Kingcocktail

Velvet Falernum Syrup One of the key components of the Flaming Orange Gully, the official cocktail of eGullet.com 10 Limes 10 Cloves 1/4 tsp almond extract 1 l white rum Zest the 10 limes, reserve the zested limes for juicing for the Flaming Orange Gully. Marinate first three ingredients in the rum for 24 hours. Strain and bottle the rum. Store in a cool place. To make syrup, add 8 oz. of rum marinade to one quart of simple syrup (2 parts water to 1 part sugar). Adjust to taste. Keywords: Easy ( RG110 )

Flaming Orange Gully Serves 1. DURING OUR recent Q&A session with master mixologist Dale DeGroff here on eGullet, Dale was challenged by user "Varmint" to create "a new cocktail that we, as eGulleteers, can call our own. We'll gladly order this cocktail whenever we meet, singing your praises." Was Dale up to the challenge? As if . . . ! Today, eGullet.com and Dale DeGroff are proud to unveil Dale's new cocktail to our thirsty audience. The Flaming Orange Gully is a spicy, sexy melange of fresh orange juice, Stolichnaya Ohranj, Angostura Bitters, Velvet Falernum Syrup, and fresh grated nutmeg (recipe follows). What went into its creation? As Dale notes, "I was really challenged because the group has very high standards when it comes to the culinary arts. I wanted something with layers of flavor and I thought the Velvet Falernum and nutmeg would provide that without getting too esoteric." 1-1/2 fl oz Stolichnaya Ohranj Vodka 1/2 fl oz Fresh Lime Juice 1 fl oz Velvet Falernum Syrup 1 fl oz Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice 2 dashes of Angostura Bitters Shake all ingredients well with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a flamed orange peel and fresh grated nutmeg. Keywords: Cocktail, Intermediate, The Daily Gullet ( RG109 )

Dear K. Hi I did not intend to specify brands in that reply I should have just generic zed the reply. Of course Bombay Sapphire is a good brand. at that level , the premium and super-premium it is hard to get a bad gin. It just becomes a stylistic choice. Are you looking for a heavily aromatic gin or a cleaner not so perfumed gin these are personal preferences. Dale

Hi DStone In the years when I was active behind the bar would nightly have to discontinue service to guests…as a am sure most bartenders would report.. I was lucky most of my career to have worked in NYC where I knew my customers and knew that the majority were cabbing home…bartenders who work in the suburbs or even in cities without real public transportation like LA have a real responsibility to their guests that cannot be neglected. As for the responsibility of the bartender to monitor a guests drinking habits…that is a tough call. I have realized after years that change in a persons drinking habits has to come from within that person and not from the bartender or anyone else. If it is a friend a bartender can make a choice ..refuse to serve them ever again. we know what happens then, they find a new bar! I served friends that I knew could not drink and I have spent time sitting next to them at the bar knowing they should not be drinking. I cose their company over the alternative and let them make the choice about drinking or not, because in the end only their choice means anyhting. Also take a look at the NCADD tips for responsible hosting at : http://www.ncadd.com/holiday.cfm Dale

Hi Trillium, Ah the legacy of prohibition! When Roosevelt ran and won on the repeal ticket he made a compromise to get the amendment to repeal prohibition and that compromise was to turn over control of spirits top the state and therefore the local level. I feel the pinch of this constantly because I travel so much with my work. I did a series of cocktail dinners around the country with different chefs and I had to clear all my ingredients with the local bartender to be sure I could get them, and in many cases I brought my own spirits! One of the ways to get odd or even not so odd items is online, people will ship to you from around the country and overseas. Sadly one of the downsides of the big reorganization in the spirits industry that took place over the last four years as companies merged and dissolved is a lot of low case volume spirits dropped of the market. Many will probably come back as small businesses begin to take up the slack and grab their brands for distribution. Cheers Dale

