I first met Wolfgang Puck in the seventies. I was working as a waiter in downtown L.A., where he was working as a chef, just having come from his native Austria by way of Indianapolis. The idea of becoming a food writer never even crossed my mind in those days. I’d be willing to bet he would have dismissed the idea of his celebrity as absurd.

Life takes strange turns. Puck went to Ma Maison, opened Spago, and became the most famous chef in America. Puck’s fellow Austrian, who I used to see at Venice Beach every day lifting weights, would become the Governor of California. If that isn’t surreal, what is?

So here we are, thirty five years later. I’m a food writer, Puck is the most famous chef in America, and Arnold is about to become a former governator. Whenever I see Wolf, and it isn’t often enough, because he is a great guy, I like to razz him about how Arnold’s English is better. It gets him riled up. “Don’t you realize that he has coaches,” Puck says.  I guess when you’re a competitor, the fire is always there.

One of Puck’s best qualities as a person is his loyalty, both to his staff, and to his friends. His best quality in business is flexibility. He’s one of the most creative chefs I’ve ever met, but if an idea isn’t working, he’ll change it. Brasserie Puck was a new concept he rolled out at Crystals, with a resounding thud. Not one to stay with a loser, he’s now turned it into Wolfgang Puck Pizzeria & Cucina, and business has doubled.

“We got tired of seeing passers-by reading the French on the menu and walking away,” said GM Matt Dickerson. So the team, Corporate Chefs Lee Hefter and David Robins, along with the chef-in-residence, a fellow named Dustin Lewandowski, retooled things, and now have a winner.

Crystals may need a retooling itself. The restaurant was crowded on the evening I ate there, but the mall, and ridiculously expensive shops like Tom Ford and Assouline, was bone empty. This concept has legs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of them rolled out in malls, hopefully more crowded than this one.

So what did we eat? Starters were good, but not perfect. Prime beef carpaccio with celery hearts and shaved Parmesan cheese is delicious and satisfying, with tartare-like chopped beef in the center.

The house antipasto is a selection of Italian cold meats served on a long wooden board, perfectly acceptable stuff procured from a butcher in Brooklyn, but not as good as what you get a Batali restaurant. But a tomato bruschetta needs to be retooled like the restaurant was. It has a basil aioli underneath the tomatoes. That’s overkill, pally.

We only tried one pizza, an Italian sausage pizza with rapini. And while the crust was unimpeachable, we would have liked more sausage and less rapini, which adds a residual bitterness. Still, any Puck pizza rates to be excellent, and this one came close. Next time, I’ll go with my old standby, the one with prosciutto, arugula and mascarpone cheese.

But there were no complaints about the pasta or main dishes. Penne carbonara uses a non-traditional ingredient, English peas, but the dish works like a charm, with a rich, egg yellow sauce. Chicken piccata has an even better sauce made with lemon, capers and butter, and though I prefer the meat pounded thin, the thickly sliced version works, too.

We could barely finish our rich osso buco, nicely braised veal shank in a truffle gremolata sauce on top of creamy polenta. And we ate lots of the rustic house Italian country white bread, some of the best bread in the city.

The kitchen sent out a dessert assortment; impeccable gelati, a warm cookie plate, and a rich chocolate glazed hazelnut mousse. This place will never win any Michelin stars, but it’s the right concept for the mall at this time. After dinner, you can always repair to the Pods, just below the restaurant, another Puck concept, for an espresso.

Both Wolf and I are well past the “hey world, look at me now,” stage, but what the hell, we’ve both done OK.

At Crystals Mall. 238-1000.

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