Recipes Herb-Roasted Turkey with Maple Gravy 5.0 (532) 2 Reviews Even though he's lived in Los Angeles for 11 years, Lee Hefter gravitates to people from the East Coast, who, like him, might have seen the fall foliage every year and watched maple syrup being tapped. "When you grow up with these memories," he says, "you want to share them." He thinks adding maple syrup to gravy makes it go better with all the traditional Thanksgiving side dishes.Plus: Ultimate Thanksgiving Guide By Lee Hefter Lee Hefter F&W Star Chef » See All F&W Chef Superstars As a managing partner and the executive corporate chef of Wolfgang Puck’s Fine Dining Group, Lee Hefter has opened 26 high-flying restaurants around the globe, from Beverly Hills to Tokyo. But his interest in food traces back to Chinese takeout in his home state of New Jersey. Curious about Asian ingredients, Hefter took his first restaurant job at a Garden State restaurant called Wong’s, and went on to work for Barbara Tropp’s China Moon Café in San Francisco. He later switched to California cuisine at Puck’s original Spago in West Hollywood, and opened the Austrian celebrity chef’s Malibu seafood spot Granita, solidifying a relationship with the chef that has spanned 20 years and garnered numerous accolades for Hefter—including Food & Wine’s Best New Chef 1998. Here, he discusses food obsessions and secret-weapon ingredients. What’s your food obsession? Chinese barbecue. I am always looking for great roast duck and suckling pig. I like the sweetness, saltiness and richness coming together in each bite. There’s a lot of technique involved in the preparation, so it isn’t quite as simple as it looks. What is your favorite cookbook of all time? The China Moon Café Cookbook. I’m partial to it because I worked there, but it’s very, very thorough. What is the best dish for a neophyte cook to try? Pan-roasting a chicken or a lobster. When you realize you can make these beautiful dishes, you say, “Wow, I’ve come to another level in my abilities.” What’s the most important trait you need to be a great cook? Patience. Some people make cooking look so easy and it gets frustrating when it doesn’t come naturally. What is your secret-weapon ingredient? Citrus. There are so many different types and I use them all for little sparks of flavor. I like Meyer lemon, sudachi, yuzu and kalamansi. The acid lends each dish complexity and balance. The fragrance of the oils and zest takes things to another level. What are your favorite store-bought ingredients? Different salts. Kosher salt should be a staple; it’s a very good background salt, but it’s not necessarily a finishing salt. Then there’s sea salt, which has a lot of ocean minerality and is definitely more assertive. If you use a sea salt to cook with and then try a fleur de sel at the end it can really increase the complexity of a dish. What ingredient will people be talking about in five years? Heritage pork and beef. Boutique, hormone-free, antibiotic-free livestock is the future. People are starting to understand that eating this kind of meat is really better for you. What is the most cherished souvenir you’ve brought back from a trip? A piece of pottery that I carried home from Japan. God knows how it made it home without breaking. It’s a footed square-shaped bowl from Sendai. They didn’t take credit cards so I used every bit of my cash to buy a few pieces. If you could create a dream project, what would it be? A simple open grill. You’d walk in and pick out your meat from a case while talking to a butcher. Then you’d take it to a grill and talk to the chef about how you like your meat prepared and he’d make it for you. You’d pick out vegetables and get a salad made for you. It would be interactive. What do you like to drink? Japanese single malts. Yamazaki 18-year is one of my favorites. I also love gin—Tanqueray No. 10 or Hendrick’s in a martini. For wine: Pinot Noir, French Champagnes and Burgundies. And I’m a big fan of beer. I really love all the new microbrews popping up across the country, like Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA. What is your favorite snack? I love salt-and-vinegar chips, and I’ll go to the Japanese market and buy all different types of rice crackers. And I love cocktail franks. My wife makes them so well. What are your talents besides cooking? I ski and I snowboard. I usually go to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a few times a year.1998 Best New Chef Bio Background Worked at China Moon Café, San Francisco; Granita, Malibu. How he got into cooking "I got a job in a Chinese kitchen when I was 16 to learn about food and eat for free." First memorable meal "I still remember the sashimi tuna pizza dinner I had at New York's Quilted Giraffe when I was 18." Weirdest food he's ever eaten "English food—all those organ meats and savory pies." Favorite equipment "I always keep a regular tablespoon in my pocket. I can spoon sauces and turn meat and fish with it—it's my ace in the hole." Favorite place to eat Il Mulino, New York City. What he'd do if he weren't a chef "I would make jewelry." Recipe tip When making stuffed pasta with a butter sauce, partially cook the pasta in boiling water, then finish it in the sauce for more flavor. Won Best New Chef at: Spago Beverly Hills Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on November 20, 2019 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: © John Kernick Active Time: 30 mins Total Time: 4 hrs Yield: 10 Ingredients One 18-pound turkey 1 head of garlic, halved horizontally 1 medium onion, quartered 20 sage sprigs 20 thyme sprigs 20 parsley sprigs Salt and freshly ground pepper 3 cups Rich Turkey Stock 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons maple syrup Directions Preheat the oven to 350°. Rinse the turkey inside and out and pat dry. Trim the neck skin. Stuff the turkey with the garlic, onion and sage, thyme and parsley sprigs. Season inside and outside with salt and pepper. Transfer the turkey to a large, lightly oiled roasting pan and roast it for about 3 hours, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in a thigh registers 175°. Cover the turkey with foil if the skin begins to look very brown. Transfer the turkey to a cutting board and let rest for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, pour the pan juices into a heatproof bowl and skim off the fat. Set the roasting pan over 2 burners on high heat until sizzling. Add 1 cup of the Rich Turkey Stock and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the bottom and side of the pan; add to the pan juices in the bowl. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and cook over moderately high heat for 1 minute. Add the pan juices and remaining 2 cups of turkey stock to the saucepan and cook, whisking, until the gravy is thickened and no floury taste remains, about 5 minutes. Stir in the maple syrup and season with salt and pepper. Strain the gravy into a gravy boat. Carve the turkey and serve with the gravy. Notes Roast the bird for 20 minutes per pound for a stuffed turkey and 16 minutes per pound for an unstuffed one. The bird is done when an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of a thigh registers between 160° and 180° and the juices run clear. The USDA specifies that cooking poultry to 180° will kill all bacteria that can cause illness. Remove the turkey from the oven when its temperature is 10 degrees lower than desired; the temperature will rise by 5 to 10 degrees as the bird rests. You'll need plenty of turkey stock or canned low-sodium chicken broth and roasting pan juices to make enough gravy. To get lots of pan juices, roast your turkey at 350° and baste with some stock; if the bird does not seem to brown adequately, you can always raise the oven temperature during the last half hour for faster browning. If your gravy is too thin, simply make a smooth paste with equal parts flour and unsalted butter, a mixture known in French as beurre manié (mon-YAY). Bring the gravy to a boil and whisk in bits of the paste until you get the thickness you desire. If your gravy seems too thick, gradually whisk in more stock. Sites We Like butterball.com, eatturkey.com, plainvillefarms.com, heritagefoodsusa.com, eberlypoultry.com. Rate it Print