Charlie Palmer, Chef, Owner, The Charlie Palmer Group
Located in New York and California, Washington, D. C., and especially well received in Las Vegas, Charlie Palmer, the James Beard award-winning chef and owner of The Charlie Palmer Group, operates 10 wildly successful restaurants throughout America with over 1,000 dedicated employees.
"I grew up in a small farming town of about a couple of hundred people in upstate New York," recalls Palmer. "Our neighbor was the home econom-ics teacher in our high school and coaxed me into getting into cooking.
"I started working in restaurants as a kid. My first restaurant job was as pot washer at the Colgate Inn, connected to Colgate, New Jersey. By no means did I start at the top. I decided to go to the Culinary Institute and got serious about cooking. From there, I went directly to New York and became consumed by the restaurant industry."
Palmer rapidly worked his way up in the ranks and at age 23 became the executive chef of New York’s highly regarded River Café. At 28, he opened his own critically-acclaimed Aureole restaurant in New York City as its chef and proprietor with his latest signature progressive American cuisine.
His additional leading restaurants include Metrazur, Astra, Kitchen 22 and Kitchen 82 in New York, Charlie Palmer Steak in Washington, D. C., Astra West in Los Angeles and the Dry Creek Kitchen at the Hotel Healdsburg in Sonoma, California.
Here in Las Vegas, Palmer features Aureole at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Charlie Palmer Steak at the Four Seasons Hotel and dining and catering at the exclusive Stirling Club in Turnberry Place.
Aureole offers seasonal world-class cuisine, impeccable service and an innovative wine tower. "The primary idea of the wine tower was to break down the whole mystique of wine for people. It evolved, and out of it came the acrobatic Wine Angel. We have 4,300 selections in our high-tech wine book, created by Andrew Bradbury.
"My idea with all the restaurants is to keep it all very seasonal and to really keep the focus of the menu changing with fresh and seasonal ingredients." Regarding Charlie Palmer Steak, the Robb Report says it all: A steak just doesn’t get any better. "Also, the Stirling Club is where we belong. I really like the Soffers and Turnberry.
"I’ve always been adventurous and not afraid of doing things differently. You can’t be afraid of taking chances. You can make it work. If you really believe it will be successful, it will be successful. You must also be very persistent. Early on, we easily put in over 80 hours per week. Even today, although I don’t count the hours.
"I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve been able to balance my business life with my personal life. I have a wonderful family with four young sons and a great wife. My life is all about my work and my kids.
"As a chef, I have the duty to nurture and to inspire our young culinary students. They are our future. Also, by providing the livelihood for 1,000 employees. The easiest way for us to grow is to grow our people. A perfect example: A busboy who started out with us now runs our hotel restaurant operation in California."
From tourists and locals to employees, all are delighted that Charlie Palmer took the pioneering journey westward to bring his special, sumptious primo progressive American cuisine into Las Vegas through Aureole, Charlie Palmer Steak and the Stirling Club.
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Palmer rapidly worked his way up in the ranks and at age 23 became the executive chef of New York’s highly regarded River Café. At 28, he opened his own critically-acclaimed Aureole restaurant in New York City as its chef and proprietor with his latest signature progressive American cuisine. 