Hi Jason, You’re in luck! One of the best recipes I have come up with in all the years of original recipes is my Millennium Cocktail. I was commissioned to create the recipe by the Courvoisier Cognac people for their millennium bottling. Here is the recipe and the story from the book: v MILLENNIUM COCKTAIL* (a.k.a. East India Cocktail) I was commissioned to create this cocktail with the Millennium bottling from Courvoisier and it turned out better than I ever expected, but now I guess I need to change the name. The cocktail is too good to be relegated to the trash heap of millennium merchandise. It is one of my best. Since writing these words I have acquired an out of print cocktail book called the Roving Bartender by Bill Kelly 1948, and to my surprise there was a cocktail called the East India Cocktail with Brandy, Curacao, Pineapple and Bitters. I don’t know if it was Bill’s or if it pre-dates his book, but 1948 is my birth year so all bodes well. My additions of orange oil and nutmeg changed the flavor profile of the drink sufficiently that I feel I have a new drink. 1 ½ oz. Courvoisier Millennium Cognac 1 ½ oz. Pineapple Juice 1 oz. Orange Curacao 1 dash Angostura Bitters Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a twist of orange and dust with nutmeg. Also Jason I created a drink for the Olympics in Barcelona called the Barcelona with Spanish Brandy: BARCELONA*(Frozen) I created this for the James Beard House in New York City, during the Barcelona Olympics. ¾ oz. Spanish Brandy ¾ oz. Dry Sack Sherry ¾ oz. Cointreau ¾ oz. Orange Juice ¾ oz. Heavy Cream 1 oz. simple syrup Freeze in the blender with ¾ cup of ice. Serve in a London Dock or Sherry style glass. Garnish with a light dusting of cinnamon. NOTE: the drink works just as well as a shaken drink if you don’t have a blender. Finally there is a classic drink made in Gascony with Armagnac called : D’ARTAGNAN ½ tsp. Armagnac ½ tsp. Grand Marnier 3 tsp. Orange Juice ½ tsp. simple syrup 3 oz. chilled Champagne Orange peel, cut into thin strips. Chill first four ingredients in a mixing glass and strain into a flute. Top with Champagne and add strips of orange peel so they extend the length of the glass. Cheers Dale

Dear Fat Guy, Become famous for a drink at you house…I suggest you choose a drink with wide appeal like the margarita, people drink it all year round and it is only three ingredients. Practice the drink until you have it down cold and can make it in your sleep. Forever more parties at your house will be famous for that drink. I don’t mean to imply that you should not stock a bar…you should have a regular bar especially of you entertain on a regular basis…here is a regular bar:HOME BAR Liquor (one of each) Rum Vodka- hot brands: Belvedere, Kettle One Gin- Beefeater, Tanqueray Scotch- one blended, one malt Bourbon Sweet Vermouth- Italian Dry Vermouth- French Brandy/Cognac Choose two: Dubonnet Lillet Sherry Campari Cynar Cinzano Bianco Simple syrup Equal parts sugar and water by volume. Shake ingredients vigorously in a cork bottle until all the sugar dissolves White wine • Red wine Flavorings and Condiments Angostura Bitters Grenadine Tabasco Worcestershire Sauce Cocktail Olives Cocktail onions Cherries Juices Orange juice Grapefruit juice Cranberry juice Tomato juice Tools Muddler Cocktail spoon Two part Boston Shaker Set (glass & metal) Cocktail Strainer Funnel Wine opener Bottle/can opener Glassware All purpose wine glass Stem cocktail glass Rocks glass Highball glass Brandy snifter Fruits & Garnish Lemons Lime Oranges Mint

Layered drinks with the exception of the disco shooters like B52 are pretty much a thing of the past…and because of that maybe ripe for revival by a clever young bartender looking for an angle. Everything old is new again. Why not create a menu showcasing some of the classic Pousse Café recipes starting with the famous recipe illustrated in the Jerry Thomas 1862 The Bon Vivants Companion called Pousse L’Amour. It had three layers cognac on top Vanilla cordial in the middle and maraschino liqueur on the bottom. Jerry Thomas in his book gives four recipes for the pousse style drinks. One from a bartender owner in a New Orleans saloon of the 1850’s called Santina’s Saloon., one from New York City by M. Faivre, proprietor of the French Saloon, one from Paris called the Parisian Pousse Café, and the Pousse L’Amour, which I assume is his own recipe.. I suppose the proper way to drink the Pousse style drinks is layer by layer, but everytime I have made one the guest admired the layers and showed it off for a couple minutes then stirred the layers together to drink. Dale

