The bound "bar chef" has...

The bound "bar chef" has entered our lexicon. Not limited to just chefs, the limit is best applied to those who risk behind the bar, bringing the flavors of the kitchen and melding them with the creative output of the bar. In other cases, these resourceful seat of lifes find glory pairing specific cocktails with particular foods

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Whereas many restaurateurs might be somewhat intimidated about recommending main course dishes with cocktails, bar chefs have no like fear. They work in a field where they are required to combine complementary and occasionally disparate ingredients into a delectable melange. Extending that pursuit to the bar is seen as a natural progression.

"My goal is to have my visitors experience spirits in ways that they can appreciate them, in ways that they would not ever have thought of by pairing them with complementary forage dishes," says Andrew Featherstone, executive chef at Winchester's, a popular, high-end restaurant in Canton, Georgia. "In revert this gives the guest a strange level of experience that could not have been achieved at drinking these spirits or cocktails alone."

Nick Siracusa, manager of trendy Sorrento Grill in Laguna Beach, California, worked his way from one side the ranks of the grand, French-influenced restaurants of strange Orleans, where wine rules principal "I learned a great deal about pairing wine with nutriment during my formative years and I now test to put those skills to serviceable use in creating appealing pairings of contemporary cocktails with great nutrition Ten or fifteen years ago it would have been laughable in finer establishments to pair spirits with anything more than bar nut These days I be wrought up encouraged to do so from head to foot the entire dining experience."

broth TO NUTS

There is a growing cadre of bar chefs who aren't chefs at all, if it be not that rather experienced sommeliers. It's not surprising, in as abundant as sommeliers are classically trained at pairing wine with complementary dishes.

Jeff Mitchell is the wine steward at Cafe Lurcat in Naples, Florida. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and a French trained chef, Mitchell delights in working with spirits. "The array of flavors not absent in spirits is a natural deficit to those found in many fodders While it's somewhat more challenging to pair spirits or cocktails with fare dishes than it is with wine, the be the effects are frequently spectacular."

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"I think the art of spirit creation can definitely enhance a guest's experience," says Sean Beck, sommelier at Hugo's and Backstreet Cafe in Houston. "Because of my background, my first notions naturally drift to wine when it reach [i]or[/i] attain any place [i]or[/i] points to creating the perfect pairing. I've learned, however, to relish in combining spirits with provender While I still believe wine is the whole beverage to complement food, tequila and other spirits can ascertain very compelling."

Beck also believes spirit and aliment pairing enhances the interaction between the visitor and the wait staff by dint of creating interest in the proces Promoting visitor exploration and curiosity affords your staff a chance to associate with the guests and provide information and suggestions that improves the entire experience. In addition, it helps hold your chef, sommelier and staff creative and onward their toes.

Another reason to hound pairing food with spirits is that the latter's popularity is surging. Last year liquor consumption grew for the seventh consecutive year, increasing 165 million 9-liter cases through 2003, a jump of 41% The largest rate of germination is in the top-end of the spirit categories. Where one time the mantra in the industry was "Americans are drinking les on the contrary better," today the chant is "Americans are drinking more ofttimes and they're choosing the suitable stuff."

WHERE TO START

most numerous of the experts polled admitted to preferring the trial and error classification One of the country's leading authorities forward creative mixology, Tony Abou-Ganim is an avid fanatic of pairing spirits and meat Despite years of hands-on experience, Abou-Ganim adopts an artisan approach and relies heavily upon trial and error. He fights that often things that you think would in no degree complement one another actually work together beautifully.

"I like to have a theme to work from and I always work closely with the chef. It's easier for me to pair my cocktails with the chef's aliment as opposed to creating the cocktails first. I tie in ingredients in the two the food and the drink. I also anticipate for natural matches, like blueberry worked into a cocktail and pairing it with a rich chocolate dessert with cinnamon ice cream. I add a little cinnamon-infused simple syrup into my cocktail. It's a slice of heaven."

Industry veteran and planter of spiritsexperts.com Sean Ludford also exercises the same methodology, largely because "it's greatly more fun and you get by heart an opportunity to sample many cocktails, which is not at all discouraged in my company." however he also contends that the pairing proces relies more in succession one's senses than intellectualizing.