KD1191

I love the French Door, freezer on bottom style. It was the one thing I was determined to get when we designed our kitchen. My freezer is used for longer storage and opened far less than the fridge, so why should it be at eye-level? (Freezer on top) or ridiculously tiny? (Standard Side-by-Side) I may be in the minority, but I hate the ice/water in the door, and was dead set against it, so maybe I just didn't notice that it didn't work as well in the French door models. The top rack of the freezer is plenty large enough for my various ice-making equipment and chilling all of my cocktail mixing and service pieces. The lower bin is subdivided to make digging as painless as possible. I don't think it's any more complicated than a freezer on top model where if you need something at the bottom you can cause a landslide. At 6'4", I'm done getting on my knees to get in the vegetable bins...I don't think I could have another fridge that wasn't freezer on the bottom.

If patents were established for culinary processes and Eben was able to obtain a patent for such processes, then yes. Even if FG proposes the former, it doesn't even begin to suggest the latter...as I said above, I doubt Freemen could come close to satisfying the necessary requirements to patent any of the processes discussed so far in this thread.

Seems easy enough...critic contacts restaurant and offers to review. Restaurant sends a voucher of some sort for dinner. Critic arrives at an unannounced date and time and when presented with the check presents the voucher. This assumes the critic in question is not immediately recognizable, of course.

For me, it tends to depend on my relationship with the bartender. If someone I didn't know well gave me measurements and didn't ask me not to disseminate it, I'd feel within my rights to post exactly as you did, though adding Ted's last name would have been great. If it was a situation where I believed I was getting more info than your average customer might, because I'm a regular or have established a friendship with the person, then I'd probably lean toward a post praising the drink and mentioning the components but not the exact amounts...unless I received specific permission. The history of the drink or its similarity to another previously published recipe might also enter into my decision making process. For example, Joaquin Simo made me a terrific Scotch old-fashioned with Averna...it's pretty easy to go and recreate that drink even without any measurements. He also said it had been on Death & Co.'s menu some time ago, leading me to believe that it was not something that was "under wraps". A quick Google search tells me the recipe is published on the Compass Box website, so I'd have no qualms about pointing you there (PDF Link). It's a balancing act...I'm not sure there can be a standard. That said, the only way to be sure you're not going to make an enemy of the bartender is to ask.

I think part of the problem those who believe in expanding the protections of IP to the culinary world will face, particularly in this thread, is a lack of innovation so great that it cries out for protection. Smoking coke and fat washing are novel infusion methods, but I can't imagine a world in which Eben is granted a patent on those processes. Neither should Dave Arnold be receiving royalties every time someone uses an iSi whipper to quick-infuse liquid. I agree that these are steps forward in the cocktail world, but they are certainly "obvious" in the way the term is used in the IP field. I wouldn't be at all surprised if patents exist (and have already expired) for the processes Eben is created with creating. He would not be entitled to anything even if he was the first to apply them to food. I wouldn't argue that some of what the handful of most innovative chefs in the world are doing seems like it has the potential to qualify for a patent (certainly when compared to some of the absolutely mundane things processes I see getting patented left and right), but I would go so far as to say that this article hurts the cause of expanding IP rights into the culinary sphere.

I am not a lawyer (though I have about 200 IP lawyers for bosses), but I think the most likely way to protect cocktail IP would be as trade secrets. However, trade secret protection requires "reasonable measures taken to protect the information"...which, means if it's accessible via Google, it doesn't qualify. If you can keep your mouth shut, there are certain benefits. Trade secret protection, unlike patents and copyrights, does not expire. That said, as soon as the cat is out of the bag, competitors are completely within their rights to duplicate it, and if you are extremely successful you can expect the process to be reverse engineered.

A co-worker brought in a chocolate cake supposedly based on an old war-time recipe that substituted mayonnaise for the eggs and butter. I get the concept, but still couldn't force myself to try it.

My favorite bitter, brown & stirred drink is the Creole Cocktail of Savoy fame... 1.5 oz Rye* 1.5 oz Punt e Mes 1/8 oz Benedictine 1/8 oz Amer Picon** Stir, Strain, Lemon Peel (not pictured)...also generally served up, but I was feeling contrarian. *I used Sazerac here, but it's better with Rittenhouse. I was making a double so that I could convert those 1/8s into 1/4s, and 3 ounces of 100 proof whiskey before dinner didn't seem like a good idea... **Chris (or anyone else with a bottle of Suze), I've been playing around more with trying to approximate Amer Picon with more readily available ingredients, and I'll be damned if Gentian liqueur + orange bitters doesn't come REAL close...

Also not intending to be nit-picky, but Alinea's nearest EL stop would be the North/Clybourn station on the Red Line, and Les Nomades (being east of Michigan Av.) is in Streeterville, not River North.

I would have been off to find a straw...

