When we asked famed chef Wolfgang Puck for his No. 1 gastronomic destination, he didn’t go very far from his base of California.
“I would go to the Chino Ranch, which supplies most of my vegetables. It’s only a two-hour drive from my place, but I have often rented a house there on the ocean just so I could eat their vegetables for two weeks — I became almost a vegetarian,” he says of the farm that supplies his restaurants with produce.
But when pressed, he admitted to other, favorite gastronomic destinations. “I like Hong Kong, I love Japan and the fish market in Tokyo, and I like to go over to France, Italy and Spain. Last year, we went to Barcelona and went to the Boqueria market for simple Spanish food and good ham.”
His gastronomic globetrotting is limited only by his long-suffering travel companion, his wife. “My wife says, ‘I have eight courses for lunch and eight courses for dinner, I don’t want to do it anymore, take somebody who likes to eat that much.’”
Puck’s top three gastronomic destinations:
1. The Fat Duck, Bray, England
2. Alain Ducasse at Plaza Athenee, Paris, France:
3. Moulin de Mougins, Mougins, France: “I remember the first time I went to the Moulin Mougins, when [chef] Roger Verge was there — it must be probably 30 years ago or so. I had lunch by myself and I thought it was fantastic.” www.moulindemougins.com