Time Out Talks: Celebrity chefs Wolfgang & Byron Puck at Spago Shanghai

Welcome back and happy first anniversary to Spago Shanghai! 

BYRON LAZAROFF PUCK: How time flies.

WOLFGANG PUCK: It’s very exciting to be back.

As Time Out Shanghai, of course we have to ask: what is your favourite thing about the city?

BYRON LAZAROFF PUCK: The thing I love most about Shanghai is the culture around cuisine, which is so communal. Across my culinary experiences here, everything is very shareable, and menus are always built with that idea in mind.

Just earlier today, The St. Regis on the Bund team took us for the best shengjianbao at Da Hu Chun (大壶春). We ate as a family. My dad’s obviously my family, but so are our partners. It was a very familial experience, and the food was so good.

The Generational Tasting Tour also includes Austrian dumplings on the menu, doesn’t it?

BYRON LAZAROFF PUCK: Correct. The Kärntner Käsenudeln are super amazing and they are on the menu tonight. They’re a dish from my father’s childhood, his mother’s dumplings, my grandma’s recipe. 

It’s a really fun item to showcase on a menu like this, where we’re also referencing tradition and innovation, because it shows a lot of our own family’s history.

WOLFGANG PUCK: In a way, this will be a three-generational dinner, because my mother is looking from up above at what we’re doing. She was also a chef, which is how I started.

That’s true. Few rooftop restaurants afford views of both Yuyuan Garden and the Bund — symbols of the past and the future.

WOLFGANG PUCK: Keeping part of the history is important. We don’t want to rip everything down and just build skyscrapers — I think we should honour the past. China has a lot of tradition, which is really amazing. Thousands of years of history. To me, seeing the old and the new mixed together is exciting.

Speaking of the past, do you remember the very first dish that your dad taught you, Byron?

BYRON LAZAROFF PUCK: Pizza was one of the first things my dad ever showed me how to make at Spago Beverly Hills — even if I wasn’t tall enough to reach the top of the table. I remember standing on a chair to reach the stove, so I could stand next to my dad and cook together.

And because learning goes both ways, have you learned anything from your son, chef?

WOLFGANG PUCK: I’m always curious and I’m always willing to learn. Byron and I actually work really well together because he’s better at certain things than me, like technology.

BYRON LAZAROFF PUCK: Yes, we do a lot of work with data aggregation. The idea is: How do we integrate technology in order to keep the notion of our North Star alive? The North Star for us will always be our guest.

On the topic of technology, I have a fun one for you guys: have you heard of Shanghai’s food delivery drones?

BYRON LAZAROFF PUCK: I’ve been watching the skies, trying to see if it’s ever going to happen. I’ve heard of it, but I need to see it firsthand because that is my dream!

Our next question is, if you had to pick one of your signature dishes to be delivered, which would it be?

BYRON LAZAROFF PUCK: Oh, that’s a good one! I would want to deliver our Wiener schnitzel by drone, just because I want to share my father’s and my heritage with more people. I mean, a flying Wiener schnitzel going through the skies? That’s the future!

WOLFGANG PUCK: For me it would be our duck. I’d say, “Look, the duck is flying again! No feathers, but it’s back in the sky!”

BYRON LAZAROFF PUCK: I love China so much because there’s so much innovation here. Obviously, we love spending time in our restaurant, but to experience more of the city is extremely important. It’s one of the most amazing places the world has to offer.