When you hear the name, Charlie Palmer, there’s probably one quintessential image that comes to mind immediately: the sexy, cat suit-garbed “wine angels,” hanging from wires, and scaling the enormous tower of wine bottles at his Aureole restaurant in the city of neon, Las Vegas.

It’s a flashy, glamorous picture, to be sure. It’s also a far different one than Palmer’s very humble upbringing. The son of a farmer-plumber-electrician who could fix anything, he grew up in the small town of Smyrna, New York.

It’s a place where high school football is a huge deal. But for the young Palmer, who was a burly 6-foot-tall by the age of 14, the love for cooking eventually won out over his passion for playing the sport.

His love for pigskin, though, definitely remains.

March 20-21, the mega chef-restaurateur will host his fourth annual Pigs & Pinot weekend. A celebration of the swine and the grape, it will feature guest chefs Michael Mina of the eponymous San Francisco restaurant; Christopher Kostow of the Restaurant at Meadowood in St. Helena; Philippe Rispoli of France; and Graham Brown of New Zealand.

Festivities include a cooking class, wine seminars, the “Taste of Pigs & Pinot” (where you can sample a variety of pork dishes and Pinots), and a gala five-course dinner with paired limited-production Pinot Noirs. A renowned judging panel will bestow the “Pinot Cup” award on the best wine.

Tickets to the separate events range from $75 to $300.  For more information, go to http://www.pigsandpinot.com/. Proceeds benefit Share Our Strength, a national anti-hunger organization, and the Healdsburg School, a private K-8 school.

Recently, I had a chance to hang out with the 49-year-old chef at his restaurant, Dry Creek Kitchen in the Hotel Healdsburg.

Although he still shuttles to New York every two weeks, this native New Yorker and graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, has called Sonoma County home for the past few years. He visited here 15 years ago for the first time, and it was love at first sight.

Q: You have 11 restaurants nationwide now. Is it a scary time to be a restaurateur?

A: I’m a huge optimist, so I’m not scared. I think we’re in an unprecedented time. I think a lot of people are being unrealistic about how long it will last.

We’ve felt it in New York for sure, because we’re so close to Wall Street. Not so much here, though. Knock on wood.

Q: Are you still working on new projects, despite the dire economy?

Aureole in New York will be moving in May to a new Bryant Park high-rise that’s platinum-rated for energy efficiency. The new location will have a bar-lounge area, which we’ve never had before, plus a wine mezzanine.

We’re working on a 400-room, non-gaming hotel in Las Vegas that’s not on the Strip. It’s a 10-year project.

We’re also building a new small, 36-room hotel a block and a half from the Healdsburg Square, which will open in spring 2010. It’ll be less expensive than the Hotel Healdsburg, and be called H2Hotel.

I’m also working on a pork book that’s not light-hearted. It’s actually bizarre. There are some pretty extreme photos, plus recipes. It’s an art book. At one point, the photographer was doing a photo shoot with two Scandinavian twins in a slaughterhouse in Denmark.  It’s blood, animal parts, and beautiful Scandinavian girls.

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