NEW YORK, Feb 1 — After catering events like the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, and presidential galas in the US, celebrity chef to the stars Wolfgang Puck will trade his chef's coat for a tux this year as the recipient of a lifetime achievement award at an event known as the ‘Oscars' of the food world.

On January 30, the James Beard Foundation announced that Puck will join the ranks of chefs Jacques Pépin and Alice Waters, food editor Judith Jones and sommelier Kevin Zraly as this year's recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes those who've made an impact on the way Americans eat, cook and think about food.

A native of Austria, Puck is credited with pioneering concepts like the ‘open kitchen' and cooking with local, seasonal ingredients using classical French techniques throughout his 30-year career.

At his flagship restaurant Spago in Los Angeles, which he opened in 1982, Puck helped lighten up the notion of fine dining by elevating humble foods like pizza with smoked salmon and caviar, and Sonoma baby lamb with braised greens and rosemary, a concept that garnered worldwide attention and has succeeded in keeping the restaurant full 30 years later. 

Today the chef has 22 fine dining restaurants to his name that span locations in Las Vegas, LA, Singapore, London, and Maui, in addition to a series of fast-casual chains like Wolfgang Puck Express and Wolfgang Puck Bistro, fresh and frozen food lines, cookware, and cookbooks.

Puck is no stranger to the James Beard Awards, as he's the only chef to have been named Outstanding Chef twice, once in 1991 and the second time in 1998. Spago was also named Restaurant of the Year in 1994.

Puck will be presented with the award at the James Beard Foundation Awards Ceremony and Gala Reception May 7 in New York at Lincoln Centre’s Avery Fisher Hall. — AFP-Relaxnews