Chef Charlie Palmer: Creating a Cuisine Empire

Chef Charlie Palmer, a pioneer of progressive American cooking, has received an incredible 16 Michelin stars during his lengthy career. The highly regarded chef not only owns and manages 15 restaurants and three hotels but has also written seven cookbooks, including the recently published Wineland: Celebrating the Heart of Sonoma. He is best known for the former Aureole, his flagship New York City restaurant, which he created in 1988 and which earned 13 Michelin stars and two James Beard Awards. The ever-growing “Charlie Palmer Collective” is a portfolio of restaurants and hotels including Charlie Palmer Steak, AperiBar, Dry Creek Kitchen, Hotel Healdsburg, and Appellation Hotels.

The renowned chef has been inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food & Beverage, is a past Culinary Institute of America (CIA) board chairman, and is on The Culinary Institute of America’s Board of Trustees. Chef Palmer is best known for his unique take on American food, which he calls “Progressive American Cooking.” Chef Palmer lives in both Healdsburg, California, and New York City.
I caught up with the busy chef in Soho.

Can you explain “Progressive American Cooking” as opposed to “Progressive American Cuisine”?
I call it “Progressive American Cooking.” Not so long ago, when people were talking about what American cuisine is, I felt that an actual cuisine develops over hundreds of years. I’m a true believer that “Progressive American Cooking” will someday become a cuisine, but probably not in my lifetime.

So, what are you referring to as “Progressive American Cooking”?
It’s really about taking regional inspiration – a lot of that has to do with product, because I believe that to make very tasty, interesting food, it all starts with the ingredients; and then, as practitioners of whatever kind of cooking technique we’re using, if we don’t screw it up, we have great food.

I preach to all of our chefs: keep it simple, enhance the natural flavors, but don’t mask it with too many spices or things that take away its natural character. That’s a good way of thinking about Progressive Cooking. Every day, we’re learning and trying something new, and that also goes for the techniques and technology, which are so much better than they were even ten years ago. Progressive Cooking is the way we use and treat the ingredients.

What will be the magic sauce that turns it from “Progressive American Cooking” to “Progressive American Cuisine”?
I think it’s volume and the number of people doing it. Whether you’re Daniel Boulud or myself or Jean-Georges or the Italian chefs, they’ve taken their own traditions and whatever they’ve learned to explore Asian flavors or Indian flavors, flavors from all over the world – and along with that goes technique.

You were brought up in Upstate New York on a farm, and you worked in your family’s vegetable garden. Did that begin your passion for cooking?
It really started with my high school home economics teacher. I had no intention of being in the kitchen, but she got me interested in food by taking me to the Culinary Institute for the first time, just to visit. That really opened my eyes as to what could be. I realized that cooking was not just a trade but could be a great career.

Before you went to The Culinary Institute, your first job was washing pots at an inn in Hamilton, New York?
That was my introduction to professional kitchens. I started as a dishwasher, then one day the prep guy didn’t show up, so I became the prep cook, peeling carrots and onions – you name it. And then, just when I turned 16, I became the brunch guy, because nobody wants to work brunch. The chef at the time, a Swiss gentleman, taught me discipline and hard work.
I was always a hard worker from the time I was a kid mowing lawns and working on a farm, which was very hard work. Caring for dairy cattle is not something I dream of doing again. People say kitchens are tough, but being a dairy farmer is tougher. I knew I did not want to milk cows.

When did you go to France and work at the three-Michelin-star restaurant Georges Blanc [outside Lyon]?
When I graduated from the Culinary Institute, I had the opportunity to go to France for about two and one-half months. Then I returned to New York City and worked at La Côte Basque, and after, I returned to Lyon to stage [apprentice] for Alain Chapel.

What was the most important thing you learned from the French chefs?
French people look at food differently. It just reinforced my desire that I wanted not only to be a chef but to own my own restaurant. Georges Blanc took over the family business and then took over the whole town with his restaurant, hotel, a smaller bistro, and a vineyard where he worked with different winemakers making his own wines. He even had a butcher shop and a bakery. I loved the idea of this.

What was the best advice any chef ever gave you?
Jean-Jacques Rachou [La Côte Basque] taught me to always be proud of what I do, even if I make a mistake, because messing up and making mistakes makes you better. He was always pushing and saying there are no limits. My dad always said, “You can become anything you want; it’s just about how much hard work you put into it.”

Where and how did you develop your sense of taste?
For a short time I worked in Belgium, and seeing different flavors opened my mind to so many possibilities. I thought, “Look, I’m American, so why not do that here and use the greatest ingredients we have?” At Georges Blanc, I learned that cheeses came from cheese makers literally a mile or two away. Everything came in the back door. I think that’s why I fell in love with the idea of Healdsburg in Sonoma County. People could come to the back door with these products, or I could go to local farmers’ markets and deal directly with the producers as opposed to ordering from the big conglomerate food businesses.

Where do you get your inspiration today?
We travel a lot to France, Spain, and Italy, but today, Asian influence is a big part of what we do. I think the most inspiration I get is collaborating with all of our chefs, including my son, Reed, the chef at Folio in our newest Appellation Hotel in Healdsburg.

What is your philosophy about food?
Treat the ingredients respectfully. As I said before, keep it simple. If one of my chefs comes to me and says, “Here’s a dish I want to do,” I say, “That sounds great, but take these two ingredients off the plate, because it doesn’t need them. There shouldn’t be anything on the plate that doesn’t complement the dish or belong there.”

