Wolfgang

The gig: The celebrity chef, who is considered a pioneer of California cuisine, manages a vast culinary empire that includes upscale and casual restaurants, prepared foods, cookbooks, television programs and housewares. Puck, 60, said his brand's three privately held divisions -- Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, Wolfgang Puck Catering and Wolfgang Puck Worldwide Inc. -- bring in about $350 million in annual revenue. On Sunday, he will cater the Governors Ball after the Academy Awards for the 16th year.

Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes Click here to download TV listings for the week of Feb. 17 - 23, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies       CBS This Morning Toby Cosgrove, Cleveland Clinic; Ted Sarandos. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Giada De Laurentiis, Paula Deen and her sons; Redfoo. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC PHOTOS: On the set: 'CBS This Morning' Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC Live With Kelly and Michael (N)

I pulled aside the curtain and peered out the motel window. Palm trees swayed gently in the breeze. A cyclist pedaled along the oceanfront. Beyond him, the Pacific stretched out calm and blue as far as the eye could see. Nice view, I thought, given that my room rate was $79. Especially considering that I was in Santa Barbara, where hotel tariffs usually fetch a king's ransom. And my overnight stay even included a hearty free breakfast. Impossible, you say? Not with our travel-secret guide to Santa Barbara.

After the coffee. Before ordering my limo for Sunday night. The Skinny: I'm starting to watch the Netflix series "House of Cards" It's my first foray into the world of Netflix, so if you don't see me for a few days (or weeks) you'll know why. Thursday's stories include a look at all the work Wolfgang Puck has to do as the chef for the Governors Ball, which follows the Academy Awards. Also, Walt Disney Co. has struck a deal with British Sky Broadcasting for a new channel and Sony unveiled its latest version of the PlayStation.

For generations, Americans turned to the Better Business Bureau to find out if the local grocer was cheating customers or if the neighborhood dry cleaner was mishandling clothes. But this week the 101-year-old consumer watchdog turned its sights on one of its own - ousting the Los Angeles chapter that grades local businesses. BBB of the Southland was expelled after years of internal strife and a slew of audits by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. The chapter, which was the organization's largest and covered Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange and Riverside counties, was accused of demanding that businesses pay membership fees in exchange for good ratings.

When they converged in San Francisco about 45 years ago, Wolfgang Paalen, Gordon Onslow Ford and Lee Mullican wanted nothing less than to be image makers of cosmic freedom. The purpose of art, they thought, was self-transcending awareness.

Jackie Apuzzo is 16 weeks pregnant -- something she was beginning to think would never happen. Following nine years of unsuccessful efforts to have a baby, including failed in vitro fertilization, a miscarriage and a diagnosis of endometriosis, the 37-year-old social worker finally visited an acupuncturist on the advice of a friend. After two months of acupuncture treatments and a regimen of Chinese herbs, she became pregnant.

Over the last year, 3 million travelers have zipped through special airport security checkpoints without having to remove their shoes, belts, coats or unpack their laptop computers, according to federal officials. They were participants in a program run by the Transportation Security Administration to let pre-screened, frequent travelers avoid long lines at security checkpoints at the nation's airports. The program, called PreCheck, began in October 2011 and has expanded to 26 airports and five airlines: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways.

Los Angeles International Airport will feature a new lineup of 60 shops and restaurants in selected terminals this year, an upgrade that's part of the airport's LAneXt project, according to a statement released Monday. The accent for the new terminal offerings is on L.A. chefs and businesses. Newcomers to Terminal 5 include the Mattel Experience, a stand-alone store that will feature Barbies, Matchbook and Hot Wheels, and Ford's Filling Station restaurant. Trendy Kitson opened up shop last week in Terminal 7. The shops and restaurants will be phased in by the end of the year, an LAX spokeswoman said.

What's a chef gotta do to land a job? Mette Williams competed against three other contestants on national television to win the title of executive chef at Culina at the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. The former chef of Areal in Santa Monica emerged the champion on the Food Network show "Chef Wanted With Anne Burrell. " Each week four candidates, prodded by the bossy, electro-haired Burrell, compete for an executive chef job. Thursday's episode was taped over a few days in early December, and Williams, the only female contestant, has been cooking at Culina since January, keeping a low profile until the show aired.

