I cooked with Wolfgang Puck at Spago. He showed me how to make his famous pizza.

• 1 tablespoon of chili and garlic oil
• ¼ cup of thinly sliced red onion
• 2 tablespoons of dill cream (dill-infused crème fraîche)
• 2.5 ounces of thinly sliced smoked salmon
• 1 teaspoon of chopped fresh chives
• 1 tablespoon of sevruga caviar (optional)

After flouring the counter to prevent the dough from sticking, Lazaroff-Puck showed me how to stretch the dough into an 8-inch circle. The outer edge, he noted, should be a little thicker than the inner.

Then we brushed the dough with oil…

If you don’t have chili and garlic oil on hand, you can always use olive oil!

… and added the red onion.

We sprinkled the red onion slices evenly over the dough.

The dough is baked in Spago’s wood-fired pizza oven.

If you’re making this at home, Lazaroff-Puck recommends preheating the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and baking the dough on a pizza stone placed on the middle rack.

You’ll know the crust is ready when it’s golden brown, which should take around six to eight minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven and set it on a firm surface.

The pizza crust is topped with Spago’s dill cream.

You can make the cream ahead of time by mixing some crème fraîche with chopped dill. Add extra flavor with chopped shallots, a squeeze of lemon, and some salt and pepper.

Then it’s time to layer the smoked salmon slices.

Spago’s executive chef Ari Rosenson, who began working at the restaurant when he was 16, said the salmon is butchered and smoked in-house.

“The recipe has been altered very little over the years,” he added. “It’s got all the little things you look for in a good dish — sweet, sour, it just hits all the marks.”

I followed Lazaroff-Puck’s advice and arranged the slices of salmon so that they covered the entire pizza, making sure they slightly overlapped along the inner border.

The pizza is topped with chopped chives and dollops of caviar.

If you’re using caviar at home, Lazaroff-Puck recommends adding a small spoonful to the center of each slice.

One bite makes it easy to see why Puck’s smoked salmon pizza has been a classic for over 40 years.

Just as chef Rosenson said, Puck’s pizza hits every mark. The crust has that satisfying crackle from the wood-fired oven, the crème fraîche is light and bright, and the smoked salmon paired with caviar tastes like luxury personified.

It’s fun, it’s unexpected, and, frankly, it’s iconic.

All of the above could also be said of Puck, who, at 76, is still cooking all over the world, now with his son by his side.

And it all started with a pie.