Wolfgang Puck caters to the times with COVID-19 safety protocol: ‘It’s up to us’
Wolfgang Puck found a way to turn and face the strange changes of this past year, even in the kitchen.
The world-renowned chef and restaurateur is using the coronavirus pandemic to bounce back more conscious about health and safety.
“Because of the pandemic, the safety of our employees and the safety of our guests has become on the top,” Puck, 71, told the Daily News. “You don’t care if you get four stars . You want people to be safe and employees to be safe.”
Enter the WELL Health-Safety seal, which “zooms into specific operational protocols and managerial guidelines as it pertains to good practice for health and safety,” International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) founder Paul Scialla told The News. The seal draws from the guidance of agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.
“Any restaurant with a WELL seal on a front door has gone through a rigorous exercise of examination and third-party verification of their protocols,” said Scialla.
The WELL seal, used in nearly 80 countries, ensures restaurants and hotels employ certain cleaning protocols and health services, but it’s not all tied to the coronavirus and fear of pandemics, according to Scialla.
“Obviously COVID-19 and pathogen concern is a part of this,” he said. “But it’s a broader look at good practice of an overall health and safety and emergency preparedness planning. ... It allows for folks with locations in different countries or even states, what have you, to generate and maintain those consistent practices.”
And though the system is “flexible,” it originates from “scientific rigor at the categorical level,” said Scialla, noting practices can vary from place to place. “If they’re meeting the same general intent, that will satisfy.” The seal does not mean the establishment requires patrons or employees be vaccinated.
The Spago owner joined forces with Scialla in part because he wants to be prepared for future health crises.
“I hope we are better organized and I think we will be,” said Puck, whose Dallas restaurant Five-Sixty closed during the pandemic.
While COVID-19 is not the sole reason behind the classification, the past year has “opened my eyes how much safety for our guests and for our employees, how important that part is,” Puck said.
Though there was preparedness before COVID-19, it’s taken on a new significance. Now, Puck says, everything needs to be in “top shape — from cleaner air to better water, to better cleaning, to better air circulation, which is really important in the kitchen.”
“So I think we really have to examine and work on every little aspect on how to make it better to work, you know, including our restaurants,” he continued. “If you have a charcoal grill, if you don’t have good ventilation, it’s not a healthy environment for the employees. So you have to think before building a charcoal grill and say, ‘How am I gonna make it safe for everybody?’”
The chef acknowledges some customers “won’t care at all,” but many others, particularly those who are younger, “are really interested in their well-being” and “the green lifestyle,” he said.
“I think these are the people, the new generation, who really will look after and say, ‘OK, you know what, they have the seal of Well on their front door, we know they’re making an effort to do the best so that we are safe,’” Puck said.
No one knows what the world will look in a year, but there’s one thing the Lupo owner does know.
“We learned a lot during the pandemic on how to operate better, but I think now it’s up to us to take every precaution possible so it doesn’t happen again.”
