Wednesday, August 24, 2011

[Real Detroit Weekly] Wolfgang Puck Grille

Sauteed Alaskan Halibut. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

There is no doubt that "foodie culture" has gripped the nation with the kind of obsessive, feverish madness reminiscent of family fallout shelters in the '60s and the Great Bottled Water Rush of Y2K. This has led to the rise of the Food Network and the celebrity chef (an exquisite irony for most of these so-called "celebs," who started their careers when the idea of being an American chef in America was a joke – much like looking classy while smoking, it was something only Europeans could really pull off). Any major city you visit now – Chicago, New York, Las Vegas, L.A. – is populated by an ever-increasing number of celebrity chef ventures.

Chicago has Rick Bayless, Grant Achatz and Charlie Trotter (and a few DOZEN others). In Detroit, we have Michael Symon, Michael Mina and Wolfgang Puck.

But the real celebrity at the Wolfgang Puck Grille inside the MGM Grand Detroit is not Mr. Puck himself. It's Executive Chef Marc Djozlija, who has worked for Puck for nearly two decades and has opened all of the eponymous Grilles. Lucky for us, Djozlija has stuck around for awhile, and the Detroit dining scene is all the better for it.

Read the rest of the article here.

Want to see more? Check out the Flickr set here.