Wolfgang Puck Masterclass Review – is it Worth it?

Cooking is experimental. You never know how something will turn out until you try it. This can be frustrating for those who like certainty in their lives. But the beauty of cooking is that it’s always a learning experience, whether the dish turns out perfectly or not.

Wolfgang Puck is a firm believer in taking risks to enable you to come out with something delicious and memorable. And he shares more about this belief, in his cooking MasterClass.

In this Wolfgang Puck MasterClass Review, we will touch on what the class is about, Puck’s teaching style, other users’ experiences, and whether it’s worth signing up for. 

Who is Wolfgang Puck?

Wolfgang Puck is an American Michelin Star chef, an author, and an entrepreneur—he is best known for his gourmet restaurants, catering services, and cookbooks. Chef Puck is well-known for creating meals like chicken pot pie and Catalan fire-roasted lamb rack.

His love for cooking started when he was a young boy and used to watch his mother cook in the kitchen. She worked as a restaurant chef, and Wolfgang decided that he wanted to follow in her footsteps.

Though he never attended culinary school, he trained as an apprentice. However, his first internship in a hotel did not turn out well. But instead of giving up, he moved and trained in other establishments.

He spent some time in France, where he worked at several of the world’s finest restaurants, including Maxim’s in Paris, the Hotel de Paris in Monaco, and L’Oustau de Baumanière in Provence. His experiences working at these establishments helped him to grow his culinary talents.

After some time, he moved to the United States to explore different opportunities. His first job in America was at La Tour restaurant in Indianapolis, before he relocated to Los Angeles. Soon enough, he became a part owner of Ma Maison in West Hollywood. 

His career took off in the United States, where he achieved tremendous success and became a very successful celebrity chef over time. He is also active in several charitable causes and organizations.

Following his initial success, he established a restaurant called Spago. It was a big success, and his creative dishes, like haute cuisine pizzas, Sonoma baby lamb, and roast beef, earned him a reputation as a gourmet cook.

A few years after opening his first restaurant, he opened Chinois on Main in Santa Monica and Postrio in the Prescott Hotel off San Francisco’s Union Square. At the same time, Spago became increasingly popular, and he decided to move it to a more elegant setting on Cañon Drive in Beverly Hills.

He eventually established the Wolfgang Puck Companies, composed of Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc, and Wolfgang Puck Catering. Chef Puck’s group of companies manages a wide range of fine dining restaurants, premium catering services, cookbooks, and canned foods.

With the rise of his popularity, Wolgang Puck’s Spago restaurant in Beverly Hills won numerous awards, including the James Beard Foundation Outstanding Service Award and two Michelin stars from the Los Angeles Michelin Guide. He also got the Lifetime Achievement Award from the James Beard Foundation and was inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame in 2013.

In addition to his many other accolades, Wolfgang Puck’s Food Network television program, Wolfgang Puck, received the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Service Show. The following year, the show won another Emmy for Best Direction for a Service Show.

Aside from being a chef and businessman, Puck has also written several cookbooks, including, Wolfgang Puck Makes it Easy, Live, Love, Eat!: The Best of Wolfgang Puck, Wolfgang Puck’s Modern French Cooking For The American Kitchen, and more.

Overview of the Class

Wolfgang Puck’s MasterClass has a total of 16 video lessons and runs for 3 hours and 47 minutes. Although his cooking class is shorter than Gordon Ramsay’s MasterClass, it will give you the confidence to develop more complex dishes and inspire you to improve your cooking. 

In his MasterClass, Chef Puck teaches you how to train the palate. He explains a lot of helpful points, like the five primary cooking flavors, plus the sixth one, which is the neutral and grounding cooking flavor.

Chef Puck also provides excellent and complicated recipes, so you can learn how to make delicious dishes, like tuna sashimi, pepper steak with red wine sauce, mustard port sauce, roasted branzino, farro salad, and oatmeal risotto. Plus, he also teaches you how to mix some amazing cocktails, like a berry margarita.

Part of the Wolfgang Puck MasterClass is a detailed section that is focused on his kitchen essentials. Here, he shares that cooking starts with good equipment. One piece of advice he gives is that you need the right tools and appliances to have a good time in the kitchen.

