As a child in Upstate New York, Charlie Palmer tended the earth of his family’s vegetable garden and developed a profound appreciation for farm-fresh ingredients. He brought that sensibility to his first restaurant, New York’s legendary “Aureole,” which opened 28 years ago. 

Now, his “Charlie Palmer Group” boasts 17 dining spots and boutique hotels. Along the way, he’s become one of the nation’s best known and most honored chefs. He’s also won two James Beard Awards and is an author of six cookbooks. 

Here are some of Palmer’s’ signature recipes: 

Slow roasted chateubriand for two with whipped potatoes, wild mushroom fricassee, red wine shallot sauce 

Makes 12 ounces

Ingredients 

16 oz beef tenderloin
Kosher salt and coarse black pepper
Blended oil (enough to coat pan, about 3 T)
1 oz butter
Whole thyme, removed from stem
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, minced
¼ cup white wine
½ cup each chanterelle mushrooms, maitake mushrooms, black trumpet
Mushroom
8 oz Beef Demi glace

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees. Drizzle in some blended oil or canola oil over a hot cast iron or heavy pan. Season beef with salt and pepper and when pan is smoking hot carefully put beef in pan and brown on all side. Once you get color on beef on all sides, put directly into oven.

2. In another sauté pan add butter and olive oil minced shallots and garlic and cook until toasted. Add mushrooms salt and pepper and sauté. Add white wine and thyme. Flip beef after 5 minutes and cook for another 5. Remove beef from oven and add butter and thyme and baste the meat. Remove from pan and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing. You can reheat some beef demi glace that you can find in most specialty super markets and put him sauceboat to serve with chateaubriand.

Whipped potatoes

Ingredients

4 1⁄2 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed
2 cups heavy cream
1 lb. unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Place potatoes in a 6-quart saucepan and cover with water; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook, covered, until tender, 1–1 1⁄2 hours. Drain and let cool; peel. 

2. Working in batches, pass potatoes through a ricer; transfer to a bowl and keep warm. (Alternatively, use a potato masher.) Add cream to pan; bring to a simmer. Slowly whisk in butter until sauce is emulsified. Stir in potatoes, salt, and pepper.

American Sturgeon Caviar, Buckwheat Blinis, Sour Cream, Buckwheat Blini

Ingredients

¾ cup Buckwheat Flour
1/5 cup AP Flour
1 cup Milk
1 1/3 T fresh yeast
1 cup sour cream
3 each Egg Yolk
3 each Egg White Whipped
Salt and White Pepper ( to taste )
Canola Oil

Directions

1. Combine buckwheat, AP flour, milk, sour cream, and egg yolk.  Fold the whipped egg whites into the mixture is just combined. Let this mixture rest for 15 minutes.
2. Season mixture with salt and pepper immediately before cooking to retain the fresh yeast.Using a Teflon pan with canola oil preheated. Add 2 T of batter into the hot pan. Flip blini when edges start to brown and ensure even golden brown color on both sides.

Sour cream 

Ingredients

 2/3 cup Sour Cream
1 sheet of Gelatin (Golden) 
Zest and Juice of ¼ Lemon
Salt and White Pepper (to taste)

Directions

1. Bloom Gelatin in Cold water for 5 minutes and then strain water out. Mix sour cream, gelatin, lemon juice and zest. Season with salt and white pepper. Place sour cream mixture into a small pastry bag for piping.

Caviar

Ingredients

½ oz. Caviar per Person (American Sturgeon Hackleback)
¼ cup chives (finely sliced) for garnish 
Small piping bag of sour cream mixture
Mother of pearl spoons or plastic. (Avoid metal)

Directions

1. For each blini pipe a small amount of sour cream onto it. Then quenelle caviar onto each blini using caviar spoons. Garnish with a sprinkle of finely chopped chives.

Glazed heirloom baby carrots

Ingredients

2 lb of heirloom baby carrots 
1 teaspoon of coriander seeds 
1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
1 piece of star anise
1 spring of thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon of champagne vinegar
2 tablespoon of honey
2 cup of water
1 cup of butter
1 teaspoon of salt

Directions

1. Wash carrots. (Don’t peel them, the skin has a richer flavor.) 

2. Place the carrots in a medium saucepan and add all ingredients. Place pan on stove over low heat and cook for about 10 minutes or until carrots are al dente.

3. Turn off heat. Allow carrots to cool down in the cooking liquid and finishing cooking process.

4. Remove the carrots from the liquid and set aside. Strain seeds and herbs from liquid and return liquid to heat.  Bring liquid to a boil and simmer until it thickens and creates a nice glace. 

5. Return carrots into sauce for 30 seconds and stir. Serve.

Black truffle Agnolotti

Filling Ingredients

¼ black truffle peelings
1 T truffle oil
½ lb ricotta cheese
¼ lb parmesan
¼ lb mascarpone
Salt to taste

Directions

1. Mix in stand up mixer until completed incorporated and pour into piping bag.

Pasta dough ingredients 

1 3/4 cups (8 ounces) all-purpose flour
6 large egg yolks
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon milk