Hi Michael, The recipe from the Rainbow Room menu was reprinted so often that it became the standard…it didn’t hurt that it tasted great either. The flaming of the orange oil over the top of the drink (our trademark at Rainbow) added a unique flavor note that the drink, even made the same way lacked without. COSMOPOLITAN 1 1/2 oz. Citron Vodka 1/2 oz. Cointreau 1/4 oz. Fresh Lime Juice 1 oz. Cranberry Juice Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel. Julie reiner an NYC bartender makes a terrific version called the Blood Orange Cosmo BLOOD ORANGE COSMO Created by Julie Reiner a talented New York City bartender. 1 ½ oz. Stolichnaya Ohranj ½ oz. Triple Sec or Cointreau ¼ oz. Fresh lime juice ¼ oz. Fresh Blood Orange Juice Splash of Cranberry Juice Shake well with ice and serve in a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a slice of orange. Dale

Hi Nightscotsman, Measuring ingredients with a jigger is a must for new bartenders and the home bartender having a cocktail party. Having said that… in an upscale bar or restaurant free pour is classier and jigger service seems old fashioned or stingy. To control the pour size especially in a free pour bar do not rely on the count method to many variables like clogged pour spouts, interrupted pour, different spouts that pour at different rates.. .Use a two part Boston shaker and assemble the cocktail ingredients into the glass half of the shaker. Shaking a cocktail properly will add about one, to one and a half ounces of water to the cocktail. Strain the drink into the cocktail glass and it should be with in a half inch of the top of the glass. The secret is to find the fill level on the side of the glass portion of the shaker that corresponds to the glass your serving the drink in and hit that mark consistently. Have the bartender use a jigger to build a drink so he can see the level as each ingredient is added. Bar supply wholesalers offer a piece of equipment called Exacto Pour, it is a liquid calibration system. The bartender pours what he perceives to be an ounce, half ounce or whatever into a glass, then the liquid is poured into the calibration test tubes and the results can be sobering. Practice with this tool can be invaluable. Note: Don't under-estimate this problem in a free pour bar thousands of dollars a month can go down the drain if the bartender doesn't know how to use the mixing glass to build drink accurately. Assembling ingredients in the metal half of the shaker and relying on count is dangerous, especially with volatile ingredients like fresh lemon and lime juice. When I assemble drinks with fresh lemon or lime juice the juice goes in first before the ice or any of the other ingredients. The bartender has to see that imaginary line on the side of the glass shaker for the juice to avoid over-pouring. in a fresh juice bar this is a must to achieve consistency and balance. Remember fresh kemon and lime are so concentrated that a small over-pour can render the drink so sour it is undrinkable. I have heard so many managers and owners claim that they tried a fresh juice bar but the dinks were terrible SURE THEY WERE ..to impliment such a program the planning and training is intense! Remember glass size dictates recipe and price so choose your martini glass carefully and cost out the drinks accordingly just as a chef would cost out a new dish in the kitchen to determine portion size and price. Towards this end, add ingredients to the mixing glass in the following order: citrus juice, sweetener or flavorings, liquor, and ice. The exceptions are Manhattans and Martinis, the ice goes in first and the ingredients are poured over…but don't miss that imaginary mark on the side of the shaker glass. Finally when using fresh lemon and lime juice for sour drinks ...magaritas ..collins... sours ...fizzes, let me repeat the formula again ...it is fool proof and will please 95% of the public: 3/4 pat of the sour ingredients 1 part of the sweet ingredients 1 1/2 to 2 parts of the strong ingredient Then of course in the case of the long drinks like the collins, the weak ingredient (soda) is added last after the shaking. Dale

Hi Shermar, Yes, the Ritz Cocktail is served at Zoe Restaurant on Prince Street, The Hotel Carlyle’s Bemelmans Bar…ask for Audrey, and most of my old bar staff still work at the small bar that replaced my beautiful bar #%@&X! at the Rainbow Room ... Jose, Sharif, and Colin would be happy to make a Ritz. Also the Matchbar Group that I work for in London offer the Ritz Cocktail, For info go to www.matchbar.com Cheers Dale

