Chef Jeffery Russell of Charlie Palmer Steak - Biography

A native of Auburn, New York, Jeffery Russell found his passion for cooking early in life when his mother taught him step by step how to make tomato sauce from their home-grown tomatoes. The transformation of food in front of the stove fascinated Russell so much that he went on to enroll at the Culinary Institute of America. After graduating from the CIA, Russell found a culinary gig at Aureole in New York, slowly climbing the ladder to become a junior sous chef. In 2008, he moved to Washington, D.C. to join the Charlie Palmer Group, and helped open the company’s branch in Denver, Colorado. He returned to D.C. in 2012, to take the reins at District Meats and, later, moved back to Charlie Palmer Steak. With a deep passion for gardening from his early years in the Finger Lakes Region of upstate New York, Russell combines a farm-to-table approach with the fine-dining flair of the restaurant.