Thursday, May 7, 2015
8:00pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)
Charlie Palmer
in conversation with Michael Voltaggio
discussing his cookbook
Charlie Palmer’s American Fare:
Everyday Recipes from My Kitchens to Yours
William Turner Gallery
Bergamot Station Arts Center
2525 Michigan Avenue,
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$20 General Admission
$30 Reserved Seats
$50 Includes Palmer’s cookbook + Seat in reserved section
$95 Pre-event reception, the cookbook, Seat in reserved section
Since the beginning of his celebrated career, master Chef and hospitality entrepreneur Charlie Palmer has received critical acclaim for his signature Progressive American Cuisine, a style built on rambunctious flavors and unexpected combinations with a deep and lasting infusion of classical French technique. 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 New York City 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 eleven 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.”
A frequent guest on NBC’s Today Show, Charlie Palmer is also the author of five cookbooks, Remington Camp Cooking (2013), Great American Food (1996), Charlie Palmer’s Casual Cooking (2001), The Art of Aureole, (2002), and Charlie Palmer’s Practical Guide to the New American Kitchen (2006).
From Publisher’s Weekly:
Chef and restaurateur Palmer pays homage to American cuisine in this vibrant and enticing collection. In his early days, Palmer was among the first wave of chefs to embrace ingredients native to the U.S. and recipes that had long been overlooked. Years later, his cooking still reflects that domestic influence in dishes such as corn chowder with shrimp; honey-smoked whole turkey; and striped bass stuffed with crab and mushrooms. While many dishes are restaurant quality, such as Florentine-roasted strip loin and the leg of lamb with herbs and roasted garlic, the recipes are well within a home cook’s grasp. The intriguing warm pork and lentil salad and a gorgeous Brussels sprout and ricotta gratin are recipes that both professional and amateur chefs will turn to again and again. While Palmer covers the basics, he also offers appealing quick and easy lunches, including croque monsieur with mornay sauce, and baked ratatouille. His standout chapter explores family favorites, which include chicken liver pâté, baked littleneck clams, lentil–butternut squash soup, and oatmeal cookies. Fans will delight in this exceptional, accessible cookbook.
Michael Voltaggio is the chef and owner of acclaimed restaurant Ink. and artisanal sandwich concept ink.sack – both in Los Angeles. Having called Los Angeles home since 2008, he is inspired by the city’s diverse ethnicities, cultures and industries, and has reinterpreted a new class of finer dining at Ink., dubbing the food and experience there as modern los angeles. Ink. was named “best new restaurant in america” by GQ magazine.
In 2013, Voltaggio received the distinction as one of Food & Wine magazine’s best new chefs in the award’s 25th anniversary year, joining an elite list of chefs in America. This was a career highlight for him, considering his humble beginnings nearly 20 years earlier when his first job at 15 was working for his older brother Bryan at a local hotel kitchen in their hometown of Frederick, MD. Following Bryan’s lead into the culinary world, Michael received his formal education by earning a prestigious position at the venerable Greenbrier apprenticeship program in West Virginia, graduating when he was 21(at the time the youngest to have done so).
Previously, Voltaggio spent time at the helm of numerous high-profile kitchens across the country. Some include Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg, CA, where he earned a Michelin Star, and The Bazaar by Jose Andres at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills where he earned a 4-star review from the Los Angeles Times and finalist nomination for “best new restaurant” from the James Beard Foundation. Additional accolades include being named Angeleno magazine’s best new chef in 2010 and selected by star chefs as a rising star chef that same year.
He is the author, with his brother, of their first cookbook, aptly titled Volt Ink. – named after their flagship restaurants.
Voltaggio may best be known for his win on Bravo TV’s Emmy award-winning season of Top Chef. He has since made many returns to television with guest appearances on various cooking and food shows. Soon he will be back on the small screen with a new series for Travel Channel currently titled Breaking Borders, slated to air in early 2015.
