At 31, Byron Lazaroff-Puck oversees 25 restaurants and more than 1,000 employees as President of Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group. Appointed in June 2025, he is responsible for carrying forward one of the most recognisable names in modern dining while developing a leadership philosophy of his own.
In October, he joined his father, legendary chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck, in Singapore for the Generational Tasting Tour at CUT by Wolfgang Puck. Here, he reflects on the changing expectations of fine dining, the challenges of leading a global restaurant group and the legacy he hopes to build.
A Changing Perspective On Hospitality
How has your understanding of the restaurant business changed since growing up within it?
When I was younger, I saw the restaurant business predominantly through the food. I was captivated by the smells coming out of the kitchen, the energy of service and the artistry of every plate. Today, I understand how many people and how much work it takes to make that experience feel effortless for a guest.
The one thing that has never changed is that the guest is our North Star. My father taught me that at a very young age. We are here to give someone two, three or four hours in which they can sit around a table, enjoy themselves and hopefully create a memory with the people they care about.
Technology gives us a much deeper understanding of our guests and their preferences. In the early days of Spago, our maître d’ knew every guest by name, the table they liked and the wine they wanted to drink. Today, technology allows us to give that knowledge to an entire team.
The goal is not to make hospitality more technological. It is to use technology to make hospitality more thoughtful, personal and human.
Balancing Tradition With Change
With restaurants across different markets, how do you preserve a recognisable brand while allowing each restaurant to reflect its location?
One of my father’s guiding philosophies is kaizen, the idea of continuous improvement. I do not think he would ever want me to take his legacy and simply preserve it behind glass. His legacy has always been defined by change, curiosity and innovation.
Across our restaurants, we think about that balance through standardisation and localisation. Roughly 70 per cent of the experience should feel unmistakably like Spago or CUT. There are dishes, service standards and details that guests should recognise wherever they visit us. The other 30 per cent gives our chefs the freedom to respond to the city around them, work with local producers and create something specifically for that community.
That is what keeps the restaurants evolving. The brand gives us a foundation, but it should never become a restriction.
Luxury dining is increasingly about the experience beyond the meal. How are changing expectations influencing your approach?
It is not simply about having a great meal any more. It is about creating an experience that becomes a memory.
The food has to be delicious, the wine thoughtful and the service precise. But those things alone are not enough. People remember how you made them feel: the person who welcomed them, anticipated something they needed or made a special evening more meaningful.
I have never been particularly interested in saying we have to be “the best”, because the best is subjective. What I really want is for us to be someone’s favourite. I want them to celebrate a birthday, an anniversary, a promotion or even just a regular Tuesday night with us, and leave wanting to experience it again.
Younger diners are also incredibly informed. They care about where ingredients come from, how restaurants support local communities and whether an experience reflects the way they want to live. Health and wellness are becoming increasingly important, too. That challenges us to think more creatively about menus and beverage programmes without compromising flavour, pleasure or a sense of occasion.
Leadership And The Next Generation
At 31, you oversee 25 restaurants and more than 1,000 employees. What has this taught you about leadership?
I take a tremendous amount of inspiration from my father. The two qualities I admire most in him are his positivity and benevolence, and those are qualities I never want to lose in my own leadership.
I cannot be in 25 restaurants every evening. The people in those restaurants are the ones taking care of our guests, so my responsibility is to make sure they feel supported, trusted and empowered.
When you operate across different markets, you cannot simply dictate from the top and expect every restaurant to succeed in the same way. The people in each location understand their guests, communities and cultures best. It is important that they feel heard and have the creative licence to contribute.
That requires constant communication, but communication is not only about how we speak to people. More importantly, it is about how we listen.
What do you hope to build that is distinctly your own?
I am not Wolfgang Puck. My name is Byron, and I want to be Byron.
I say that with an enormous amount of respect and gratitude. I have had the most amazing father and mentor I could possibly ask for. But my father has never charged me with simply maintaining what he built. He has challenged me to change it, grow it and make it better.
My father was also very deliberate about telling me not to spend my entire career within our own restaurants. He wanted me to go out, learn from other chefs, make mistakes and develop my own perspective. I have been fortunate to work in Michelin-starred restaurants with a combined 21 Michelin stars and learn from extraordinary people.
What I hope to build is a culture that gives the next generation the same opportunities I was given. So many extraordinary chefs took time out of their lives to teach me when I was 16, 17 or 20 years old. They gave me knowledge without asking for anything in return.
If I can pass that forward and help young people find their place in hospitality, whether in the kitchen, dining room, marketing, finance or human resources, that would mean an enormous amount to me.
The next chapter should continue to produce wonderful restaurants, but it should also produce wonderful people. That is the legacy I hope to contribute.
Photos: Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group
