This Celebrity Chef Is Set To Serve A New Series on HBO Max
Cooking shows and competitions still draw high ratings. From Masterchef to The Chef Show, culinary-themed programs bring in big audiences on network, cable, and streaming platforms.
HBO Max just announced its launching a new series featuring this world-renowned celebrity chef.
Food equals fame
Culinary icons like Gordon Ramsay have turned their careers as chefs into broadcasting empires. Ramsay has an entire portfolio of television shows that has boosted his brand into the mega millions, all in addition to his Michelin-starred restaurants.
Rachael Ray has taken her accessible “I’m a cook, not a chef” persona and parlayed it into an entire lifestyle brand. From her syndicated talk show to her namesake magazine, the television personality has become one of today’s most famous faces.
Ramsay and Ray are just two examples of the competitive culinary space. Food Network hosts a suite of shows headlined by chefs who have become bona fide celebs, including Giada De Laurentiis, Bobby Flay, Ina Garten, and Ree Drummond.
HBO is getting in on the game with a chef who has been a culinary icon for decades.
Cue the catering
Renowned for creating the sumptuous smorgasbords for the Oscars, chef Wolfgang Puck is now serving as executive producer of the HBO Max series The Event. According to Variety, the eight-episode show focuses on Puck’s catering company, which provides on-location fine dining for events nationwide.
Trailing members of Puck’s culinary team throughout each one-hour episode, the show focuses on the process of going above and beyond expectations for high-profile events such as the Academy Awards and the 10,000 guest Adobe MaxBash.
“We are really excited to share a behind the scenes look at planning our most creative and complicated events with HBO Max subscribers,” Puck said.
“Wolfgang is one of the most accomplished chefs of our time and for decades has been the go-to restaurateur and caterer for the biggest names and events in Hollywood and across the country,” HBO Max chief content officer Kevin Reilly said. “This series will usher viewers into a world of opulence and luxury and showcase the unpredictable challenges he and his team encounter while executing the biggest and most exclusive A-list events we all wish we were invited to.”
Building a brand
According to CNN, Puck grew up in Austria and began cooking as a child. After working his way through restaurants in Europe, Puck moved to America at 24. In 1982, he opened the legendary restaurant Spago and became one of the first chefs to make a name for “California Cuisine,” which included innovative menu items that infused healthy ingredients.
The celebrity chef places a premium on creativity, emphasizing the need to continually launch fresh ideas. “If you were to ask me today, who do I want? A chef who’s really creative or a chef who just executes? Obviously, to me creativity is the most important thing,” he told Forbes in 2018. “It’s about having creative people in charge.”
Puck believes that playing it safe can lead to closed doors. The culinary icon is always looking to push the envelope. “If you want to be successful without taking any risk, it might be very difficult. I took the risk,” he said. “It’s not because we’re successful today that we’re going to be successful tomorrow… The restaurants that don’t change, go to the cemetery.”
An air date for The Event has not yet been released.
