It’s all about the diversity

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Boyd “Chef Bo” Palker, executive chef at Reston’s Vinifera Wine Bar & Bistro, freely concedes that any cooking or any interest in fine food was not important to his family. “Food was not a big deal,” he says, “and that surprises everyone. My brothers are contractors. I just started doing this. But I cook for everyone when I go home.”

“Home” in this case is Vermont, where as a high school student, Palker enrolled in a culinary course at school.

“I fell in love with it,” he says.

And at the age of 15, he got a job at a meat-fabricating plant, where meat cutters turned carcasses into usable cuts.

“You learn how to take down a side of beef,” he says. “You are working in cold, with animal fat everywhere. But it was well worth it.”

Though not every aspiring chef would embrace the trial by cold, for Palker, it was a defining moment.

“I would never have cooked otherwise,” he says.

And that inspired him to take a job at first one and then the second local restaurant in Burlington: The Stuffed Shirt and The Ice House, where Palker got his first taste of the cooking life. After high school, Palker enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., a career move that served to seal his fate.

Among his many moves as a chef, Palker says his 10 years spent in Miami were perhaps the most influential, as he worked closely with chefs from many different ethnic backgrounds, particularly Asian, Indian and Caribbean.

“So when I worked next to them,” he says, “you think you know how to cook, but then you see that you were just faking it.”

After another move to New Mexico, Palker took a job for eight months at a resort on an Indian reservation.

“That opened a new door for my cooking,” says the chef, who now freely acknowledges he is “super passionate” about cooking.

Although newly arrived at the kitchen of this restaurant, Palker has already planted a series of fresh herbs and vegetables on the outdoors terrace.

“I think growing your own says a lot about your passion,” he says. “I snip my own herbs. Even the bartender snips mint for his mojitos.”

Settling into this new position has taken some adjustments, especially since Palker has moved down south from Princeton, N.J. But he’s confident as he makes recipe renovations that he is hitting his stride in his new digs. He says with great zeal, “I so want people to walk away thinking, ‘This is the best meal I’ve ever had,’ ” he says.

To that end, Palker says he will cook seasonally and will draw upon his diverse culinary background.

“I change with the seasons,” he says. “I’m very diversified. I can do many styles,” adding that when he goes out to eat, he expects to be wowed. And that’s what he wants from his own cooking, the “wow” factor.

Q&A with Chef Bo Palker What’s your comfort food?

When I am at home, I love to eat tapas … I won’t go by a recipe. I see something that interests me and I go for it. That’s the creative part. If I try at home and I like it, I will run it as a special [at the restaurant].

What’s your favorite dessert?

It would have to be tres leches [cake].

What’s in your basic pantry?

Fresh herbs, chilies, lemons, limes, oranges, good oils and vinegars. All the produce must be garden-fresh. People know.

Which is your favorite cuisine?

I like all Asian because it is all so fresh. I can’t eat raw fish unless it is super fresh, so I like the way they think.

Which has been your luckiest moment?

I cooked for three presidents, and each time I got to meet them. That was Clinton and both Bushes. All very down-to-earth.

From the Chef’s Kitchen Citrus Grilled Chicken with Orange Honey Glaze and Chipotle Butter Grilled Corn on the Cob

Serves 4

4 (8 oz.) all-natural free-range chicken breasts with skin on

Kosher salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 limes

2 lemons

1/4 cup olive oil

Juice and zest of 1 orange

1/2 cup honey

Season the chicken with the salt and pepper on both sides. In a medium-size bowl zest both limes and lemons and then add the juices of each. Add the olive oil to the mixture, and then add the chicken to the bowl, coating all sides. Cover and refrigerate for six hours.

For the honey glaze, bring the orange juice to a slow simmer in a medium-size saucepan until it’s cooked down to half its original volume. Turn off the burner and add the honey and orange zest while the juice is still warm.

Then, over a charcoal or gas grill cook the chicken skin-side down until brown and crispy. Turn and cook the chicken until the center is at 155 degrees, or for about 15 minutes. Brush the honey onto the skin side of the chicken and continue to cook until almost done, about 160 degrees, or three more minutes. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes to let the oils in the chicken ease the water out. Then heat the chicken again on the grill until it is at serving temperature of 165 degrees for one minute more.

Chipotle Butter Grilled Corn on the Cob

4 ears of corn, shucked

1/4 pound lightly salted butter, softened butter

1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder

Soften the butter at room temperature and mix with the chipotle powder in a small bowl. Grill the raw corn over a gas or charcoal grill, continually turning, until lightly brown all around. Then, brush the corn with the chipotle butter and serve.