Tasting notes

I managed to make a few mocktails on Friday. They are not time consuming to make. What is time consuming is the shopping to get to make them.

Green herb shrub - is really good, like an herby lemonade. There is no lemon in it, just vinegar and fresh herbs. Cardamom gives a perfume note. Green peppercorn a little bite. Coriander gives the lemony note.

Umami bomb - made us discover black garlic, which is interestingly sweet, like a date, but still garlicky. So weird. Well it turns out that black garlic, beet juice and concord grape, are pretty earthy and kind of hard to drink. There is also a bit of soy sauce in there…

Breakfast stout - I had to settle for some substitutions because I could not find black barley, but I have regular barley. For the hops, I used the ones I already owned, not the Golding. The rest I found on Amazon. The result is pretty close to a beer, with bitterness and some sweetness that makes it taste creamy.

Olive oil - is a re-do, very good. It does contains a little olive oil, not a lot. Go past the name and the taste is just fresh herb, mint, lemongrass. There is tarragon and lemon peel, giving both liquorice and lemon notes. I wonder what the drink would be like without the olive oil. I really like the flavors.

Chicha morada - is delicious, balanced, refreshing. I could not find purple corn, so I just used fresh corn. It gets simmered with cinnamon, cloves and toasted coconut, which I all taste. The corn flavor is not very strong. However, I did not get the beautiful purple color that is shown in the book’s picture. But the drink is very good.

$5 shake - so very good, I discovered that I love Tonka bean. The saffron gave a nice yellow color and flavor. The tonka bean flavor is close to vanilla. The other strong flavor is sassafras, so close to root beer. We loved it.

Tzatziki - is a redo. Delicious and refreshing. Mint is a dominant note, so is cucumber. The yogurt adds to the mouthfeel. Honey, cardamom and lime zest are present as well.

Like a marathon

Cooking an entire cookbook is like a marathon, it gets harder towards the end. I only have a few more recipes to do to finish, and I am both impatient and sad. INevertheless, since I have made notes along the way, I know which mocktails to re-do, or at least which are my favorites. I know this book well!

So we tasted a few new creations:

Strawberry tomato - very nice strawberry candy flavor, nothing crazy, very subtle. The tomato comes through also, but only if you are told it is in there. It is clarified using the curdled milk method, which works so well and is all natural.

Peach shrub - has an acidic bite which is to be expected. The peach flavor was very light, but I did not have peach tea, so I just used rooibos. A lot of the teas in the book come from a small supplier in Chicago, and can not be found elsewhere. But for this drink, the peach tea was missing.

Blueberry pancake - which I will not make again. It has browned butter which floats to the top. The blueberry juice made with the juicer is very thick and does not blend well. I did not look for blueberry juice online but you can, that would be a better choice.

It’s been a while, still cooking Zero

It has been so long, I don’t even remember when I stopped blogging. I just kept on cooking and found chances to make mocktails here and there, early in the mornings and it is still so much fun. I love the precision in this book and the flavor combinations that they came up with. Also, learning the filtering techniques.

Grapefruit Jicama Champagne - which is a re-do, so good!!! The grapefruit is there but not dominant, the jicama juice is slightly astringent and gives a great backbone to the drink. Very nice!

Truffled cherry - not my favorite. It was good, of course, these all are good. I would say maybe it’s my fault, maybe I did not make it right, but this is such a simple drink, I don’t know where I could have messed up.

Grapefruit turmeric shrub - I thought it was vinegary. I am not sure it was worth getting the fresh turmeric root or sugar cane vinegar.

Banana chai - ok, so I do not have access to the rare tea cellar wild banana chai tea. So I just used Chai tea. Since there are already 5 roasted bananas going in the drink, I figure we will be all bananaed out. I loved the milk filtration on this drink, it works so well. I did leave it in the fridge for 2 days, and all the solids were floating in a raft, very easy to remove and then use the curds to filter the already very clear liquid. This resulting liquid needs to be sweetened, which I forgot to do, I just realized… So I will have to do this one again and scratch my tasting notes, which said “too watery”.

Cardamom port - delivers a dark rich flavor, in which the most intriguing is the guajillo chiles and sun dried tomatoes. Don’t laugh, it really works well. I did not have red cardamom pods, so I used the black ones. I think it tastes great. The chilies leave a long lasting finish in the mouth. Simple, complex, tasty!

Room for dessert - was liked by all. The chocolate and coffee flavors come forward, from coffee bean and chicory, as well a homemade white chocolate syrup. I bought a really good blood orange puree on Amazon. And this coffee orange white chocolate concoction turned out really well.

