When you think of the name Wolfgang Puck, images of Hollywood glamor and fine dining immediately spring to mind.
But in a new documentary, the acclaimed celebrity chef tells a different tale, opening up about his relationship with his abusive stepfather and the time he contemplated suicide as a teenager.
In the Disney + documentary Wolfgang, Puck recounts growing up in Austria with an abusive stepfather who constantly belittled him.
'My mother was a chef in Austria, and my stepfather was very, very nasty,' the 71-year-old told Yahoo Life in a preview for the film. 'He abused us mentally and physically, me and my sister, and I couldn't wait to leave.'
In an attempt to escape the abuse, Puck's mother secured him an apprenticeship at a hotel 50 miles away. Three weeks into the gig he was fired for not peeling enough potatoes.
'I walked on the bridge that was over the river and I thought, "I'm going to jump in and kill myself," Puck said.
He was just 14 years old.
Acclaimed celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck opened up about his relationship with his abusive stepfather and the time he contemplated suicide as a teenager in a new documentary. Pictured: Puck at his restaurant Spago in 2014 (left) and at Ma Maison in the 1980s (right)
Puck was seven years old when his mother Maria (right), a pastry chef, married his stepfather Josef Puck (left), a boxer and coal miner, in 1956
'I always tell people my first 15 or 17 years were the most difficult in my life,' Puck told Page Six in another preview for the documentary. 'And then it started to get better.'
Puck said he stood on the bridge for an hour, contemplating his life before deciding not to go through with it. Instead, he returned to the kitchen the next day and begged for his job back.
'The apprentice who was there before me, he saw me coming and he was so excited,' Puck said. 'He says, "Oh, you're back. Thank God, so I don't think I have to peel potatoes and onions again."'
Puck said he decided to include his mental health struggles into the documentary in order to shed a positive outlook on overcoming adversity.
'I wanted younger people to know what adversity is — [that] you can overcome it and actually look at the positive and say the glass is half-full instead of half-empty,' he said.
Puck was seven years old when his mother Maria, a pastry chef, married his stepfather Josef Puck, a boxer and coal miner, in 1956.
The family moved to a small town and
