Archive for the ‘Interviews’ Category

Note: If the following has you hankering for a taste, see my May 10 post featuring 3 recipes from Booze Cakes (includes Top-Shelf Margarita Cheesecake, Strawberry Daiquiri Shortcakes and Chocolate Lava Cake).

I recently had a fantastic time reading through Booze Cakes: Confections Spiked with Spirits, Wine, and Beer, a recently released cookbook by Krystina Castella and Terry Lee Stone.

I recently had a short chat with Terry Lee Stone, one half of the writing team behind Booze Cakes.

Booze Cakes: Confections Spiked with Spirits, Wine, and Beer

KENNEDY: Why this book? Why desserts spiked with booze?

TERRY: It’s fun! Baking is fun. Drinking is fun. Combining the two is even better. But seriously, adding booze makes cakes taste amazing. It is a great alternative flavoring to plain old vanilla. Plus there are so many options – wine, beer, spirits, liqueurs – each providing a different flavor.

KENNEDY: What is your favourite recipe in the book?

TERRY: Ok, that’s kind of like picking your favorite child. However, my current favorite is the Brandy Apple Chai Cake which features fresh apples and a chai-spiced liqueur called Voyant. Then again, I’m also into the Black Jack Praline Cake that makes lovely use of a certain Tennessee whiskey and a crunchy pecan topping. I think that cake would be completely delicious with your favorite Canadian whisky also.

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Ok. So the bit was done for Cinco de Mayo, and Cinco de Mayo is over a week old. Who cares? It's tequila shots folks!

Plus Conan is pretty funny. Check it out.

Have a great weekend everybody. Check in Monday for my first ever participation in Mixology Monday.

So how do you feel about tequila shooters? Love 'em? Hate 'em? Fear them terribly?
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Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo (May 5), a Mexican holiday celebrated primarily in the U.S., commemorating the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5 , 1862.

So it seems the right time to post our interview with Karl Petzke, author of Tequila: Myth, Magic and Spirited Recipes, a recently released book that demonstrates Petzke's true passion for the native spirit of Mexico.

Don't forget to check out three of the books recipes (Tejito, Bloody Maria and a Pineapple-Tequila Refresco) here. The photos are great!

Tequila: Myth, Magic & Spirited Recipes

KENNEDY: Why this book? Why tequila?

KARL: Almost all of my books tell a story and this is a great story to tell. Rich in history, characters galore, and a photographers dream to visually capture.

KENNEDY: What is your favourite tequila?

KARL: Like almost any premium spirit or food, there isn’t just one that I like or is the favourite. There are a couple of small producers in the town of Tequila that I really thought were exceptional and continue to buy them. It is fun to discover new producers and that tends to happen at tastings.

KENNEDY: What is the most interesting thing you learned while putting together this book?

KARL: I think I was amazed at the simplicity of the process, but the complexity of the factors, which affect the outcome. But most importantly it was the passion of the people of Jalisco, Mexico.

KENNEDY: How long did it take to complete the book?

KARL: About six months including travel, food photography and initial design. We did spend some additional moments on the cover and with pagination.

KENNEDY: What other projects do you have in the works?

KARL: I am currently pitching a couple of new book ideas and busy with my other food and interiors clients.

KENNEDY: What other passions do you have?

KARL: I don’t think of myself as a competitive person, but I’m told that I am. I enjoy being at the front and have the patience to get there. I used to race bicycles so I learned that preparation is usually the key component to success.

Life is what you make it, be something. So many people think that isn’t important, but it does make you take responsibility for yourself, I like that.

And it’s OK to be wrong sometimes. I don’t think I exactly answered that question, but I am one to believe in myself and pursue dreams.

KENNEDY: Tell us a secret.

KARL: Secrets are overrated. I love what I get to do for a living and feel very lucky to have the opportunities that I’m given.

KENNEDY: What inspires you?

Everything that I never knew before this moment.

Thanks to Karl Petzke for taking the time to answer our questions and for writing a really interesting and informative book.

Check out the following link for 3 popular myths about tequila.

So: Do you enjoy tequila? Or do you fear it desperately?

Our might cocktailian Christine Sismondo interviews author and Washington Post spirits columnist Jason Wilson. Please join me in thanking Christine for a great interview.