Rose champagne - well we must like champagne, because this was a hit. I can’t find the Rare tea cellar wild red rose tea, and I don’t really want to use rose water, which is is my source for rose petals, because it is so strong. I defaulted to using rosehip, not the same but close. Adding yeast to the mixture is genius, it really gives this drink a yeasty bready flavor. Filtering it with beer fining agents really works well too. 10 out of 10

Sun dried - I had dried figs, but not black mission figs. The drink turned out great just a bit lighter in color. I love the use of spices in these drinks, specially now that I bought them all… and I can just go and grab what I need. I am giggling a bit that this recipes calls for a special southern ingredient : Dr Pepper. That’s exotic!

Spiced blueberry shrub - ok, so I am going to go out there and say it, i don’t like shrubs. Too acidy for me, the flavor is fine but I can’t judge this. I used smoked tea instead of the rare cellar black canadian smoked ice wine tea, which I can’t find. Blueberry juice came from the juicer. Plan a four hour cook time in sous vide to flavor the vinegars. Not for me.

Lychee champagne - delicious like an Asian fruit punch, sparkly, perfect to do as a grapefruit mimosa with a little grapefruit juice added like on page 48. The best way to juice lychees is with the masticating juicer.

Zero - a few more mocktails

I have been busy preparing more mocktails before the busy season rolls in, which is next week.

Me & You - is a delicious blend of miso stock, honey, concord grape, verjus rouge and yuzu. All the ingredients are in balance. When I told my staff it was made with miso, they started judging. I should have left to that. It is a delicious drink with a strange side of savoriness.

IPA - I will not re-do. The yield was so low. The nose detects hops and it smells like beer. But then it tastes sweet. Too much added sugar in this one. It could pass for beer without the sugar, but I am not sure who added sugar in the recipe, it is not a good idea.

Rhubarb, thyme, juniper - was lovely to drink. Some people did not like the thyme juniper combination. The nose is intense, from the juniper and rhubarb, lemon zest, spices. It is a very simple drink, considering some of the beverages her, and the main flavors come through.

We loved the Grapefruit Jicama Champagne - very subtle and easy to drink, it was flavorful and went down super easy, making you want more. I would re-do.

Zero - I am back

The ski trip was awesome, getting back to work a bit more difficult… Then we had family over for the Easter weekend, and now of course I am back at it.

I managed to do a few cocktails and have a tasting for 3 of them:

Salted caramel cherry - the flavors are light, not in your face but delicious. Despite there only being a small amount of cherry juice, 11 grams, it can be tasted. The dominant note is that of the caramel tea. The tamarind provides the backbone of the drink. It is like a salted caramel candy.

Lovely Bunch - is made with roasted banana peel and it is the main flavor of the drink. I tried the dehydrated orange with curry ahead of serving and loved it, so I used it as a garnish on the drinks. They all were eaten except for one. The beverage is mostly about roasted banana, but it is not so strong that it turns you off with a lot of banana. It is subtle and drinks well!

Mole - tastes rich and dark, and chocolatey. Super nice, I will re-do this one. It is very easy to do, just a saucepan required. I did not put it through the food processor to chop up the solids like the recipe call for. It might have even more flavor if you do.

Zero - still cooking

A few more cocktails before going skiing again.

Green Papaya Salad - super nice, refreshing, the papaya is obvious, the peanut butter and horseradish are present but not too strong. Shaken with egg white, it looks like a whiskey sour but the healthy version. We really liked it.

Self-carbonating cinnamon passionfruit fizz, the name is a mouthful, the drink is awesome. The cinnamon really shines. The fizzing is super fun to watch, and it stays fizzy for a long time. This too could be a soda. We could sell this.

Like Chris said: “We like this section of the book!”

Snap Pea - very green, very healthy, maybe even good for you! The snap peas are obvious on the nose, even though just a little amount is used. But it drinks just like a soda. The peach is a great addition to sweeten and fruit this up. A good amount of Seedlip garden 108 lightens this up and keeps the color a beautiful light shade of green. Delicious.

Zero - non-alcoholic beverages

I forgot to blog the past couple of days, but man did we have some enjoyable beverages.

Celery serrano is the drink from the front cover, it features a special ice cube, always exciting! Juicing the celery was difficult, next time, I will cut it into small 3/4 inch pieces, because the long strands of fiber were hard to clean from the juicer. Ginger syrup is obtained with the juicer too. I used a masticating juicer and it did great. Mixed with a little sugar this ginger juice becomes so delicious. The cube is made with green bell pepper juice, so might as well keep juicing. The next thing that gets juiced is serrano peppers. Go easy, these are spicy!

