This Friday on Nightline the show's Platelist series looks at the phenomenon of celebrity chefdom, talking to the patriarch of the movement, Wolfgang Puck. A snippet: John Berman: Do you think it's a problem now though that kids who want to be chefs have unrealistic expectations? They think if they learn to cook they’ll have two TV shows, they’ll write four books and open 12 restaurants?Wolfgang Puck: Well, you know, I tell all of these young people, men and women in the kitchen, that patience is really a lost virtue in a way. People want to be everything in two years. They think I started to cook and two years later I opened Spago, then I had the TV show,... More

frenchlaundry.com Thomas Keller penned an interesting story yesterday in the Los Angeles Times about what it means to be a successful chef brand in 2008. Keller says that a successful chef today has to grapple with spreadsheets as well as spreads. And in doing so, he will be faced with (at least in Keller's case) a seemingly endless array of business opportunities. How does Keller deal with this? How about other name-brand chefs? Finesse and Integrity By looking at every opportunity through a prism of "finesse" and "integrity." I guess what Keller is saying is if he's going to open a burger joint, he has to develop a burger recipe long on finesse that's true to his implicit devotion to... More

Even if his menu’s price tags are out of the average journalist’s league, Wolfgang Puck’s new venture, appropriately called The Source, is attached to the Newseum, a soon-to-open museum honoring journalism and news-catching. Originally in Rosslyn, Virginia, the museum relocated to a prime spot on Pennsylvania Avenue, conveniently adjacent to the Smithsonians and a few blocks from the Capitol. The museum's opening date has been postponed a gazillion times, but behind the chutes-and-ladders construction zone mess, The Source has been taking reservations for a few weeks now. As Puck’s first restaurant in D.C., they surprisingly haven't advertised much and are solely relying on word of mouth. The menu is Asian-inspired, and though it may look familiar—he's had practice at Chinois... More

Wolfgang Puck shares a recipe for the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations: "What better dish could there be for the Year of the Pig than pork-filled potstickers? These plump, juicy dumplings get their name because they're traditionally steamed and fried in a cast-iron pan from which they have to be dislodged after cooking." According to Wikipedia, dumplings are considered an auspicious food because they resemble a golden tael, ingots used as currency in China from 221 BC through early last century. Read more about the Chinese New Year in today's feature by Alaina Browne, Chinese New Year Eats.... More