Hi Hollywood, Dulling the taste buds is a challenge to be overcome when doing a cocktail dinner and I have worked on that challenge in the following ways. Also don’t forget wine is alcohol as well and will have the same effect after time and with overuse. First, I use very small three ounce cocktail glasses. Of course I don’t fill a cocktail glass when serving a cocktail so that means that the amount of actual spirit without the other ingredients is often less than an ounce per drink. The recipes I posted for the other question about matching food and cocktails could serve two and a half people at a cocktail dinner. Second, I work with the chef to choose dishes with big bold flavors that will stand up to the spirits. Finally, I encourage people to experience the flavor match but not necessarily finish all six of the cocktails. This cocktail dinner thing I do is not meant to usurp wine as a table beverage, it is just taking my craft a bit farther and having some fun doing it! Dale

Dear Southern Girl, Here are some of my favorite classic bars where great drinks and service are united. Mark Pollman at the Cheshire Inn’s Fox and Hounds Bar in St Louis Nizza La Bella Oakland California, Proprietor Evelyn Sloman (author of the Pzza Book) Jim Hewes Willard Hotel in Washingto DC, scholar pof the Mint Julep and keeper of the lore of the Old South Salvatore Calabrese World authority on cognac and principal bartender of the Library Bar in Lanesboough Hotel, London Peter Dorelli, Principal bartender at the American Bar in the Savoy Hotel and editor of the revised edition of the Savoy Cocktail Book Colin Field, Principal bartender at the American Bar in the Ritz Hotel in Paris, France Jimmy of Jimmy's in Frankfurt, Germany Charles Schumann of Schumann’s in Munich, gremany Audrey Saunders of Bemelmans Bar in the Carlyle Hotel in NYC Jason at Pravda in NYC There are obviously many more …some I neglected to note at the time othes I haven’t experienced yetIf anyone has some additions I would love to add them to my list andeventually visit. Dale

Hi Jaybee, Your absolutely right the 25 to 30 set go to Martini parties! The word cocktail, which emerged at the end of the 18th century at first had a very narrow definition, a mixed alcoholic drink with Bitters, but by the end of the 19th century the word cocktail was applied to any mixed alcoholic drink. The same thing has happened to the word Martini, Martini has come to mean any cocktail served in that distinctive V shaped glass. There are numerous stories about the origin of the word cocktail and most are just lore but one of the least repeated and the most likely sounding is the story of Antoine Peychaud. He is famous today as the maker of the Peychauds Bitters the brand that is used in the Sazerac cocktail. He came up with the recipe in his apothecary shop in New Orleans in 1793, and served it to friends dashed into small cups of cognac. The small cups he used were the two sided egg cups we use for soft eggs and in French they are apparently called coquetier and some people think they were copied by the fist makers of the two sided jigger for measuring cocktails. The word is similar to cocktail in pronunciation and was corrupted to cocktail….Sounds good to me! Dale

Vodka surpassed gin in case sales in 1967 and it surpassed whiskey in 1976. I believe there were several factors involved in the rise of popularity of vodka but there were a couple really key factors. First, the brilliant marketing of the Smirnoff brand. Smirnoff was produced in this country in Bethel, Connecticut in a tiny distillery just before the Second World War by a guy named Rudolph Kunett. Kunett had purchased the American rights from the Smirnoff family living in exile in France. In 1939 John Martin the president of Heublien purchased the brand from Kunett. The war intervened, but right after the war Martin started the legendary campaign to put this strange spirit on the map. Remember he did all this with a Russian spirit in the height of the cold war! He used the Bloody Mary, the Vodkatini (name never caught on but the drink did), the Screwdriver and the Moscow mule. Martin went to Hollywood to sell his product, his was the first and the longest of the vodkas to appear on screen in the Bond films, but before that he used an ad campaign that told the whole story in one line “Smirnoff leaves you breathless” The second huge factor was the audience he was playing to…the first of the huge baby-boomer generation was coming of drinking age in the early 1960’s and they needed an entry level alcoholic drink. For their parents it had been 7&7 (Seagrams Seven and 7UP). Martin had an advantage with vodka - it was tasteless! No whiskey taste to cover with coke….so the screwdriver, the vodka tomato, the vodka cranberry were all entry level drinks for this huge group of young people entering the market place. One of the drinks that vodka rode to primacy on was the CapeCodder! Followed by the series of “breeze” drinks…Sea Breeze, Bay Breeze, and the Madras. The Christmas tree smell and the big flavor of gin did not appeal to these entry level drinkers…they wanted juice and vodka tasted like whatever it was mixed with!! As for the taste of vodka and whether it can be detected in a mixed drink, I always urge people to mix with the best spirit they can afford for the best results…sure in a vodka mixed with cranberry and orange juice you can get away with a Value vodka but what if the next guest wants a vodka martini? That value vodka is not going to cut it naked, with a just splash of vermouth to improve the flavor. Putting aside that some vodka companies do cheat and introduce a hint of citrus oil, etc (which is illegal by the way in the USA, but not really enforced) what we perceive as flavor in vodka is often lack of burn and good mouth feel…texture. Vodka made by a master distiller with premium grains and pure water will taste better than a factory produce spirit without the hand of a master distiller. That descriptive words we use for those super-premium brands are smooth, silky, clean and sometimes a hint of sweetness in the after taste (the glycerin) we are reacting to the lack of burn and heat that cheaper vodka will exhibit. It is hard to talk about the big flavor of vodka because there is no big flavor. Dale