It gets fizzed up. I was having doubts about the Perlini shaker, but no more. It performed like a champ! You do have to use a lot of ice, then go by the recipe to add a small batch of 1-2 cocktails in the shaker. I cheated and used some of the serrano ice cubes as my chilling ice. It worked swimmingly.

The ginger and serrano both give this a bite. It is very good, the celery is tasty but not overwhelming.

Instant Oatmeal combines a mixture of toasted oatmeal steeped in red verjus, malted soda, fake spirit seedlip 94, sweetners and bitters. I made my own chocolate bitters by roasting cocoa nibs and soaking them. The recipe calls for 3 grams which is a 1/4 teaspoon, so I figured I could produce bitter chocolate flavor myself. It did come through in the tasting. It does taste like oatmeal, which it should since I roasted about 2 cups. Overall it was judged as ok, nice and smooth.

Watermelon Ginger Tonic was awesome, re-do, very good! Like a really good watermelon soda. There is ginger syrup in it, again, delicious. After juicing all these fibrous vegetables, juicing watermelon was a cinch. Both the grape juice and turmeric were not obvious for tasters to guess. I had to order the crodino through amazon. However, on page 131 there is a recipe for bitter aperitif that could pass for a copy of crodino, just it is red…but tastes similar. Anyway, I would make the crodino next time.

Americano was right on! It is very Italian, to me it tastes just like the tiny bottles of red non-alcoholic san bitter that I get when I travel to Italy. To my friend Chris it tasted just like an Americano without the alcohol. Very nice all around.

Summer Summer might be one of my favorites. I think I am partial to kaffir lime leaf, it smells like lime but more complex, nearly like curry leaves. Plus this has lemongrass in it, which I also love. It is infused cold, overnight, and still gets so much flavor, like a cold steeped tea. Lime peel and lemon peel are added, and they provide a bitter/astringent background.

Time to make another exciting cube! Watermelon lavender ice cube. I mean, Summer, anyone?

The kaffir lemon grass tea is mixed with verjus blanc and Seedlip 108 fake spirit before getting fizzed up in the Perlini. It worked so well! We are de-doing this one for sure.

Pretzel - surprisingly smells and tastes really close to a pretzel. I find it delicious, there is complexity, hints of chocolate, from the cocoa nibs, cherry juice and the reduced malt soda. You can taste the outside crust of the bretzel, there is a sweetness redolent of the starchy inside, there is even a hint of salt. Wow, it is right on.

Pechuga, I did the simplified version with already made chicken stock. I also could not find the ice wine tea, so I use a half and half combo of smoked tea and passion fruit tea, not the same but as close as I can get. I thought that it was good but tasted a bit sweet.

Surprisingly, if you don’t tell people what’s in it, they like it.

Bramblin Man - blackberries, pomegranate juice, root beer - equals a taste close to red wine! Bingo. Pretty amazing. The root beer did come through a bit too much to be wine and it was still a little sweet. We tasted Proxies Midnight non-alcoholic wine side by side and it is very similar but less sweet. But as a cocktail the Bramblin Man can continue rambling!

Zero - mum’s the word, Thai fighter, smoked strawberry old fashioned

Mum’s the Word is made with chrysanthemum tea, star anise, fig, watermelon juice, lime zest. It is a redo, delicious and refreshing with flowery notes.

Thai fighter probably gets it’s name from the spicy bite from the Thai chili. My favorite is the kaffir lime leaves which really give it a wonderful flavor. Lemongrass, coriander, and somehow sesame seeds made it even more Thai. Fresh pineapple juice, lime juice and grapefruit juice make it perfect. We would like to have it while sitting on the beach. It’s high fragrant notes “cologne smell” are delicious.

Smoked strawberry old fashioned was not liked by all, but I did like it. The smokiness comes from making a lapsang souchong tea. A little mint tea to go with the homemade strawberry syrup, and a good amount of the favorite Seedlip spice 94. This English distillate of botanicals is very fragrant and of course alcohol free.

Thai peanut sauce was not very good. I will not make it again.

Zero - from BBQ to Chocolate guava

A lot of cocktails were made over the week end, this is the tasting of some of them.

My tasters left the building, so I am waiting until tomorrow to continue. Are we experiencing tasting fatigue? Anyway, this is what I could get them to drink today.

BBQ is a smoky (smoked chipotles) and strawberry juice mix that turned out surprising and refreshing. The strawberries are forward and the smokiness subtle. It is a very nice combination that I would do again in the summer.

