Chicago ? Wolfgang Puck is a chef of great fame. Restaurants bear his name, as do his television programs. He’s widely known as “the chef to the stars” and has his own line of frozen food and canned soups.

Yet when he talks about cooking at home, the Austrian-born Puck sounds more like a typical father of two. He said he enjoys cooking dishes such as pizza, pasta and eggs with his sons “something which doesn’t take too long.”

At 52, however, Puck is so busy cooking up elegant dishes for the rich and famous, and accessible gourmet food for the rest of us, he doesn’t find much time to cook at home. When he’s not traveling, he’s at work in one of his Los Angeles-area restaurants almost every night.

Yet if you think Puck’s home kitchen is every professional chef’s dream kitchen, think again. He doesn’t have a fancy stove at home.

The story goes that he planned to remodel the kitchen after he and his wife, designer Barbara Lazaroff, bought their home in Beverly Hills 15 years ago. But when he learned the project would cost $500,000, he said, “I built a tennis court instead.”

A passion for food

Puck, who moved to the United States in 1973, is a short man with a long rmnd a made-for-TV personality. His mother was a hotel chef, and he began his formal chef training at age 14.

By the time Puck came to the United States at age 24, he’d already had his classical French training in kitchens in Monaco, Paris and Provence.

In 1982, he and Lazaroff opened their first Spago restaurant, where he became famous for such signature dishes as pizzas topped with smoked salmon and caviar.

Since then, Puck’s business has expanded to include about 50 restaurants throughout the country, four cookbooks (a fifth is in the works), a show on the TV Food Network and a line of cookware.

His face is so familiar he did a cameo on the television program “Frasier.” His voice is so familiar, it landed a recent spot on “The Simpsons.” His image is so Hollywood that he has catered the Governors’ Ball of the Academy Awards for eight years.

Puck is passionate about his work.

“It’s like you fall in love with someone. It’s the same way,” he said. “You have passion and instant feedback.”

His passion recently sent him on a two-day trip to Italy to buy white truffles.

He said he hopes to inspire others and maintain his enthusiasm “When I see a fresh sardine, I want to say, ‘This is a fresh sardine. I can’t wait to make something of it.'”

Is he a fussy diner? To hear him tell it, he’s every chef’s dream diner. “People may be nervous, but I’m very easy to make happy,” he said.

Easy, perhaps, but no pushover.

“I never go and eat a burger at McDonald’s or Burger King,” he said. “I don’t like fast food. I don’t like big portions.”

His favorite comfort food is, of course, schnitzel.

An interesting blend

Puck was interviewed by telephone and during a visit to The Field Museum in Chicago, where he helped kick off the exhibition “Chocolate” by preparing a flourless chocolate cake, along with catered pastries and plenty of thick, rich hot chocolate.

Right along with the edible ingredients, Puck blended personality, humor and memories of his Austrian childhood into his cooking demonstration.

He would roast the almonds for the chocolate cake if he had an oven, he said. But, sounding a bit like Bob Newhart with an accent, he added, “The museum has to stay a museum, and they’re scared we’re going to burn it up.”

Later, he suggested using parchment paper when baking the cake, so “you don’t need a sledgehammer” to get it out of the pan. And he fondly recalled secretly scoffing half of the eggs and butter in his mother’s cake batter when he was a child, before she could cook the cake, “and she’d say, ‘Oh, my cake is dry again.'”

For home cooks, Puck has a few basic tips. First, never forget to add a little salt, he said: “Without the salt, most of the time your food will taste bland.”

Another ingredient he recommends to brighten flavor is lemon juice (try adding some to a sauce, soup or even a sorbet, he suggested).

And don’t overlook the possibilities of vinegar and wine. Reduced wine forms “the backbone” of your sauces, he said. “You don’t need the best wine just a decent wine, nothing too fancy.”

For Puck, fresh ingredients are key to successful cooking.

“The ingredients should be the star of the show in your kitchen,” he wrote in his most recent cookbook, “Pizza, Pasta, and More!” (Random House, $35).

“Stick to seasonal foods if you want the fullest flavors,” he said. “For the best indication of what’s in season, go to your local farmer’s market and see what’s selling.”

Here is his recipe for one such seasonal dish, spring risotto. It serves four. Both recipes that follow are from “Pizza, Pasta, and More!”