As soon as the last envelope is opened and the curtain falls on Sunday's Oscars, it's showtime for Wolfgang Puck. The celebrity chef behind the multi-course meal served to 1,600 at the Governors Ball immediately following the awards faces a pantry full of potential problems. Puck and his kitchen staff of 350 not only have to turn out thousands of appetizers, small dinner plates and desserts in a matter of minutes, but also must please picky Hollywood diners - from hard-core vegans (look for the kale salad with grilled artichokes)

Click here to download TV listings for the week Oct. 28 - Nov. 3 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     CBS This Morning CEO Mitchell B. Modell. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Naomie Harris; Aerosmith performs. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America John Goodman; Sarah Silverman; Nancy Grace. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Live With Kelly and Michael Javier Bardem; Sarah Silverman. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View Billy Ray Cyrus performs; Steven Tyler and Joe Perry; Terry O'Quinn; J.R. Martinez.

"The revolution has succeeded and it's been televised," says Michael McCarty, sitting over a plate of heirloom tomatoes with burrata on the patio of his Santa Monica restaurant, Michael's. "Five-year-olds are watching 'Top Chef' now. " And the next revolution is already well underway, this time live-streaming, with the Internet changing our knowledge of food and how we eat it. And L.A.'s godfathers of California cuisine have responded. Over the last few weeks, Wolfgang Puck's Spago and McCarty's Michael's have softly opened the doors on radically new restaurants, with fresh design and totally revamped menus.

The evolution of airport food continues, from stale burgers in the past to today's higher-end offerings from Spago founder Wolfgang Puck and Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto. Puck's Wolfgang Puck Express and Morimoto's Skewers restaurants, now open at LAX, are continuing an ongoing trend of fancier pre-boarding dining options. Such upscale eats now include Laduree macarons at Paris' Charles de Gaulle, small plates from Iron Chef Cat Cora at SFO, Chinese treats from a Hong Kong International Airport outpost of Michelin-starred Hung's Delicacies and more.  Wolfgang Puck Express, in Terminal 7, is a blend of two concepts -- a full-service sit-down restaurant as well as a to-go counter.

CBS Corp. is turning to one of Hollywood's most experienced marketing experts and a fast-rising young executive to turn around its small film studio. Terry Press and Wolfgang Hammer on Monday were named co-presidents of CBS Films, which suffered through several disappointments after launching in 2010, including the Harrison Ford drama"Extraordinary Measures," but recently began to right its ship with the February hit"The Woman in Black," starring Daniel Radcliffe. The West Los Angeles mini-studio, which has about 50 employees, has been without an official leader since former President Amy Baer was pushed out in September.

Location: 701 Stone Canyon Road, Los Angeles, (310) 909-1644, http://www.hotelbelair.com/wolfgang-puck-bel-air Price: Dinner appetizers, $15 to $26; main courses, $28 to $55; four-course tasting menu, $110; six courses, $145. Wine pairings are an additional $75 to $90 per person. Details: Open 7 to 10:30 a.m. daily for breakfast, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday to Saturday for lunch, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Sunday brunch, 6 to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday for dinner, and 6 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday for dinner.

DEAR SOS: Your assistance would be greatly appreciated in obtaining the recipe for the dressing used in the Wolfgang Puck Chinese Chicken Salad. FRANK McKEMY Los Angeles DEAR FRANK: How about the entire salad recipe, compliments of Wolfgang Puck? Puck calls the salad ObaChine Chicken Salad in honor of the restaurant, ObaChine, which he owns.

With the new Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air, the Austrian chef who, along with Alice Waters, begat California cuisine, has finally achieved a quintessentially Californian restaurant, one with a legendary outdoor terrace in a verdant setting with swans gliding through ponds and enormous old trees overhanging walkways and tumbling streams. And what a difference: For the first time in recent memory, the historic hotel has a serious restaurant with some seriously good food. Puck may no longer be the youngest kid on the block, but he's tough and smart and, more important, he knows how to make food that is genuinely delicious.

After the Oscars, dessert will be served in 3-D at the Governors Ball this year. Spago pastry chef Sherry Yard has created an Austrian chocolate cake that resembles a staircase leading to a giant edible Oscar statuette that is iced in a way that makes it pop into relief when viewed through the 3-D glasses presented with the dessert. "It's the first time we're going to eat in 3-D," says the ball's master chef, Wolfgang Puck, over coffee before lunch service at Spago in Beverly Hills.