You might know Wolfgang Puck from his time guest judging one of many popular cooking competitions on TV, including Hell’s Kitchen, MasterChef, The Next Food Network Star, Top Chefs New York and Las Vegas, and Celebrity Cooking Showdown among others. Or maybe you know him from one of his countless restaurants and catering businesses across the country. If not, then you almost certainly know him from his famous line of frozen pizzas. Puck’s frozen pizza products have seen huge commercial success and have been a huge money maker in his portfolio, but it almost never happened. Anyone who has ever enjoyed a fresh, hot Puck pizza in the comfort of their own home can thank Johnny Carson for making it happen.
Back in the 80’s when the chef was still working in the kitchens of his trendy Beverly Hills restaurant, Spago, the famous talk show host would come in often to order a dozen pizzas to go. After several big orders, the chef asked him when he’d be invited to the next pizza party…at which point Carson confessed that he bought the delicious pizzas in bulk to stash in his freezer for later.
At first, the very idea of this seemed like blasphemy to the highly trained perfectionist chef, but after weeks of Carson making these orders and Puck threatening to stop fulfilling the orders, his wife finally convinced him to give it a try. Turns out that Carson was right all along and the rest, as they say, is history! Although it is worth noting that because there was never actually an official deal between the two men, Puck didn’t have to share any of the royalties!