Hi Gordon, Sadly more often then not the problem lies with unfriendly bartenders. Sure in certain club environments with music so loud it would shatter fine glassware it is ridiculous to expect any civility from customer or the bartender...it is basically a free for all. But in the rest of the bar world, bar restaurants, bar bars people for the most part are civil. What happens often is they will question a drink and the bartenders reaction is way out of line, often angry that the drink was even ordered (exotics like frozen or hard recipes …sling zombie) or he will reply “that is the way we make it here” with a shove if you don’t like it attitude implied. All that bravado is usually the result of poor training. The bartender seldom has the level of training a line cook has and so he reacts with anger. You should be able to get a sidecar that tastes like a sidecar and not feel completely cowed to mention it to the bartender if it doesn’t. Drinks have recipes! “That is how we make it here” is not a proper reply…I want the drink I ordered not the drink you make here. On the other side of the coin if the guest is difficult then the bartender has only two roads, the fist is the most obvious. As my boss Joe Baum would say to me with a difficult guest, “Dale make this guy a friend, if you can’t no one can” after all, that is one of the skills he hired me for .. The ability to turn difficult people into friends and good customers. Second, after heroic effort if all fails then maybe your place is not the right place for that particular guest. BUT a bartender can’t follow suit and lose it with guests because a bartender is the proprietor of a public space …he sets the tone and a barman who continually loses his cool with difficult guests will create a space that is unfriendly. With training comes confidence in craft … and with confidence in craft comes skill with people… Dale

