colchester, Essex, England
- Villach, Austria
- Arlberg, Austria
- Park City, Utah, USA
- L'Oustau de Baumanière, Provence, France
- Sardinia
- Cala di Volpe, Sardinia
- Bonifacio, Corsica
- Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
- Montage Los Cabos, Mexico
- Rosewood Miramar Beach, Montecito, California, USA
- Capri, Italy
- Quattro Passi Restaurant, Italy
- Budapest, Hungary
- Viva Mayr, Austria
- Japan
- Nile Cruise, Egypt
- Uganda
If you’d like to experience Wolfgang’s cuisine, then you should check out the new outdoor dining terrace of CUT at 45 Park Lane hotel, part of the Dorchester Collection in London, which is open for lunch and dinner.
With thanks to…
Citalia - Discover the real Italy with Citalia, the UK’s leading Italian holiday specialists. Let the Italy Experts craft the perfect holiday for you and experience Italy like a Citalian.
Thanks so much for listening.
If you want to be the first to find out who’s joining me on next week’s episode come and follow me on Instagram, I’m @hollyrubenstein and I’d love to hear from you.
If you can’t wait til then, remember there’s the first seven seasons to catch up on - that’s over 85 episodes.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Travel Diaries podcast. |
| 0:09.0 | I'm your host, journalist Holly Rubinstein, and here each week I'll be speaking to a very special guest about the seven chapters in their life's travel diaries. |
| 0:19.2 | From their earliest childhood travel memory and the first |
| 0:22.3 | place they fell in love with to their hidden gem and what's at the top of their travel |
| 0:27.0 | bucket list, we'll be uncovering their adventures around the world and the travel experiences |
| 0:32.3 | and destinations that have shaped their lives. I hope everyone is keeping well this week. I've seen loads of you |
| 0:40.2 | are going away for late summer getaways that look absolutely glorious. I had the opportunity to |
| 0:45.1 | get away for a few days as well last week to the New Forest, which is really one of my favourite |
| 0:50.5 | parts of the UK. I just, I love the wild countryside, the wild horses and the |
| 0:55.6 | lovely quaint villages and its proximity to the beach. I mean, we were staying in a place that was |
| 1:00.1 | five minutes drive from the beach. It really has it all. I was staying in a magical Georgian |
| 1:04.9 | farmhouse that I cannot recommend more highly. It was called Derns, which is truly the ultimate family holiday home. It has an |
| 1:13.1 | outdoor pool that's heated all year round. We loved dipping in there. Honestly, it was so lovely |
| 1:18.2 | like a bath. Every garden game under the sun, a bar come games room in the garden, an outdoor |
| 1:23.7 | cinema, a shepherd's heart, a fully stock pantry, and even a dorm room with six single |
| 1:29.2 | beds all tucked into the eaves for the kids. The attention to detail was really like |
| 1:33.7 | something I'd never seen before. And the house is part of Lymore New Forest Collection. |
| 1:40.2 | And it's also one of cool stays unique and unusual places to stay. So if you're not familiar with cool stays, it's genuinely one of my go-toes for browsing |
| 1:49.1 | where to go on holiday around the world. |
| 1:51.5 | They have this portfolio of over 2,000 hand-picked extraordinary places to stay that are |
| 1:56.2 | all kind of quirky, noteworthy, stylish things like treehouses, lighthouses, windmills, glamping, |
| 2:02.0 | cool cottages, that kind of thing. And I'm teaming up with them to give you, my lovely listeners, |
... |
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