Bubblegum is a staff favorite. It was requested sparkling and everyone loved it both ways. The bubblegum stock is done sous vide, I would not do it otherwise. Passionfruit tea is lovely and provides a nice light flavor. Olea saccharum was easy to make, it is expensive to buy, so make your own.

Juniper raisin - a lot of raisin flavor, balanced with the juniper that is not too strong. It was good, a bit weird, and could probably benefit from a shot of bourbon…

Golden glow - with yellow tomatoes and yellow bell pepper juices, ended up too vegetably, like V8. Passionfruit, coconut, aloe vera give it a nice sweetness. The red miso paste never really diluted in the drink, despite mixing and waiting and mixing again.

New Millenium is a yes, redo! Nice and fruity with refreshing lemon flavor, both nectarines and white grape flavors come forward. Once again, the flavored ice cube comes through as a favorite.

Roasted sweet potato is sweet as dessert, which would be great for thanksgiving.

Sparkling white chocolate and guava consomme is very delicious. The first one that tasters said they would gladly pay for as a cocktail. I guess that makes it a favorite. It could easily sell as a packaged soft drink.

More tomorrow…

Zero - a few of the cocktails

I started by not blogging, but I am glad I did. I will be able to recall which cocktails to make again, what changes I thought of, the reaction of my guests, and so on. I don’t journal or anything else, except for this.

Korean spicy margarita - with homemade ginger syrup, gochujang syrup and barley stock. Boy, am I glad I got a big bag of barley at the beginning of this project! However, it seems not all barley is created equal, since mine retained more water and I had to add some back in to get the required amount for the recipe. Mandarin puree was a bit of a challenge to make, I ended up using the food processor. The juicer would have given me juice only, and the food mill did not process the mandarin segments at all.

The ginger syrup is so worth doing, absolutely delicious. The rim chili powder mix is the bomb too.

I substituted agave for the maguey sweet sap.

The red yuzu kosho is a spicy red paste. This recipe uses about 1 teaspoon. It is fine but I would substitute in the future with a dash of sriracha or hot sauce. Of course, I now have a jar of the yuzu kosho, so I might as well use it…

The comments on the tasting were: “this is more like a sauce”, “spicy”. I thought it was good, the sweet spicy was enjoyable.

Also achieved today: Down to Earth.

So weird: mushroom juice, jicama juice, celery root juice, sugar, acid, salt. With a pretty orange peel on the side. It was earthy, like dirt. It smelled earthy, it tasted funky, mushroom, celery.

I don’t know that I would redo.

And: Paprika milk punch.

Do ahead: clarified milk punch needs to sit for 24 / 48 hours to settle. It is made with orange juice, red bell pepper juice, smoked paprika, citric acid and curdled milk. Very cool. Reminds me of a Swiss soda drink called Rivella, made with milk, but it’s clear like lemonade.

This was not a favorite. “Tastes like a soup” The red bell pepper flavor is forward.

To finish: Return of the Mac

A simple mixture of juices, like a punch, poured over spices and leaves.

Everyone loved it. The main flavor is apple. We went low budget and did not purchase a porthole, my wife is happy, and instead used the reliable kitchen quart container for the infusing. It does change color with time.

So, that’s 4 in one day, a personal best. However, I still need to do my day job, so off I am.

Zero - cooking the book

As I now have recovered from returning from vacation, I was able to produce three cocktails over the past couple of days.

A lot of the recipes require shopping: green tomatoes, plum, verjus, red yuzu… not everything is easy to find, believe me.

And the cook times can be long, 2 hours for the plum verjus.

The liquids also benefit from sitting and clarifying naturally, with the sediment floating to the bottom of the container.

So we tasted Salad, which was very good. The little marinated tomato added a lot of good smells while drinking the cocktail. It was a little sweeter than expected, as there a roasted walnut syrup added to the green tomato juice and verjus. I would say it would go well with a salad. I didn’t think it tasted like salad though.

The second one that was accomplished over 2 days is Sparkling plum sour. It requires a sous vide 2 hour cook time for the plum verjus, but it is really worth it. Mixed with the spicy falernum (a new word for me), lemon juice and carbonated lightly, it is delicious. But the best part might be the Fruitcake ice cubes that you can eat. Obviously these need to be made the day before so they can freeze.

So lots of planning ahead helps get the recipes done.

Zero - What Would Honeydew

I mean super delicious, really, everybody agreed. This cocktail is the bomb.

Yes, I am back from my ski trip and fully recovered from gliding down mountains. So obviously, I am back at it.

Thanks to my absence, Amazon was able to deliver more ingredients needed for the next few cocktails.