I am presently providing bar training to a large hotel group in the northeast. My main goal is to convince the senior management that a fresh juice cocktail program is not only possible but necessary if their bars are to reflect the excellence they achieve in the rest of their operation. During a recent seminar I tasted the bar and middle management staffs on three different alternatives for citrus juice; sour mix from the soda gun, frozen fresh squeezed juices available locally, and juice squeezed fresh on premise. The difference was so dramatic it is impossible to think that management would want anything but fresh squeezed. How To Make it Happen? Owners and managers must sit down and discuss the following points so everyone is on board. after the whole process is finished and in place regular pre-service meetings with bar, prep people purchasing people and management are absolutely necessary. Remember this is not just a little change it is the same as changing the whole menu in the kitchen and needs much planning and training. 1. Make the leap of faith and decide it must happen. 2. Meet with the Purchasing department, bartenders and barbacks, food and beverage controller, and the room managers to outline the program from beginning to end. 3. Purchase the proper fruit for juicing and for garnish. This will mean training the purchasing staff in some aspects of bar operation the same as they have been trained to respond to the chef’s needs. 4. Purchasing must store the fruit that will be used the following day at room temperature. Cold fruit is stingy and will cut the output almost in half and that is big money! 5. Next, step up the line is the barback or prep-person. They must be trained to recognize the proper fruit for juicing and for garnish. Improper usage can be very costly. The amounts they squeeze must be determined by the business on different days. Fresh juice can be used for three services: lunch, dinner and the following lunch, but only if it is constantly under refrigeration. After three services it must be dumped. 6. The bartenders cannot keep the juice on the speed rack it must be refrigerated. The lunch bartender should use the juice from the night before and then dispose of it after lunch. The new batch should be delivered after lunch to avoid mixing. Lunch usage will be low in most cases anyway. 7. Finally and the most important aspect of the program is training the bartenders in the recipes with fresh juice. This will mean how to use and prepare simple syrup. I recommend simple syrup at 50 brix (half sugar and half water), that is prepared cold. Even at the Rainbow Room, as busy as we were, we never used more then three or four litters per bar per night. We could prepare another liter in the bottle in four minutes if we Ran out during service. Fill the bottle half way with sugar and then to the top with water. Cork the bottle, turn it upside down and shake until the sugar is dissolved. After a few minutes if there is some sediment of sugar give it another quick shake and it is ready for immediate use no cooking or cooling. 8. With recipe comes costing, of course the food and beverage controller will have to cost out the recipe, a fresh juice program will affect the price of the drink. The recipes must be completely costed out …and don’t forget the garnish. If a creative bartender decides to use a vanilla bean as a garnish, your cost for that drink just jumped $1.50! 9. Finally the proportions; sour drinks made fresh are difficult. The lemon and lime juice is so concentrated compared to sour mix most bartenders are prone to overuse it. USE THIS FORMULA it will work for all your sour drinks: 3/4 part sour 1 part sweet 1 1/2 to 2 parts strong For example for a Margarita the recipe would be; ¾ ounces lime juice 1 ounce Triple sec or Cointreau 2 ounces tequila That formula will please 95% of your customers and for the rest add a squeeze of lime or a splash of simple syrup to their taste. The culinary world is exploding with innovations in recipe, ingredient, technique, The bar has to follow suit. Dale

Dear Varmint, First, I love your little animation! As for your transparent attempt to appeal to my ego and shame me with your final phrase “are you up to the task” … it has absolutely worked. I will begin working on the recipe and will post it sometime between now and the 24 under your name. Cheers

Hi nightscotsman, I do a lot of food and cocktail paring, and by the way it is an old tradition, we have all been doing it for years in Mexican restaurants. Please see my reply to Rosie for a in depth look at my cocktail and food pairings. Dale

Hi Rosie, I think the best way to address this question is to show the work I did on a recent cocktail dinner. I started the tradition of cocktail dinners at the Rainbow Room several years ago and I did one a year sometimes inviting guest chefs. I have done a few of these dinners at a fine dining restaurant in New Brunswick, New Jesrey called Stage Left Restaurant with great success…the following are working notes from the last of those dinners, NOTE, the cocktail recipes are at the end. MENU CANAPES- Chef’s Selection Served with Dale’s Champagne Cobbler FIRST COURSE SEAFOOD-Choice of Oysters or Atlantic Salmon Served with an Icy Gin Gimlet Straight up (Dale’s way) made with Hendricks Gin, Roses and fresh lime and European cucumber. CHEF’S FOIE GRAS-Served with Dale’s Millennium Cocktail MAIN COURSE- choice of Thyme Roasted Rabbit Loin served with Dale’s Old Flame Cocktail OR Veal Loin with Sweetbread Ravioli served with Dale’s Merengue OR Caramelized New England Diver Scallops served with the Pegu Cocktail (created at the Pegu Club in Burma when the sun never set on the British Empire) DESSERT-Francis…I didn’t receive a menu of desserts but I would like to do my Barcelona which I created for the Olympics in Barcelona and served at the Rainbow Room. RECIPES 1. CHAMPAGNE COBBLER 4 oz Champagne 3/4 oz. Maraschino Liqueur 2 Orange Wedges 2 chunks fresh pineapple (3/4" squares) 2 lemon wedges Muddle the fruit and liqueur in the bottom of a bar glass. Add ice and Champagne. Stir gently and strain into a Champagne Flute. Garnish with an orange peel. 2. GIMLET (Oysters or Salmon) 2 ½ ounces Gin ¾ ounces Falernum 2 lime wedges 2 cucumber slices Muddle lime wedges and the cucumber with the falernumin a mixing glass. Add the gin and the ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with lime wedge and a cucumber slice. 3. MILLENNIUM COCKTAIL* (Foie Gras) 1 ½ ounces Courvoisier Millennium Cognac 1 ½ ounce pineapple juice 1 ounce orange curacao 1 dash Angostura Bitters grated nutmeg Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a twist of orange and dust with nutmeg. 4. OLD FLAME* (Rabbit) Winner of Best Fancy Cocktail at the Bacardi Martini Grand Prix 2001, in Malaga, Spain. 1 ounce gin ½ ounce Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth ¼ ounce Campari 1 ounce fresh orange juice 1 ounce Cointreau orange zest In a mixer filled with ice add all the ingredients. Shake well; strain and serve in a double Chilled Martini glass. Garnish with a flamed orange zest. 5. MERENGUE* (Veal) 1 oz. Anejo Rum ½ oz. Orange Curacao ¼ oz. Maraschino Liqueur ¾ oz. fresh Lime Juice ¾ oz. Taylor Velvet Falernum 1 oz. Grapefruit Juice Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into an ice filled double old-fashioned glass. Garnish with lime. 6. BARCELONA* (Dessert) (Created this for the James Beard House during the Olympics held in Barcelona) 3/4 ounce Spanish Brandy 3/4 ounce Dry Sack Sherry 3/4 ounce Orange Juice 3/4 ounce heavy cream 1 ounce simple syrup float of Cointreau Freeze in the blender but not too thick. Serve in a London Dock or Sherry style glass. Float some Cointreau on top and garnish with a l

