Wolfgang Puck Shares Struggles Growing Up Poor - Exclusive

When you see how brightly Wolfgang Puck has shone across his career as a celebrity chef, it might be hard to understand just how far he has come. Learning to cook as a child alongside his mother in Austria, Puck eventually came to the United States and opened up his iconic Los Angeles restaurant Spago (via Wolfgang Puck). It's this personal story that is at the center of director David Gelb's latest documentary work, "Wolfgang," which premiered on Disney+ on June 25. Wolfgang Puck sat down with Mashed to discuss the documentary, his career highlights, and his very early days.

"Well, life is a journey. There are many struggles as you go along, many problems you'll have to solve. Many adverse things can happen to you," Puck began. "I really believe my hardest part was when I was a kid from ... maybe five or four to ... when I left Austria, at 17," he added. Though Puck elaborates that his childhood was quite hard in the new film, he shared an example with Mashed.

"The first Christmas I remember we were living in a one-room apartment," Puck explained. "The stove was there, the bed was there, a table with two chairs or three chairs. That was it. And the heat in the winter, we had three feet of snow. So my mother used to get up — or my grandmother used to get up — and fire up the oven because it was wood. The toilet was far out. So it was really so different," he said. As for Christmas gifts, one still stands out to Puck. "I remember Christmas, my grandmother bought me a box with colored pencils, and I had never seen colored pencils ... that was my gift. We didn't have a Christmas dinner," Puck added.