This one is made of aloe vera juice, lime cucumber juice, verjus, sugar and a smidge of smoked salt. I was dubious at first of the orange blossom water addition, but it really adds a lovely high note. It smells wonderful.

I wish I had an ice cube tray with small rounds balls like they show in the book, it would be fun to crunch on the honeydew ice cubes. Instead I chewed down my big cube, delicious.

Just lovely, totally recommended.

Zero - Shake your tamarind

I am so excited about going skiing next week, I can hardly work. It’s weird, it kind of stresses me out on the last couple of days of work. I have to get it all done, plan for my absence and at the same time I am so ready to leave for my trip to Colorado.

I love my job but I think I like skiing even more!

Today I also bought tickets to the Lake Street Dive concert in October in Raleigh, we have a whole group going. We are going to eat at Jake’s new place of work Brewery Bhavana. Can’t wait! My wife Emmy is going, and Brandy, Jake, their better halves and

Ok, so as I go through the book I have to keep up with the shopping, and I dropped the ball and can’t make the next recipe yet “what would honeydew” but I am very excited since I will find out more about clarifying liquids. I had to buy fining agents and Pectinex ultra.

The next recipe “Salad”, calls for fresh green tomatoes. As these will be in my garden in June, I will get back to it later this year. Cooking this book is going to take me a while.

I already know which book I want to cook after this one. It’s called “happy in the kitchen” by Michel Richard, it is challenging, but the recipes are just beautiful.

Moving on to the subject of the day, our mocktail a la Aviary, “Shake your tamarind”. Super easy to accomplish, a quick tea of coriander and super light cinnamon, a little tamarind and a quick 20 minutes steep. Homemade pineapple juice thanks to the masticating juicer. Seedlip 108 which is a premade cocktail base. And kalamansi puree for the bright yellow color. The extra citric acid in there adds a zing.

For the maguey syrup, if you feel like buying a gallon, it’s available, but I just used Agave syrup.

It’s one of the better ones we have tasted, maybe in the top 3 so far. I am about to serve it to my cooking class guests, we will get some real world feedback. They don’t have to say anything, I will be able to tell by what’s left in their glasses… the true test.

I think that if I went to the Aviary as a non drinker and experienced the cocktail there, I would be under the spell of the place and maybe primed to enjoy more easily, expecting exceptional and strange flavors.

When you show up at my cooking class and get a free mocktail, it is about your last thought.

Which place is best to measure true enjoyment? A catering kitchen or a fancy cocktail bar?

I think it is best to stay humble and of service, offer the damn thing and see what happens. Reporting later.

Well, it was very well received, they really liked it and drank it all, fairly quickly too. I would say that is a great result.

Zero - Cereal Killer

Today kicked my butt. I am glad I get to sit down after a good day of cooking.

I didn’t think I was going to be able to produce another recipe but here we are with the first recipe of chapter 3. I am very excited.

All the recipes are really easy to make. The first of 3 parts was blackberry syrup with fresh blackberries. Very nice on it’s own. I used a small food mill to puree the blackberries, it is way easier than through a strainer.

Next I had to toast barley with cinnamon bark and allspice. It smelled really good. Then you add water, boil and make it steep for 1 hour. The yield was less than what the recipe required. I needed 475gr of juice, I got 390 only. I just went with it.

The rest of the recipe uses some strange ingredients such as carob syrup - I don’t know that I would invest in this again, it’s fine, hopefully I get to use it in another recipe, it is a flavorful sweetener. And a premade Seedlip alcohol free cocktail base, which seems a little strange to me since everything else in the book is so intensely home-made.

Tasting, I told all the staff not to hold back on their opinions, after all I am just trying to replicate faithfully. Anyway, this turned out to be a medium welcome. I liked it, it is fruity, not super spicy, nearly like a red wine, nearly. I made big ice cubes, which was nice for the tasting. Not everyone liked it though. Too much cinnamon came up a couple times.

We are not trying to be picky but we are open with each other. If it doesn’t taste or look good, someone is going to let you know.

Bubbles, finally

We tasted Grapefruit mimosa, p48, Death in the afternoon p56, and French 75, p57. Super fun tasting, we liked them all!!

The bubbles were achieved with a simple Soda Stream machine.

The gin in the French 75 is a bit much, like too many extracts/spices. The juniper shines. The other aromatics are over the top, I shall limit next time.

This turns out to be a very cocktail specific book. Each being it’s own creation.

Gin tonic was really nice and I would have it again, but maybe not as a French 75. I expected more juniper and lemon.

We are progressing, the page marker is in chapter 3!!!

Precision - a consideration

Well, I am Swiss, we have a love for precision. So does this book, which is something I love about it.