Hi Sandra, The Champagne Cocktail has a long pedigree, the recipe fist appeared in the 1862, first edition of Jerry Thomas’s How to Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant’s Companion with exactly the same recipe as we use today Champagne, sugar and Angostura Bitters. In Europe the recipe is altered with the addition of a splash of cognac, I prefer the original. As for champagne versus sparkling wine?… That is a call that ones finances may have more to do with than ones taste buds. I am impressed with the quality of the sparkling wines coming out of many countries today and would not be unhappy with a Champagne cocktail made with one of them. BUT none the less it is called the CHAMPAGNE cocktail and if you can swing I would definitely prefer the real McCoy. Here is my recipe: CHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL Champagne Angostura bitters soaked sugar cube Place the Angostura soaked sugar cube in the bottom of a champagne glass and fill the glass with champagne. Pour slowly to avoid spillage. This drink is sometimes garnished with a lemon peel. Variation: For a stronger drink, add a float of cognac or Grand Marnier. Dale

Hi Ben, Sure…the Sazerac Cocktail, it is a great American treasure and no one can make it! It is a multi-layered sophisticated sipping cocktail that uses great American whiskey and another classic American product Peychauds Bitters and should be part of every young bartenders training just like Hollandaise sauce is part of every young chef’s training. On the heals of that would be the Ramos Fizz and fresh sour drinks. SAZERAC This drink is based on a bitters created by Antoine Amedee Peychaud, who made a cognac cocktail by mixing his bitters with cognac The most popular cognac for many years in New Orleans was Sazerac de Forge et Fils. In 1859 John Schiller officially christened the Sazerac Cocktail in his newly opened bar; the Sazerac Coffee House. When Schiller’s employee John H. Handy took over the bar, he altered the famous drink and used whiskey instead of cognac. I suspect that the growing popularity of whiskey was due in part to it being cheap and readily available. It was shipped by barge down the Mississippi until there was a glut of cheap whiskey in New Orleans. I have my own twist on the Sazerac, a mix of Cognac and Bourbon. 2 Dashes Peychauds Bitters 2 Dashes Angostura Bitters 1 oz. Rye Whiskey 1 oz. VS Cognac Splash of Ricard or Herbsaint ½ oz. Simple Syrup Take two rock glasses, chill one while preparing the drink in the other. Splash the Ricard into the second glass and swirl it, then pour it out. Add the cognac, rye, syrup, and the two kinds of bitters. Stir with ice cubes to chill. Strain into the chilled rocks glass and garnish with a lemon peel. Dale

