Today we’re happy to put Chef Kerry Heffernan on the hot seat. A CIA graduate, lifelong Northeasterner and proponent of modern American cuisine, Kerry has been exploring all things culinary since age 14. He’s done everything from baking croissants in the South of France to working alongside chefs Alfred Portale, Tom Colicchio, David Bouley, and Daniel Boulud along the way. Kerry was the opening Executive Chef at Eleven Madison Park and former partner at Union Square Hospitality Group, and he is currently Executive Chef at South Gate at the Jumeirah Essex House in New York.
Kerry, you grew up in Connecticut, but you also spent a lot of time in Maine. So how would YOU make a lobster roll? (Butter? Mayo? Some unholy hybrid?)
I did grow up in Connecticut, but spent more time on the Cape and Marblehead MA, than in Maine, and would only go very traditional on things for a lobster roll: simple homemade mayo, little celery, perhaps a whisper of tarragon and a warm, buttered, griddled hot dog bun.
You had an early appreciation for French cuisine and culture through your apprenticeship at Le Perigord Park, and you were lucky enough to take a bike trip through France at age 17. Tell us a little bit about that trip — was that the turning point for your career?
It was amazing — in 1979, I was literally on my own seeing France, from Normandy to Paris all the way down the Rhone to the Cote D’Azur where I worked for two months. I was camping by myself on farm fields and the edges of vineyards, staying at hostels with quite a cast of characters in urban areas, absolutely amazing. It was the seminal moment in my career as far as broadening my horizons and getting a sense of what tasting things in their environs really meant.
What is your favorite food destination (could be a city, like New York or Seoul, or a specific restaurant/roadside food stand). Why?
LOVE NYC. I’ve been here the last 30 years of my career, and have seen so many amazing talents and trends take off. I am a huge fan of cuisines both high and low, from street food to linen-draped luxury restaurants, Where else can you get a Shackburger, Kim Chi Jigae, and a three-star meal within eight blocks of one another?
What is your go-to meal when you’re cooking for yourself?
Chicken Parm. It is so comforting to me, always a nice simple place for me to go after taking literally dozens of bites throughout the day from any number of dishes and components from dressings to sweet, savory and on and on, Besides my wife loves to bread and help me fry it so it is a breeze… and lots of fun.
Your philosophy is to cook based on the availability and quality of ingredients available at the market on a particular day. What is the one ingredient you would be lost without?
Marjoram… well, and the “ingredient” of my own two feet in some kind of marketplace!
Finally, a seasonal question: What are you making for Thanksgiving this year? Do you go traditional or do you incorporate new preparations?
I have what I would call a “Modern Traditional” approach. For example, I’ll make creamed onions by cooking just a little rice in with the onions, removing the perfectly cooked onions, cooking the mixture a bit till soft, then pureeing in the blender with a bit of crème fraiche as opposed to using roux and heavy cream and cooking for an hour.
Find Chef Kerry Heffernan in action at South Gate, 154 Central Park South, New York. 212-484-4715 or reservations on OpenTable.
