16 Facts About Ed LaDou

Ed LaDou was the first pizza chef at Wolfgang Puck's Spago restaurant in Los Angeles.

Ed LaDou developed the first menu for the American chain restaurant California Pizza Kitchen.

However, LaDou was a major figure in the development and popularity of these types of pizzas.

Ed LaDou was known for introducing very unusual ingredients into his pizza recipes at a time when such toppings were highly unorthodox.

Ed LaDou was born on McChord Air Force Base in Washington state on October 9,1955.

Ed LaDou's father, Edward M LaDou, was a United States Air Force pilot and his mother is named Patricia Gallinetti.

Ed LaDou was partially raised in Los Altos, California, and first worked at a restaurant when he was a high school student.

Ed LaDou gained a reputation as an experimental pizza maker, which often made him popular with his customers, but sometimes clashed with the ideas of the owners of the restaurants in which he worked.

Ed LaDou was working at a restaurant called Prego, when he was discovered by chef Wolfgang Puck, who was eating at the restaurant.

Ed LaDou was approached by Larry Flax, who co-founded the California Pizza Kitchen in 1985 with fellow attorney Rick Rosenfield.

Flax and Rosenfield asked LaDou to help develop a menu for the California Pizza Kitchen.

Ed LaDou accepted and developed the restaurant chain's first menu, which included the CPK's signature barbecue chicken pizza.

Ed LaDou left California Pizza Kitchen shortly after developing its menu.

At Caioti Pizza Cafe, Ed LaDou invented a salad that many customers believe induces labor during pregnancy.

Ed LaDou died of cancer at St John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, on December 27,2007, at the age of 52.

Ed LaDou was surrounded by his wife, Carrie LaDou, and their daughter, Cassidy Rose.