Directions

1. Mound the flour on a board or other surface and create a well in the center, pushing the flour to all sides to make a ring with sides about 1 inch wide. Make sure that the well is wide enough to hold all the eggs without spilling.
2. Pour the egg yolks, egg, oil, and milk into the well. Use your fingers to break the eggs up. Still using your fingers, begin turning the eggs in a circular motion, keeping them within the well and not allowing them to spill over the sides. This circular motion allows the eggs to gradually pull in flour from the sides of the well; it is important that the flour not be incorporated too rapidly, or your dough will be lumpy. Keep moving the eggs while slowly incorporating the flour. Using a pastry scraper, occasionally push the flour toward the eggs; the flour should be moved only enough to maintain the gradual incorporation of the flour, and the eggs should continue to be contained within the well. The mixture will thicken and eventually get too tight to keep turning with your fingers.
3. When the dough begins thickening and starts lifting itself from the board, begin incorporating the remaining flour with the pastry scraper by lifting the flour up and over the dough that’s beginning to form and cutting it into the dough. When the remaining flour from the sides of the well has been cut into the dough, the dough will still look shaggy. Bring the dough together with the palms of your hands and form it into a ball. It will look flaky but will hold together.
4. Knead the dough by pressing it, bit by bit, in a forward motion with the heels of your hands rather than folding it over on itself as you would with a bread dough. Re-form the dough into a ball and repeat the process several times. The dough should feel moist but not sticky. Let the dough rest for a few minutes while you clean the work surface.
5. Dust the clean work surface with a little flour. Knead the dough by pushing against it in a forward motion with the heels of your hands. Form the dough into a ball again and knead it again. Keep kneading in this forward motion until the dough becomes silky-smooth. The dough is ready when you can pull your finger through it and the dough wants to snap back into place. The kneading process can take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. Even if you think you are finished kneading, knead it for an extra ten minutes; you cannot overknead this dough. It is important to work the dough long enough to pass the pull test; otherwise, when it rests, it will collapse.
6. Double-wrap the dough in plastic wrap to ensure that it does not dry out. Let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour before rolling it through a pasta machine. The dough can be made a day ahead, wrapped and refrigerated; bring to room temperature before proceeding.
   

Sheets for the agnolotti:

1. Use 1/2 recipe pasta dough, divided into two or three pieces. Run the dough through a pasta machine as for ravioli, but make the sheets wider. The size will vary according to the pasta machine used, but the sheets should be at least five inches wide. It is important that your pasta sheet be thin enough so that you can see your fingers through it, but not so thin that it’s translucent. Keep the pasta sheets covered, as they dry out quickly, and proceed with filling the agnolotti.
   

To fill agnolotti:

1. If you are planning on using the agnolotti immediately, have a large pot of lightly salted boiling water ready. Work with one sheet of pasta at a time, keeping the remaining sheets covered. Work quickly, as fresh pasta will dry out.
2. Lay the pasta sheet on a lightly floured surface with a long side facing you. Trim the edges so they are straight. Place the agnolotti filling in a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip. Pipe a “tube” of filling across the bottom of the pasta sheet, leaving a 3/4-inch border of pasta along the left, right and bottom edges.
3. Pull the bottom edge of the pasta up and over the filling. Seal the agnolotti by carefully molding the pasta over the filling and pressing lightly with your index finger to seal the edge of the dough to the pasta sheet; don’t drag your finger along the dough to seal, or you risk ripping the dough. When it is sealed, there should be about 1/2 inch of excess dough visible along the tube of filling (where you sealed it). Be certain that you are sealing tightly while pressing out any pockets of air. Seal the left and right ends of the dough.

To shape agnolotti:

1. Starting at one end, place the thumb and forefinger of each hand together as if you were going to pinch something and, leaving about 1 inch of space between your hands and holding your fingers vertically, pinch the filling in 1-inch increments, making about 3/4 inch of “pinched” are between each pocket of filling. It is important to leave this much “pinched” area between the agnolotti, or when the agnolotti are separated, they may come unsealed.
2. Run a crimped pastry wheel along the top edge of the folded-over dough, separating the strip of filled pockets from the remainder of the pasta sheet. Don’t cut too close to the filling, or you risk breaking the seal. Separate the individual agnolotti by cutting the center of each pinched area, rolling the pastry wheel away from you. Working quickly, place the agnolotti on a baking sheet dusted with a thin layer of cornmeal, which will help prevent sticking. Don’t let the agnolotti touch each other, or they may stick together.
3. Repeat the same procedure on the remainder of your pasta sheets. Either cook the agnolotti immediately in the boiling water, or place the baking sheet in the freezer. Once the agnolotti are frozen, place them in airtight freezer bags and keep them frozen for up to several weeks. Cook the agnolotti while still frozen.

To assemble dish

1. Spoon cheese-filled agnolotti into a serving bowl and drizzle pan sauce over top. Finish with fresh grated parmesan cheese at the table.

Apple tarte tatin

Apple Filling Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup sugar
4 Apples, quartered 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat 10” ovenproof skillet with butter and sprinkle sugar evenly over butter.

   Place apple quarters in circular pattern around skillet. Cook over medium heat until sugar caramelizes.

2. Cook over medium heat until sugar caramelizes. Continue cooking until apple softens and browns, approximately for 10 minutes.

3. Place pie dough crust on top the apple mixture. Tuck in around edges.

4. Bake in oven for approximately 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Pie dough crust (top)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups ap flour
1/4 teaspoon  salt
1/2 cup butter cold and diced
1/4 cup ice water

Directions

1. In a large bowl combine salt, flour, butter mixture until well combined (crumbs should form). Fold in water, 1 tsp at a time. Allow dough to rest for 24 hours in refrigerator. Roll the pie dough into 11” circle.
2. Serve in slices and top with vanilla ice cream.

Charlie’s Negroni

Ingredients

1 oz gin
1 oz cocchi rosa
½ oz Campari
½ oz aperol 
Grapefruit peel for garnish

Directions

1. Stir all ingredients together over ice. Strain and pour over fresh cubes. Garnish with grapefruit twist.