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November 11, 2009

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Celebrity chef closes restaurants

Thursday, June 3, 1999 | 11:15 a.m.

SEATTLE -- Rumors did in celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck's signature pan-Asian restaurant, ObaChine, the head of the parent company of the operation says.

Talk of the impending closure of ObaChine, opened in 1997 with great fanfare and an opulent decor of Chinese temple reproductions, Asian textiles and Vietnamese paintings, had been circulating for a year, said Frank Gujidara, president of Wolfgang Puck Food Co.

"We had a great restaurant in Seattle ... outstanding employees, we had great customers ... but no matter what we did, we could not stop the rumors," Guidara said.

The restaurant closed Monday, as did another ObaChine in Phoenix. A third remains in business in Los Angeles.

The Seattle restaurant drew protests over a vintage poster of a meek-looking Chinese man wearing a servant's jacket. Some thought it was demeaning.

There were no similar protests at the other ObaChines, nor was it much of a factor in the shutdown in Seattle, Guidara said.

"We simply were not making as much profit as in other restaurants, and after all it's just a business," he said.

Puck has four restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip and is opening a fifth in Las Vegas this summer.

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