By Mckenna Graham • Photograhy by Matt Johnson
Artist, Business Man, Clairvoyant, Magician: a chef must be a little of all these things to be successful, according to Chef Gary Palm, new executive chef at the iconic Brown Hotel. Chef Palm’s job of keeping the Brown’s historic culinary traditions alive (don’t worry-the Hot Brown stays!) while creating a little curiosity on the menu is met by his thirty years of experience in eight countries.
The hundred-year-old Brown Hotel welcomed Chef Palm at the end of May this year and he has wasted no time reinvigorating the menu at both J. Graham’s Café and The Lobby Bar & Grill. New items to watch out for include a double lamb chop with wild mushroom ragout, smoked tomato bisque with braised fennel and New England lobster-perhaps a nod to his own Bay State. Lobster dishes can easily become heavy handed and careen towards the cliché, but Palm’s crustacean is anything but-- laid in a pool of clarified butter and adorned with buddha’s hand and verbena petals, its approach is delicate, even ethereal. However, one of the real stand-out dishes is the Red Snapper with creamy Carolina golden rice, cotija cheese and a Thai basil beurre blanc that is so bright and herbaceous it may make diners forget their manners and lick the plate.
Though Palm has spent recent decades bouncing between Michelin Star kitchens, he began as a dishwasher, just a kid trying to make enough money to buy himself a bike. He grew up with his mother near Springfield, Massachusetts and remembers that though times were tough and money often slim, his mom always had food on the table and time to teach him to cook. His favorite foods growing up included banana cream pie with graham cracker crust and a pepperoni grinder (a hot sub sandwich on Italian bread for those unfamiliar with the Northern vernacular) of his own creation.
He received a scholarship to attend Johnson and Wales Culinary program in Rhode Island and following graduation spent a formative decade in France working in restaurants and learning French between morning and evening service by watching French Sesame Street. In subsequent years Palm would cook and taste his way around the globe-- Monaco, India, South Korea, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Hong Kong-- cultivating a reverence for food and dining that keeps people and connection at its center.
“Dining should be a cherished time where you converse with the people in your life without telephones,” says Palm, “In my house, if you come over to eat all the phones and the car keys go in a basket and then you’re given a glass of wine and we talk about food, life… whatever we want to talk about! We focus on each other.” Palm creates a moment where food is a way to tap into the present, the place and the people around us. His thoughtful presentation nudges diners to lean in for a closer look, to observe a fragile cilantro flower or behold the shimmer of an abalone shell cradling a bed of crab salad and pink Florida coast shrimp.
“My approach to food is it has to have a reason, it has to have a purpose,” says Palm, “It’s not just your stomach saying I’m hungry. It’s about sitting down and having an experience in life.”