The Zero book is written in grams, forcing you to use a scale. However, do not fear, it is actually a lot easier to use a scale than it is not to use it. All my scales, even the cheap $11 one, have a tare function, which let’s you reset the weight to zero with each measurement. So you keep the same bowl on the scale and keep going.

The other thing us Swiss people like to measure is time. I have a collection of timers, which I use extensively. I even time 30 seconds for searing tuna, per side. I like the fact they give me the freedom to go about my other business while they time my cooking for me

Zero - making champagne

Ok, so I am a bit emotional. I just read our latest email about how my good friend, nephew and staff member Jake is moving up in the world. I am so glad we had him for the past 7 years and I know he is going to kick ass in his new job! The email from Meg was so sweet, she is a pearl!

Anyway, moving on to today’s post.

Focus is on the 2 events we have tonight, one for 150 the other for 60.

My dilletante project will come second, if I have time.

Today, champagne 2 ways. Okay, so the book is super precise in many ways, but then not.

In champagne, p195, the recipe calls for 140gr lychee puree. That’s it. So I figured I would try it 2 ways. One with lychee pureed in the food processor. And another using my new ly aquired centrifugal juicer. I procured canned lychees in syrup from my local Asian supermarket, drained and pureed one batch, juiced the other. The juiced gave me exactly the 70 grams I needed to prepare half a batch. I am splitting the recipe in 2, it is quite easy by using grams.

I did this yesterday, in order to be able to chill all the ingredients before carbonating.

Clarity - is covered in chapter one, but I am having trouble with it. Obviously, since I took this on… Seriously, the liquids are cloudy, the Gin is slightly brown, there is sediment settling in the bottom, pulp rising to the top. For champagne, I hope it comes out a little clearer. I am not sure yet what to do about filtration, I have used the finest mesh I own.

This afternoon, I will have a bunch of staff here, so we can taste the champagne cocktails.

We will be able to do the last 3 cocktails of chapter 2.

Cooking the book - Zero cookbook

2/20 Not so fast Buster! You ain’t done yet

I made the paloma last night for my class guests, they were happy, except one person did not drink it.

They got very interested in the project and we tasted Vermouth and Orange liqueur to great approval from all.

Now on Tuesday morning, I am using my staff as tasters, and progressing through the book with Bijou, p61, which tasted a little medicinal, maybe there are too many flavors in this one. 3 different syrups mixed together, that’s a lot of flavors.

We tried the gin as Gin and Tonic, very good.

We also tried the black Manhattan without the 2 dashes of angostura bitters and it was a lot better, there was too much bitterness yesterday.

Onto Negroni, which is the last cocktail in the second chapter, Classic cocktails. It is quite similar to what we tasted so far, the aftertaste is great, the initial sniff is very orangey with spices, it has bitterness and astringency but not too much. This was easy to drink.

And I am waiting for the ingredients for the next batch of cocktails, which are all special creations and don’t necessarily exist out of their book. I can’t wait to discover these flavors. And create my own.

Deliciousness: my home-made brandy, with orange liqueur and orange juice, was a hit. 2oz Brandy, 1 oz orange liqueur, 2 oz orange juice. Everyone liked it.

I thought I was done with chapter 2, but not so, I still have to make and fizz the champagne from page 194, and make 3 cocktail recipes. The mix for the champagne has to be well chilled to accept plenty of bubbles, so I am putting everything in the fridge for tomorrow.

The essential oils arrived today, so I made Absinthe. It is delicious, smells and tastes like the real thing.

For the cooking class tonight, I served my new Brandy cocktail with a splash of selzer water. It was well received, however one person did not touch it and another did not finish it. The flavors are strong and spicy, not for everyone.

Cooking the book - Zero

2/19 a couple tastes only

Monday Monday, it never fails, Monday is busy.

I was able to make Black Manhattan which turned out quite bitter, next time, I might not add the bitters. There is already spice and astringency in the whiskey.
We also tasted Amaro and coke, which everybody liked a lot.

We have a new staff member in training, I have to run and supervise him.

Cooking the book - Zero

This is a bit of a long post, as I have been writing this past week and did not know how to put in on a blog yet.

The project is to cook the entire Zero cookbook, all about non-alcoholic cocktails.

It is the first time I try something like this.

2/10 Unboxing

Just opening the book is an experience, it is beautifully presented in an outside sleeve that keeps it’s location available on the bookshelf.

The cover is washable and looks like it will hold up to kitchen use. It is embossed with a beautiful picture of a cocktail in a chiseled glass. It is beautiful and I am sure a lot of people are using the book as a coffee table book. The photography alone is worth it.

