Rising Star Chef Joe Palma of Bourbon Steak - Biography

Joe Palma has yielded to the pull and absorbed the lessons of some of the country’s most important restaurant cities. After attending college in Charleston, South Carolina, and working as a line cook, Palma decided to pursue a culinary career in earnest. He first moved north to Washington, D.C, where he cut his teeth working chefs the likes of Michel Richard at Citronelle and Yannick Cam at Le Paradou.

Palma’s talent soon caught the eye of Chef Eric Ripert, who took him under his wing at Le Bernardin in 2006. At Ripert’s New York City flagship, Palma spent two years as the restaurant’s sous chef, honing seafood and French techniques. He was then sent to take the over the reins at creative, Southern-inflected Westend Bistro in Washington, D.C., another Ripert outpost.

Longing for the real flavors of the South, Palma returned to Charleston, where he was tapped as executive chef of High Cotton, a restaurant specializing in Lowcountry cuisine. After two years mastering the coastal cuisine of Charleston, Palma made a homecoming to D.C. to assume the executive chef position at Bourbon Steak, where he continues a long tradition of excellence bolstered by his strengths in classic French cuisine.