Great American Food

Charlie Palmer with Judith Choate

Photographs by Gozen Koshida

Published by Pace Editions Inc.

Chef Charlie Palmer

"I called it Progressive American cuisine because every time I stepped into the kitchen, I felt things moving forward."

Since the beginning of his celebrated career, master Chef and hospitality entrepreneur Charlie Palmer has received critical acclaim for his signature Progressive American Cooking, a style built on rambunctious flavors and unexpected combinations with a deep and lasting infusion of classical French cuisine. Influenced by his childhood experiences working in his family's vegetable garden, Palmer was an early advocate of farm over factory food. In 1988, he made a landmark commitment to creating dishes featuring regional American ingredients at his sublime three-star Aureole, once situated in a historic town house off Manhattan's Madison Avenue. Today Palmer's flagship Aureole is strategically located within mid-town's dramatically modern Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park.

Over the years, Palmer combined his creative cooking spirit and flair for business to open thirteen notable restaurants across the country, a growing collection of food-forward wine shops and award-winning boutique hotels. But even today, the chef still steps in the kitchen with reinvention on his mind. "Without a doubt, people eat with their eye long before they put fork to food, so I continue to look for a playful yet respectful way to create excitement on the plate."