Just unboxing it was a pleasure, giving me a taste of the quality to be found inside.

The first pages are a must read, the instructions for the book are right there in ten pages max. A quick thirty minutes read and you have the base principles explained.

Right from the start, you are encouraged to explore and experiment for yourself.

2/11 Going deeper

As you start reading the recipes, you realize that you are going to have to go shopping. I have a big pantry, but not this extensive, especially the spice rack. It just ballooned up with ingredients I had never even heard of. Well, I have been a chef for 20 years and I read cookbooks for leisure, and honestly did not know some of this even existed.

But it all makes sense, if you are making whiskey,  use barley. If you are making gin, use juniper berries. Tequilla, use pineapple. And so on… The base has got to be there.

Flavors are achieved with a lot of spices, dried fruit, citrus peel. Be ready to raid Amazon for their ability to provide anything.

So, I placed my first order, and then another, and another. Some is equipment too, juicers, perlini shaker… Not too bad, thanks to the fact I own a sous vide setup and a kitchenful of equipment already.

2/12 The staff is  looking at me funny

So, I started getting some of the stuff delivered, a lot of stuff. The staff is questioning my sanity, I told them I was going to cook the whole book. They are all like ok, do your thing but why?

Ok, I am 58 and still want to continue learning and improving. Why not cook a book that does not include any food, at least I don’t have to go get rack of lamb or duck breast…

This is an investment, but it is not as much as it would with another book in which you have to provide meats, dairy and all these other costly items.

I feel like the spices I have bought can be used for other purposes and broaden my culinary vocabulary. By making broths / extracts from them I am learning how to use them, and I discover so much. Is it just justification or wishful thinking? Time will tell.

2/13 Production time

Ok, the stuff is here. Well, part of it. You know the drill, Amazon brings it, but not all at the same time. So some recipes are waiting for just one ingredient.

So, here I am doing partial prep. Missing Angelica root, darn. No Sugar cane syrup, bummer.

However, I am not going to be discouraged by such pettiness, and I prep for Gin, without glycerin because well, it’s not here yet. So we are in limbo. But wait, I can make both rums and orange liqueur. And the Tequila, thank god I am growing indoor mint at my house.

I have 2 scales, the oxo with a sous vide bag ready on it, the drug dealer scale ready for super small amounts. Yes, this is all in grams, thank you Grant!!! And thank you to all the team that created these recipes. Somehow, I can feel that each recipe started from a different person. The overall approach is similar, but the ingredients vary, and I can feel the touch of different chefs there.

You will need a lot of quart containers or even better, squeeze bottles. 32 ounce squeeze bottles, because the yield on these recipes is damn perfect. Your hear me, perfect, specially if prepared sous vide. I mean, this was meant to give you 4 cups, and it does. Wow.

2/14 Can we taste?

Exciting!! Our first cocktail, the Pavlova. Fakequila, grapefruit juice, simple syrup, lime juice. We are making it again, it was delicious.

But it’s also Valentine’s day and it is so busy.

I managed to produce a couple more of the base liquids today. The kitchen smells wonderful with all these spices and aromatics cooking.

Still ordering more from Amazon, and raiding my local grocery store. It is just steps away, so that makes life easy.

I am starting to question myself, but no way. Let’s continue.

2/15 giving it to the public

I got to use the new juicer today to make fresh pineapple juice. Use the masticating juicer…

Since I was able to make the bitter liqueur I served Jungle Bird to my cooking class clients. Seven out of eight liked it, which I guess is to be expected. The Campari bitters are bitter, after all.

2/16 hot cubes

Today, we had the margarita, which has a lot of character because of the smoky mezcal. The salt rim on the glass accentuates the flavors. Next time I am adding more lime juice, dilute the ice cubes with a little more water. The orange liqueur is a hit!

I made more of the tequila to try it as a margarita too.

Batch number 3 of Reto’s brandy came out pretty good, I think it is time to start creating my own  drinks but first I want to taste the recipes and figure out what flavors I like and how they all work together.

I also made the whiskey sour. Barley and popcorn were detectable, we tasted the roasted banana too. Maybe a touch too much spices. But that’s just me. I will try it differently next time.

2/17 Saturday is my fun day

The cinchona bark showed up late last night, so I can finish Vermouth and Orange bitters.

My pantry has grown considerably, so has my understanding of the recipes and ingredients. This is seriously awesome!

I had to simmer the cinchona bark by itself, which let me smell and taste it. I still after the aftertaste in my mouth, very much like tonic water.