There are many good restaurants north of the city limits. It would help if you could ID a price point and cuisine (or two) of interest. In the general upscale, contemporary American category, I have heard good things about Inovasi and Michael. ETA: Maybe also mention how far you're willing to travel. Gurnee is about as close to Milwaukee as it is Chicago...so, even a trip to some of the other northern suburbs can be a bit of a drive.

Sloe Gin and Yellow Chartreuse play beautifully together. My wife's favorite drink is a gimlet with the addition of both, created by fellow eGulleter Troy Sidle. I just made something inspired by it: 1.5 oz Ransom Old Tom .75 oz Lemon Juice .5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin .5 oz Yellow Chartreuse .25 oz Hibiscus Syrup Dash Bittercube Bolivar Bitters

Haven't ever measured temps, but the fountain should be pretty full of ice to start the process. You might give the ice/water a bit of a stir before opening the tap, too.

Yes, generally you want somewhere from 3:1 - 5:1, water to absinthe...quite dilute. Obviously the size of your glass and preferred ratio is going to determine your exact measurements. I'm not entirely sure how necessary the sugar cube is these days with the quality of products we have available, but it's not like it's unpleasant either. Stirring in some simple after the drip is probably a better way to tweak the taste to your preference, if considerably less ritualistic. ETA: Have never used chilled glasses...though I'm not sure it would hurt anything. That said, the process takes awhile, so I'm not sure how much chilling the glass would help. The end result has always been plenty cold due to the quantity of ice water that's involved.

There are many options. Personally, I use the last of those...found them at Whole Foods.

Many in the gluten-free world have horror stories about products that should have been gluten free being cross contaminated by other products in the same production/supply chain, or some unscrupulous process used by the manufacturer. So, if a brand wants to make the claim "gluten free" and are willing to back it up, more power to them. I personally don't have an issue with gluten, so I don't know how big a deal it might be...I do know the science of distillation leaves no room for gluten in the result. What the distiller does after that, we have little control over.

Unless subsequently flavored, all distilled spirits should be gluten-free.

A Blinker riff. 2.5 oz Wild Turkey 101 Rye 1.5 oz Grapefruit Juice 1/2 oz Cassis des Pères Chartreux 1/4 oz Simple First sip was pretty standard Blinker, a bit boring. I topped it off with a few drops of Bittercube Blackstrap bitters...took the drink in a whole different direction. Added nice spice and depth, brought out the rye and the fruit.

I had a really good sparkling pomegranate wine from Tomasello that had the wonderful flavor of homemade grenadine. I really expected to like their cherry and raspberry but found them lacking in fresh fruit flavor.

Missing the point. The chicken is presumed contaminated. Rinsing does nothing to decontaminate it, but is very effective at spreading the bacteria all over the kitchen. Cooking is what actually gets rid of the bacteria. Maybe Scott rinses with bleach?

Sounds like a Bierbrand. I was introduced to the style not too long ago by Koval here in Chicago...not unpleasant, but nothing particularly remarkable on first tasting.

Just tasted Stone's and Canton side-by-side. The aroma of Stone's is weak...what I do get is vegetal/green, young ginger. Canton is bolder, spicy but with a medicinal tinge (Chloraseptic, specifically). Stone's is milder in flavor as well, not as spicy, sweet or hot as Canton. Stone's is dime-store candy sweet (there and gone), has a lot of the same flavor profile as a slightly more gingery ginger ale, but nothing close to the heat of a high-quality ginger beer. Canton is syrupy and lingers, it has a burn but the ginger flavor is a bit artificial. 50:50 Canton and M&R Sweet might be a workable sub for Stone's, though the ginger flavor is still considerably hotter and the aroma is much more intense. ETA: Tried 50:50 Canton & Cinzano Bianco and it was not an improvement.

Mo' Bitter Bronx: 2 oz Tanqueray No. 10 1 oz Punt e Mes 1 oz Cocchi Americano 1 oz Orange Juice Dash Angostura Count me among those in love with the Cocchi Americano...everything it touches turns to gold.

So, of course as soon as I get done talking about how I don't particularly care for North Shore #6, I sidle down to the watering hole and order up a "Bronx with Bitters" from a new (to me) bartender...he looks me over and extracts a North Shore bottle from the back bar. "I don't normally care for the Bronx, I find it far too flat," he says (insulting my favorite classic cocktail), "so, I'm going to amp it up a bit with this." He produces North Shore "Mighty Gin"...according to him, a bar/restaurant-only (for now, at least) over-proof version of #6. I didn't catch the exact proof, but I know it was well over 100. To put it bluntly, it was wicked. I still don't know how much juniper I was tasting, but the finished cocktail was really nothing short of amazing... Words partially eaten, they went down fine with a shot of Fernet.

It's remarkable even to consider that people might be trading on the cachet of the term gin...