Best New Chef Most Wanted Recipes: Lee Hefter

We’ve sold a lot of côtes de boeuf over the years,” says Los Angeles chef Lee Hefter. “We make about eight to 10 of them a night, and we’ve done that seven days a week for 15-and-a-half years. You can do the math.”

When Lee Hefter a Best New Chef in 1998, he was in charge of a single restaurant: Spago Beverly Hills. But now he’s in charge of the top kitchens for the entire Wolfgang Puck organization: 21 restaurants, four of them Spagos. “Lots of frequent-flier miles—200,000 a year,” says Hefter. In 2012, the Beverly Hills Spago embarked on a $4 million renovation, taking some classics, like smoked-salmon pizza, off the menu. One of the original dishes that Hefter kept is his sensational côte de boeuf, or grilled rib steak, served with mashed potatoes that are so packed with cheese, they’re almost like fondue.

15 1/2 Number of years the Côte de Boeuf has been on the menu at Spago Beverly Hills.

2012 The year Spago’s Côte de Boeuf was on the menu at the Academy Awards Governors Ball.

4 Number of people that now typically share an order of Côte de Boeuf (traditionally it was split between two).

22 Pounds of Cantal cheese Spago uses per week—just for this potato side dish.

450 Approximate number of times that Sidney Poitier—one of Spago’s most loyal customers—has dined there.

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