In 1983, you went to The River Café and earned three stars from The New York Times.
I was 23 years old and thrown into a very dynamic restaurant but with no support from anybody there. When I took over, I basically put together my whole culinary staff. It was my first opportunity to cook in an arena that had a lot of national focus in New York City. The River Café is about the views looking from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Many would say restaurants like that don’t care about the food, that it’s all about the view. But even though The River Café is one of the most beautiful restaurants, I always say it’s about the cooking, and the food would be fantastic anywhere.

In 1988, you opened Aureole and showcased regional American ingredients but also created it in a townhouse. Why?
After a few years of The River Café, I said to Buzzy O’Keeffe, “Either you make me a partner or I go do my own thing.” I wanted to create a great restaurant, ideally in a townhouse setting, where I’d own part of the real estate. My new partner and I decided to buy a building right off the corner of 61st and Madison, and that became the first Aureole.

In 1999, you opened Aureole at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Charlie Palmer Steak in the Four Seasons, both in Las Vegas. Does the hotel brand influence the kind of restaurant you create?
In a lot of ways, yes, but I was very fortunate, because when I first went to Las Vegas, it wasn’t like it is today. The only people there not doing buffets were Wolfgang and Emeril. But besides them, there wasn’t a lot going on in Vegas. The great thing about Las Vegas is that there are no parameters. You can come up with the most incredible, crazy ideas, like, “Let’s build a wine tower.” At the time, one of the partners at Mandalay Bay owned this incredible collection of wine. He thought we could showcase wine in a way that would make it one of the greatest wine lists in the country. How could we do that and blend it with what Aureole was? The heart of it was this regional American take on progressive cooking. It was just one of the most sensational restaurants and a shame that they didn’t continue, but everything has a date.

In 2021, you created Charlie Palmer Steak IV at The Knickerbocker Hotel in NYC. What do you do with steak to make it so special?
The thing about our steakhouses is that they’re different. They’re not the traditional steakhouse. It’s a modern American steakhouse because it’s much more than red meat. The Knickerbocker Hotel wanted to be a steakhouse, but not a traditional steakhouse. The dining room was very upscale but comfortable, not precious. Obviously, there are a lot of great cuts of meat, but it’s much more than that. We also serve great pasta and seafood dishes. In this day and age, when four people go to a steakhouse, two of them don’t eat red meat. It’s got to be creative, and it’s got to be good and, again, simple. Make it simple, focus on the ingredients, present them cleanly, and do it with great flavors and great seasoning.

What is your concept of genuine American hospitality and why are you expanding in these broad strokes?
I’m a big believer in hospitality in general. We try and get the guest into a comfort zone so that their enjoyment level is so much more, because when they feel good, everything tastes better. It’s all about atmosphere: the lighting, the music, how they feel in that space. I think that’s what we’ve hit on with Appellation Hotels: creating an environment. Of course, the food has to be delicious and presented in a very genuine way. I tell our service staff, “Just be yourself and be nice to people.” Because that’s all they want. If you can get that into their mindset, that’s genuine hospitality, like you really mean it. We want you to have a great time.

You recently opened the Cattleman’s Bar. Did you watch a lot of cowboy movies as a kid?
I’ve been talking about cowboy bars for a long time. We had the opportunity, did our homework, and looked into the history of what a cattleman was and made it as authentic as possible. We’re still doing it. I’ve become obsessed with finding old horse leather, bridles, and ropes that were really used to rope cattle. When you add authentic – for instance, all our staff wear real cowboy boots and cowboy hats. And that’s not just a costume; they’ve been used and worn. It really makes people feel, “Wow, this is real. This is fun.” And at the same time, it makes people feel great. And this is just the beginning. I mean, I think Cattleman’s Bar is going to be where we’re just starting our legacy.

So how did you come up with this concept of a Western watering hole?
Because it’s really so much a part of Paso Robles history, which is still a ranching community. We have to not only preserve this but make this dynamic for the next generation.

You have so many projects. How do you have time to do them all?
We have a team that is incredibly efficient, as a company and as a hotel entity. We’ve also adapted AI in a way that really makes sense, that completes us in a lot of ways. And again, it’s just the beginning.

Do you have a funny story to share?
Once, at Aureole, we had a very tough customer, one of those people who was kind of showing off for his spouse or girlfriend and was just going to be a pain the whole night. Our goal is always to turn them around, get them from not wanting to have a great time to having a great time. It wasn’t happening with this guy, to the point where he was sending everything back to the kitchen. He was treating the staff badly. I don’t put up with that. At the end of the meal, they handed him the check, and he said, “I’m not paying the check.” I was very good friends with a local precinct, so I called a couple of my Irish cops who were cruising around the neighborhood. They came through the front door, and one of them said, “You’re paying the check or I’m taking you downtown to the Tombs, a jail where you don’t want to go, because you’ll be there overnight.” This guy just turned white, turned around, walked out the door, turned around, came back, and the cop said, “And you better leave a big tip.”

What’s your favorite meal to cook?
It’s all seasonal. People ask me all the time, what’s my favorite dish? What day of the week is it? What day of the month is it? I love the diversity. I’m always trying out the latest and greatest of different or favorite restaurants.

What’s the worst meal you ever had?
There’s so much great food in the world. Like, why worry about something that didn’t work out? I just had a really, really great experience in Paris. I loved the food but also loved that it was like a counter with an open kitchen. You could interact with the cooks. For me, that was great.

What do you want your legacy to be?
At this point, a good father, a good husband, and a good grandfather. Nobody works for me. We work together. That’s what I’d like to be remembered as: not only a great cook and great chef, but a great human being. •