Hi Southern Girl, Let me start by quoting from an earlier reply to a question… “but my ambition is inspire a widespread return to fresh fruit and fresh ingredient cocktails, then I will turn to the exotics. I am pleased to see an operation return to fresh lemon and lime juice and sorry that so few have, especially some of our first class hotels and hotel chains that prior to prohibition were the home of the classic American Iced cocktail. The fact that I cannot get a fresh soul drink in the King Cole Bar of the St Regis o the beautiful bar at the Marriott Marquis is shocking.” I haven’t worked in a bar with commercial sour mix or a soda gun in 15 years … Here is to the return of the classic bar service of the golden age… Dale

Hi Quajolote, Here is my recipe for the Pisco Sour: PISCO SOUR Pisco is a very unusual tasting grape brandy made from the Muscat grape in Peru and Chile. The Pisco sour is the leading cocktail in both countries and like the bloody Mary in this country everyone thinks their recipe is the best, including me… 1 ½ oz. Pisco ¾ oz. Fresh Lemon 1 oz. Simple Syrup Several drops of Angostura Bitters One Small Egg White Shake all ingredients very hard with ice to completely emulsify the egg white and strain into a London dock (port ) glass. Garnish with several drops of Angostura Bitters on top of the foam. I know there are many very good brands of Pisco in Peru and Chile, I found one from Chile called Aba that I particularly like. I make several versions of the Caipirinha as well with cachaca from Brazil, here are a couple fun recipes: CAIPIRINHA 2 oz. Cachaça ¾ oz. Brown Sugar Syrup or tsp. of Brown Sugar ½ Lime quartered. Place lime quarters in the bottom of mixing glass, add the syrup and muddle extracting the juice and the oil in the skin from the lime quarters. Chill a rocks glass with cracked ice. Add Cachaça to the mixture in the mixing glass and dump the ice into the mixing glass and shake well. Pour the entire contents of the mixing glass back into the chilled rocks glass and serve. CAIPIROSCA A vodka version of the Brazilian Classic Caipirinha 2 oz. Vodka ¾ oz. Brown Sugar Syrup or tsp. of Brown Sugar Half a Lime quartered. Place lime quarters in the bottom of mixing glass, add the syrup and muddle extracting the juice and the oil in the skin from the lime quarters. Fill a rock glass 3/4 full of cracked ice and pour it over to the mixing glass along with the vodka. Shake well and pour entire contents back into the rocks glass and serve. CAIPIRUVA or CAIPIRINHA DE UVA 2 oz. Cachaça ¾ oz. Brown Sugar Syrup or tsp. of Brown Sugar ½ Lime quartered. 4 Seedless Green Grapes Place lime quarters and grapes in the bottom of a mixing glass, add the syrup and muddle extracting the juice and the oil in the skin from the lime quarters. Chill a rock glass with cracked ice. Add Cachaça to the mixture in the mixing glass and dump the ice into the mixing glass and shake well. Pour the entire contents of the mixing glass back into the chilled rocks glass and serve. Note: During cherry season use pitted cherries instead of grapes for a dramatic and good tasting take-off on the Caipirinha. CAIPIRISSIMA A Caipirinha made with regular rum. CAIPIRINHA, CHERRY 2 oz. Cachaça ¾ oz. Brown Sugar Syrup or tsp. of Brown Sugar ½ Lime quartered. 4 Pitted sour or sweet cherries Place lime quarters and cherries in the bottom of a mixing glass, add the syrup and muddle extracting the juice and the oil in the skin from the lime quarters. Chill a rock glass with cracked ice. Add Cachaça to the mixture in the mixing glass and dump the ice into the mixing glass and shake well. Pour the entire contents of the mixing glass back into the chilled rocks glass and serve. Dale

Hi Awbrig, Yikes!! In a word. I watched Julia child for years and on many occasions she saw fit to prepare herself a pre-prandial cocktail. Julia is the best example of a long list of well-known chefs who mark the beginning of the dining experience with a well made cocktail. Part of what leads to the attitude you describe is culinary snobbery and the other part is the decline of the well made cocktail. One of the biggest problems is the ridiculous trend towards huge cocktail glasses that started with the steak house crowd. The cocktail was meant to be finished in 12 to 15 icy cold sips and then followed by another well made icy delight. That is not possible with the battleships we call glasses these days. Two of those martinis and dinner becomes a faint hope…making to the next room upright is the immediate concern! Dale