As I progress through the book, I start to realize what I have bitten into. And it is more of a bear than I thought. First of all, I am a chef, not a bartender, so I don’t really know a lot of cocktails. Second, the ordering I have had to do is tremendous. The variety of ingredients used is like getting a second spice pantry.

And sweeteners pantry too, so many different sweetening agents: agave, cane syrup, and 2 more that are coming from Amazon. I am going to discover a lot about these too.

Ok so I am also making batch 4 of my Brandy recipe, because I think that’s what the book was written for, to allow us to make our own creations. I am pretty happy with it, it does a good side by side comparison.

Fruitiness:

Golden raisins 80gr

Dark raisins 80gr

Dried peaches 40 gr

Dried apricots 75 gr

Candied orange peel 20 gr

Astringency:

Japanese black tea 2gr

Dried orange peel 10 gr

Black peppercorn 4 gr

White peppercorn 2 gr

Aromatics:

Orange peel 25 gr – 1 orange

Lemon peel 18 gr – 1 lemon

Oak chips untoasted 25 gr

Vanilla bean 2 split

Dried porcini 20 gr crumbled

Color and depth of flavor too:

60 gr sugar

1500 gr water – it’s a lot but all these dried ingredients absorb

The recipe itself is simple:

Make caramel, dilute with water

Add all ingredients to vacuum bag and add caramel water

Sous vide at 195 for 1 hour

I am starting to feel like a perfumer combining aromas, a perfume that you can drink!

Oh no, now the trusted  immersion circulator died. It was well used, thank you for your services. On Amazon for a new one…

The drinks are delicious, in their own way. It is a little weird that everything is a little spicy, but that’s the way to get flavor in there. I am sticking with the recipes and cocktails as described in the book to have a baseline.

It would be valuable to do a side by side comparison with the real cocktails as they are presented here. Like the margarita with Mezcal. It is delicious and smoky, but I don’t have the ingredients to make the real thing.

2/18 Sunday is for reading recipes

Yes, I might be obsessed, working on this on a Sunday morning, but since I was waiting on ingredients and they are finally here, let’s do this.

Today Herbal Liqueur aka Chartreuse. It has mastic in it, not sure what it does, I tried it, it’s like unflavored chewing gum. Let’s see if it melts while simmering. It is my first time with mastic, is it okay to be excited?

Ah, how I miss my sous vide setup, I would be working on the next recipe already. Sous vide really makes the cooking process faster for these cocktails, as you can cook multiple at the same time.

And today I learn once again that I am supposed to read the recipes, like peel the ginger, or put a lid on the pot… When I made vermouth on for my first in pot recipe, the yield was low and I was surprised since all other recipes had all yielded a quart. Well I’ll be!  I forgot to cover the pot with a lid. It just makes so much more sense, to keep the steam in, with all the aromatics. After all we are making a form of perfume. From now on, lid on.

I also went through the next 15 recipes in the book to see if I needed to purchase ingredients. Well, the pantry is going to explode with new stuff on Tuesday as my biggest Amazon order to date will come in. I am starting to think about where I can store all this.

As I need an outlet for all these creations, my cooking class guests will be the guinea pigs. We have them nearly every night so that should take care of the over stock problem. Which is already partially addressed because nearly all the “fakohols” have been stored in the freezer. It’s a lot. They defrost in 24 hours, so if I plan the day before I will have a nice mocktail ready.

I just finished Chartreuse with a lid, and the yield is 4 cups!!! It works.

A word on cooling. We cool food doing as a living, it has to be done quickly, 6 hours or less to fridge temp. I prefer 4 or less. The first step is to cool to room temp, that might take a couple hours already, then chill to fridge temp or 40 degrees in the next 4 hours, that’s where I like to make it 2 hours by using our blast chiller. It is not a luxury for a caterer to have a blast chiller, but a necessity. At home, I would chill it flat, in a metal baking pan. Liquids don’t chill fast in plastic containers.

Amazon comes through once again with a Sunday delivery. Thanks for bringing in the goodies.

And the mastic recipe is definitely a sous vide only one, the gum is all over my pot and I am on the second boil trying to get it off. Boiling chewing gum should have been my cue. Even cleaning with isopropyl alcohol is not enough, I am on the second gunky sponge and this stuff is still in there.

Galangal – oh wow, I thought It was a substitute for ginger, but no sirree. It is so strong. I am tasting ingredients, spices and so on as I go, to discover these new flavors. Of which I have a full box now…

The Fernet is on the burner, I never thought there was so much mint in it, but yes, it does smell like it.

Fernet is finished, perfect yield, 4 cups once again! I kind of expect it now. But to get every recipe right on like this is mighty impressive.