The Puck stops here-Wolfgang Puck talks food, family and opening in Tulsa

Wolfgang Puck visits with customers inside Wolfgang Puck Bistro in Tulsa, one of 2010's hot new restaurants. For more, see today's Weekend section. JAMES GIBBARD / Tulsa World
Wolfgang Puck joined my wife and me in a booth at Wolfgang Puck Bistro and signaled to a nearby server.

"Bring over a bottle of that new wine," he said. "The red one."
I had been waiting for more than two hours to interview the internationally acclaimed chef and entrepreneur.
I had been told by Tony Henry, operating principal of Wolfgang Puck Bistro, that if I came by the restaurant that night I would have an opportunity for an interview, albeit a brief one.
He said few knew Puck would be in town that night, and most of the restaurant's customers weren't expecting to see him, either, but Puck would be visiting everyone who was there.
I told Henry that was fine. I had some questions in mind and figured I could cobble together a story with no more than 10 minutes of Puck's time.
Throughout our dinner we watched Puck work the room, selling and signing copies of his cookbooks, chit-chatting with diners and moving repeatedly in and out of the kitchen.
He came by our table a couple of times, saying, "I'll be right with you," before moving off in another direction. I was beginning to wonder if I would get that 10-minute interview by the time he sat down with us and ordered the wine, a just-released,private-label Wolfgang Puck cabernet sauvignon.
He proceeded to talk to us for 45 minutes, as if no one else was in the room - a remarkable talent shared by many of the great ones in any field.
Puck - born Wolfgang Johannes Topfschnig on July 8, 1949, in Austria - talked about his Austrian heritage and how that led to his biggest break in the restaurant business, cooking for the rich and famous, his failed first marriage, his current marriage, his children, his business philosophies and his expectations for restaurants that bear his name.
About the big break
"The director Billy Wilder was Austrian, and one night he brought a group of 10 or 12 to Ma Maison, a restaurant in West Hollywood where I was cooking and part owner. I remember there were Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Michael Caine, Orson Welles.
"A newspaper reporter was there, and back then the newspapers still had their social pages. We got a big write-up, and that's where I started to know more people in the entertainment business.
"Sidney Poitier and I became very close. He's the godfather of my children. Tony Curtis was a great friend, too. It was sad when he died this year; he used to come to our place every day."
About presidential dinners
"I've cooked for every president since Gerald Ford, and it's always been an honor. This year I'm doing a charity dinner for Michelle Obama in L.A. and a fundraiser in Chicago for President Obama."
About opening his flagship restaurant, Spago, on Sunset Strip in 1982
"When I opened Spago, I couldn't sleep for nights. I knew that I could cook as good as my neighbors, but I kept thinking, 'What if nobody shows up?' "
About his work ethic
"I used to have big fights with my first wife, but I had to go to work like nothing ever happened. In this business you can't show it if you are having a bad day. So, I just try to pass that on and keep everybody grounded."
On his business empire
"We have a lot of things going with the books and food products, and newspaper columns and television, but my main business still is restaurants. Opening them is easy, but staying open is the hard part.
"I had to close one restaurant in Atlanta because things there just weren't right. The bread and sandwiches were stale, and other things were wrong, and that reflects on me.
"We have a corporate office, but I still know what is going on, and I still have the last word. I didn't know what to expect for Tulsa. This is our smallest market, but I'm very pleased with it. One thing that surprised me is that it is selling more seafood than meat."
About his family
"My oldest boy, Cameron, wants to go to Harvard grad school. He would make a good lawyer. My No. 2 son, Byron, is 16 and shows some interest in cooking, but he has a long way to go yet.
"Oliver is 5, and Alexander is 3. I want very much to be a good father, despite my schedule. I was in Phoenix the night before I came to Tulsa. I flew home the next morning to have breakfast with the kids, then I caught a plane to Tulsa.
"I was divorced for 10 years before I married Gelila. She is Ethiopian, and we are setting up a cooking school and providing computers for the poor children in Ethiopia."
Puck is 61. Does he think about retirement?
"Not yet. I'm still looking ahead, looking for more to do. There's always more to do."