As well as discussing the usual cooking topics, Wolfgang Puck also shares some of his own personal experiences and insights. He talks about his journey, how he overcame adversities, his learnings from successes and failures, and his business and culinary philosophy. You will feel comfortable learning from him with his very calm and fatherly approach.

Wolfgang stresses that food is not just about nourishment—it is also about the experience. He shares that you can create a more memorable and delicious experience for your dinner guests by incorporating all of the senses into your dish, not just taste. 

For instance, in most of his restaurants, the dining experience starts with the busboy and extends to the doorman, waiter, and chef.

To give you an in-depth look at what the Wolfgang Puck Masterclass entails, here is a list of the video contents:

• Introduction
• Training Your Palate
• Recipe: Tuna Sashimi
• Recipe: Veal Stock and Demi-glace
• Recipe: Pepper Steak with Red Wine Sauce
• Recipe: Farro Salad with Roasted Carrots
• Recipe: Roasted Chicken with Mustard Port Sauce
• Recipe: Béchamel Sauce
• Recipe: Roasted Branzino
• Recipe: Oatmeal Risotto
• Recipe: Seafood Gazpacho
• Cocktails
• Wolfgang’s Journey
• Wolfgang’s Business Philosophy
• Wolfgang’s Culinary Philosophy
• Bonus Chapter: Kitchen Essentials

​​Aside from the cooking course, you will also have access to a class workbook, much like you get in all MasterClasses. The workbook is 57 pages long and is ideal for taking MasterClass’s online classes with you. Included in the workbook are recipes and essential notes from Chef Wolfgang. 

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Learn from a world-class chef
• Fun and engaging lessons
• Develop your cooking skills and learn different techniques
• It’s the right combination of theory and practice
• Learn how to appreciate food better
• The recipes are easy to understand

Cons:

• The absence of a glossary may lead to confusion
• Some of the ingredients and recommended equipment are expensive

Who is this Class for?

• Those who have no/intermediate level cooking experience
• People who want to become a more adventurous cook
• Culinary arts students
• Business owners
• Culinary school instructors
• Those who lack confidence in terms of their cooking ability

How Much Does the Class Cost?

To join the Wolfgang MasterClass in cooking, you must have a MasterClass membership. Your subscription will allow you access to their entire collection and the courses from all of their instructors.

MasterClass has three subscription plans:

• Individual Plan: $180 per year ($15 monthly)
• Duo Plan: $240 per year ($20 monthly), up to two devices
• Family Plan: $276 per year ($23 monthly), up to six devices

Users’ Experiences 

People who joined Wolfgang Puck’s MasterClass liked the fact that Puck gave practical advice that they could apply regardless of their cooking skills. Most of them bought more cooking equipment to respond to one of Chef Puck’s key lessons. Watching the lessons made them appreciate cooking more.

Most of those who provided a Wolfgang Puck MasterClass review shared that Puck’s teaching style is engaging and informative, making it easy for them to follow along. They said that the course material is comprehensive and covers everything from kitchen essentials to advanced cooking techniques. 

His students agreed that Chef Wolfgang is one of the best people to teach cooking because he is a world-renowned chef with numerous awards and accolades. They gave value to his years of experience in the industry and his contribution to the culinary industry.

The students were also inspired to experiment with old and new recipes to produce surprisingly good dishes. Wolfgang Puck’s personal stories also gave them the drive to continue cooking, no matter what adversities come their way.

Conclusion

In his Masterclass, Wolfgang Puck will teach you how to cook like a pro. He’ll show you how to make some of his signature dishes and will also tackle kitchen essentials. With the right combination of theoretical and practical cooking lessons, we certainly believe that Wolfgang Puck’s MasterClass is worth your time and money.

While it is a short course compared to other cooking classes, it is still comprehensive and will teach you the basics of cooking. After taking this course, you’ll be able to cook with confidence and serve amazing dishes for your family, friends, and future restaurant customers.

Puck’s Masterclass is a unique way to learn about food and its importance. Through detailed lessons, Puck teaches the proper techniques for tasting food, making sauces, pairing meals with cocktails, and, most importantly, the important philosophies for cooking and life in general.