I had the pleasure of chatting with Kerry Heffernan, executive chef at Southgate (154 Central Park South) in the Jumeirah Essex House, before he departed for the South Beach Food & Wine festival.
Known for outstanding seasonal American fare, Chef Heffernan brings his 20 years of culinary excellence to the Central Park South dining landscape.
What’s your favorite dish on the South Gate menu right now?
Boy, it’s like so many children you love them all differently. Still, the butternut squash flan. It’s an interesting way of putting flan in a different context, with roasted Brussels sprouts. You’re used to seeing butternut squash in a soup, but the flan is a different texture, it holds the suspension in the mouth.
Where do you get your inspiration?
It’s a balancing act. You try to combine the visceral, like walking through the Green Market and getting an emotional response to something, and balancing with the cerebral, technical part.
Cookbooks everyone should have in their kitchen?
Mark Bitman has a great book on fish (Fish: The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking).
I still love reading (Julia Childs’) Mastering the Art of French Cooking, it’s such a seminal book. It was my mom who actually showed it to me and we cooked together. It introduced classic French techniques to the American kitchen, often for the first time, in some ways.
Favorite kitchen tool or gadget?
Beyond a sharp, sharp, sharp knife, I like those Swiss peelers, with the perpendicular blade you hold like a stick? We use a lot of immersion blenders, or mini-immersion blenders, which are good to use at home for anything you want to puree or to add a velvety texture to sauces.
Favorite spice or herb?
Marjoram, as an herb, and cardamom as a spice.
Most over-used spice?
South Gate Restaurant
I guess I think people overuse heat (as in spice, not temperature) in many forms, to blatantly punch things up, and don’t understand that you have to balance everything else. Often in America there’s not a huge tradition behind some cooking, which is good because there’s freedom, but as with any freedom, it must use it appropriately. People tend to go overboard with an assault on the palate. You’ll have a dish that has heat, acid, crunch, sweetness, and four other elements on the plate. After two bites, you’re so assaulted you can’t enjoy the dish. It’s important to understand the dynamic of subtlety.
Most under-rated ingredient?
After Brussels sprouts, I’ll say the rutabaga.
Most overused ingredient?
Ketchup is something that I abhor because it’s overused and overwhelming. You can’t taste the quality of the meat, if your burger is dry or your French fries are bitter. Kids especially get used to having that much sugar and nothing else can really match that. I hate chewing gum too, because it’s such an intense artificial flavor that the artificial flavor becomes the norm. They get used to this false intensity and can’t recognize what a real strawberry or raspberry is supposed to taste like.
What’s in you wine rack at the moment?
We’re fascinated right now with South Africa. There are a lot of head-turning wines making it out of there.
Dining trend you are most excited about?
The whole “Locovore” movement is a great idea, I applaud, it and we certainly practice it here. But like anything, when it’s overdone, it gets tiresome to see every ingredient in every dish is sourced within 50 miles. It’s better to use the best products available to you. If your local ingredients are not up to par, don’t use that ingredient; use the best of whatever your region has to offer.
What can we look forward to in the coming season at South Gate?
We’re going to Miami for the South Beach Food & Wine Festival, featured as one of the “Best of the Best”. Spring feels like it’s around the corner, but really we’re still two to three months away from getting things locally. No one’s ever in a rush to bring on winter, but everybody wants to jump the gun with spring and summer. People will want corn and tomatoes in June. But we’ll work locally and seasonally.
