Kelly Liken offers a Beauty of Beets fl ight that features The Big Beet Pucker, The Beet Machine and The Kicking Beet (from left to right).
When chefs and bartenders work together, great craft cocktails and spirit and food pairings result.
By Monica Kass Rogers hen Th e Drawing Room bartender Charles Joly fi nished
work early one recent Saturday night, he didn’t rush home; he hung out in the kitchen. “I worked the cold-
side for a couple of hours with my chef,” says Joly. “I love to learn the prep and see how everything goes together,” he confi des. On the fl ip side, Th e Drawing Room executive chef Nick Lacasse is excited about working with spirits, and delving into “the world of possibilities behind the bar.” Skills sharing and collaboration between the two lead to all sorts of synergies in the cocktail glass and in the business. “It gives us a stronger, more-unifi ed program overall,” says
Joly. “Continuity between food and beverage is much more streamlined when [chef and bartender] work together. Flavors
26 | MAY 2011
make more sense and pairings are easier to create.” Greater give- and-take also benefi ts day-to-day operations, staff morale and unity and ultimately the guest’s drinking and dining experience. Joly and Lacasse worked together on a technique for clarifying juiced rhubarb, creating a consommé of sorts, which was slated to have debuted in early spring debut. And during the fall and winter, they perfected a spiced quince compote for a cocktail that will be called “Foods Beginning with ‘Q.’ “ Th ey are hardly alone in stepping up the interaction
between the kitchen and the bar. Greater chef involvement, communication and collaboration with the bar and synergies between the two are on the rise. Th e change is having a positive ripple eff ect across the country, says Justin Large, chef at Big
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