WOLFGANG PUCK: FROM AUSTRIA WITH LOVE.

Wolfgang Puck's name fits him. At times his eyes twinkle with impishness, and his 32-year-old face is still unlined and elfin-shaped. Yet he is serious enough about his career to possibly become this country's answer to France's Paul Bocuse: a bona fide celebrity chef-restaurateur.

Wolf Puck possesses the quality that the late beloved L'Ermitage chef Jean Bertranou lacked: charisma. So what he achieves with his cooking is doubly effective, thanks to his likable personality.

As the chef at Ma Maison, where he stayed for six years, Puck rose to national prominence along with the restaurant. In fact, some believe that the restaurant really became important for its food only after Wolfgang Puck was hired. One thing for sure, the combination of Ma Maison proprietor Patrick Terrail and Wolfgang Puck was a formidable one.

But Puck will now open his own restaurant. And the thought is that this move will win him even greater fame because it gives him the opportunity to express his own inimitable personality as a chef-owner, as well as an author.

At this moment, Puck is spending most of his time at his new Sunset Strip restaurant, to be called Spago. Its doors are scheduled to open in early December.

He is also awaiting the publication of his first cookbook, ``Wolfgang Puck's Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen,'' which will officially go on sale in November.

But don't think he is just sitting around waiting. Every few days, Puck can be found rushing off to do a department store cooking demonstration or to perform his cooking magic on stage for a festival or charity benefit. He is also regularly commissioned by gourmet societies to whip up special dinners.

But the mark of a great chef is to never become flustered. And that seems to be an integral part of Puck's makeup: He makes everything seem like fun and has no qualms about sharing his recipes with the world.

``Everybody makes it a little bit different,'' he says in his Austrian accent. ``There's no such thing as a secret recipe. I always give away the whole recipe; no secrets.''

It was no secret when Puck decided to sever his relationship with Ma Maison. Though he insists he is still friendly with Terrail, there are some indications of bruised feelings. After all, the departure was not sudden.

``About the restaurant - we were talking about it for a long time. I wanted to give Patrick a piece of it, but he wanted the majority of the stock. He wanted to be the one to sign the checks over there. I told him, `No. If you sign the checks over here, fine. But I'll sign them over there.' It's my concept,'' he says firmly. ``I know what I want to do.''

Will his role be that of the restaurant's resident star? Puck says it will be ``whatever it has to be. I'm going to cook because I like to cook. Maybe I won't cook eight hours straight. I like to talk to people after I cook. Some customers are going to come in and want me to do something special.''

Physically, the restaurant will be a showcase for the chefs. In addition to Puck, the spotlight will fall on his talented associate, Berkeley's former Chez Panisse chef Mark Peel, who is currently filling in at Michael's in Santa Monica while Jonathan Waxman vacations.

Spago's kitchen area - measuring some 300 square feet - will be separated from the dining room only by a divider-counter. Extra lighting will focus attention on the chefs. And diners will have every opportunity to converse with them. ``It will be a sort of stage,'' says Puck.

The kitchen will be viewed from all but two or three tables in the dining room.

The name Spago, which is a colloquial European name for pasta, was picked for its simplicity and easy recall.

Puck promises flexibility in the kitchen.

``It's very upsetting to customers to hear someone say, `No.' Maybe we'll have one whole fish with bones, and then, too, we'll have a fillet of fish where there are no bones, so people have their choice. One may be grilled. One may be steamed. If we have a steamed salmon (on the menu) and somebody prefers it grilled, why not grill it? You have to be somewhat flexible,'' he repeats. ``But you don't have to be outrageous.

``The character of the kitchen will be the south of France and northern Italy with some Japanese influences,'' adds Puck. ``And we'll be using all local products. This, I think, is the spirit of Southern California. We live in about the same climate as the south of France and the north of Italy - like the Riviera. They have the water there, the fishes. They have good vegetables. It is quite warm. They don't eat heavy things like in Alsace or Burgundy.

He points out that food doesn't have to always be complex to be excellent.

``I like doing a green bean salad,'' he says. ``But it has to be with good green beans, good oil, good vinegar and good mustard or good shallot sauce. I don't want to have frozen green beans or thick green beans with strings in them. It makes no sense.

``I want to do something a little less expensive, so that more people can afford it. And that is more challenging to me. I think we should do something that comes out of California.''

Puck's plan is to have an informal, medium-priced dining place that might be loosely described as an Italian or Provencal-style brasserie. His love for the Provencal region of France, where he learned much of his professional cooking, is only overshadowed by his love for California and the United States.

To date, his fare has not needed any help. At Spago, his calzone and pizza will probably have buffalo milk mozzarella and Washington or California goat cheese in it. He aims to offer late suppers of informal but top-quality, distinctive food. But the informality ends at the table, where the seriousness begins. Tablecloths on all tables will sport expensive Villeroy & Boch china place settings.

The restaurant itself, which is being built on the site of what was the well-known Russian restaurant Kavkaz, overlooks the Sunset Strip.

Will it be a celebrity hangout like Ma Maison? Puck finds this hard to answer. ``Many of these people are going to come by,'' he believes, pointing out that some of the older crowd may not like its informality. ``But who knows right now?'' he says.

Mixing with celebrities was a long way from realization when Puck decided to learn the restaurant and hospitality business. But that decision was a natural one for a boy who was always hanging around the lakefront hotel where his mother worked.

After attending hotel school in Salzberg, he decided to go to France to work with the classicists. He found a job at Les Trois Faysans in Dijon, when he was 17. By age 19 he had not only worked at the three-star Baumanier restaurant but was the youngest head chef of a one-star restaurant - La Cabro d'Or. Later, he cooked at Monaco's Hotel de Paris, then the famed Maxim's in Paris where he became the No. 3 chef at age 23.

New York beckoned via a restaurant named Goulue. It was successful, but the food was simple. Puck was restless for greater challenges and wound up in Indianapolis at La Tour - against the advice of colleagues.

He came to Los Angeles to work for Davre's, operators of Francois in downtown Los Angeles. When the Ma Maison position opened up, he jumped at the chance.

Now with Spago's debut about 60 days away, with his first book due on the shelves in 41 days, there seems to be no stopping the elfish, ebullient Wolfgang Puck.

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Photo: ``There's no such thing as a secret recipe. I always give away the whole recipe; no secrets,'' said restaurateur Wolfgang Puck in a 1981 interview.