Wolfgang Puck's Passionate Stance On Wagyu Beef
Wagyu beef is extremely popular with high-spending consumers for its rich marbling, which lends the meat a buttery-soft taste and texture. Although originally Japanese, versions of wagyu cattle exist in other countries, and the protein can now be found all over the world. Despite its popularity, however, you'll never see one renowned celebrity chef enjoying a wagyu steak.
Wolfgang Puck is one of the most critically acclaimed chefs around, but his refined palate has little room for wagyu. He told The Telegraph that "the Japanese Wagyu is really fatty and you're not meant to eat a lot of it. I wouldn't eat steak like that ... because of the fat" (via Cheat Sheet).
If you've ever dined at a Wolfgang Puck restaurant, though, you may have noticed wagyu on the menu. Part of this is simply that the luxury meat sells well, and a successful restaurateur doesn't necessarily have to like everything on their menus. But further explanation lies in the subtle differences between Japanese wagyu, which Puck dislikes, and other cattle.
Why Wolfgang Puck serves wagyu in his restaurants (despite not liking it himself)
While it is possible that Wolfgang Puck has offered Japanese wagyu on his menus, its American and Australian counterparts are more common. The key difference between Japanese and American wagyu, like several dinner options at Puck's flagship restaurant, is that the latter has less marbling than the Japanese cattle. This gives the American wagyu at Spago, Beverly Hills a heartier bite with beefier flavor.
As for the differences between Japanese and Australian wagyu, the story is similar. The Australian version is also leaner than its Japanese counterpart, meaning steak that's not quite butter-tender but still soft and beefy. Taylor Swift herself enjoyed that slightly more substantial bite when she ordered an Australian wagyu steak at Spago in 2024.
Puck's restaurant The Kitchen in Grand Rapids, Michigan even uses wagyu in a way that makes professional chefs cringe: a Wagyu Burger. The pros often frown on this application because grinding the prized meat destroys its texture, and pure wagyu is too rich for a burger, anyway. Leaner beef often has to balance out the high fat content (if the chef doesn't merely add wagyu fat to standard ground beef). Despite all this, the Wagyu Burger probably sells well, which Puck might argue is the point of the business.