Boozehound: On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits By Jason Wilson Ten Speed Press $25.99; 232 pages

By Christine Sismondo

CHRISTINE: The mid-century gin martini has taken a lot of heat lately. But there must be some reason why we all liked straight gin served very cold. Is there room for both it and the contemporary versions which are sometimes served with as much as fifty per cent vermouth?

JASON: I think what happened is that, after prohibition, we had lost a lot of bartending knowledge and people just didn’t know how to handle vermouth. After prohibition, when people added vermouth to a martini, they were adding old, spoiled wine. So of course people didn’t like it and they did a lot of things to mitigate the taste of straight gin, like adding extra olives and even the brine from the olives. At the new cocktail bars, they know how to handle vermouth and, as a result, a martini made with a lot of vermouth actually tastes good.

CHRISTINE: You live in a dry town in New Jersey. Is that on purpose – to balance out your work life?

JASON: Yes, I’m embracing the irony in my life. I live in this cute little colonial town in the suburbs of Philadelphia (across the New Jersey state line) and one of its little quirks is that it has an old blue law which forbids the sale of liquor. I don’t have to travel far, though. There are bars just on the outskirts of town.

CHRISTINE: Do you think the spirits world is in danger of becoming less fun -- more like wine writing?

JASON: I think sometimes it moves in that direction but the characters in the spirits biz are such a fun-loving group. Plus, cocktails are inherently crazier than wine. I’ve been to a few events where it gets a little dry and I think about jumping out a window. But then I start to see the humour. The insider geeky arguments over how to make a mint julep and the long debates over the proper preparation of a Manhattan can be pretty hilarious.

CHRISTINE: What about the way people talk about wine (and sometimes spirits) and compare it to things like petrol, or peanut butter sandwiches?

JASON: When you think about the wine descriptors, they really aren’t that descriptive. It isn’t very good writing, for starters, because unless somebody is already familiar with the wine, it doesn’t tell them much. I use them sometimes because it’s the language we have but, when I do, I feel kind of lazy.

CHRISTINE: Is it dangerous to admit you don’t always spit?

JASON: Sometimes you have to spit. I recently did a tasting of 80 Chilean wines and I would have been on the ground if I hadn’t spit. But with spirits you can’t spit, because the finish is so important. Is it rough? Is it hot? So you just have to be careful with how much you taste. I find my palate is ruined after about a dozen spirits anyway.

CHRISTINE: Speaking of being careful, you’re one of the few spirits writers who actually admits that sometimes it gets out of hand. In one story, you write about visiting the Fernet Branca facility with a crushing hangover. How was that?

JASON: That was an interesting visit. I was so late and so hungover. And the night before I’d lost my iPhone in a bar so I couldn’t even contact them to tell them I was running late. The whole time I was touring, all I could think was that what I really wanted was some Fernet Branca, to kill the hangover, but they never poured any for me. It’s incredible that drunkenness is never discussed in the spirits world. I think it’s because we’re still trying to prove that spirits are respectable.

CHRISTINE: Do you have a favourite cocktail?

JASON: The Manhattan or the Negroni or, combining the two, the Boulevardier, which is made with bourbon, Campari and sweet vermouth.

CHRISTINE: You’re in a bar – an ordinary bar – and you don’t want a beer. What’s a good fallback cocktail that even Sam Malone would be able to handle?

JASON: The Negroni is pretty safe cause you can easily instruct a bartender to mix equal parts of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth.

CHRISTINE: Okay, now you’re at the Lion in Berlin – or at High Five Bar in Tokyo. What cocktail do you order there?

JASON: At a place like that, I would chat with the bartenders and have them make me something that they’re excited about. I almost always do that when I go to a good place.

Christine Sismondo is the author of the forthcoming book: America Walks Into a Bar: A Spirited History of Taverns and Saloons, Speakeasies and Grog Shops (Oxford University Press, June 2011).

Our fearless cocktail guru Christine Sismondo interviews prolific cocktail historian David Wondrich, author of Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl, released Nov. 2.  Thanks Christine!
–kennedy

Cocktail author David Wondrich; Photo by Nicholas Noyse

CHRISTINE: What makes punch better than cocktails for the host?

DAVID: You actually get to enjoy your party! Don't get me wrong – I love cocktails – but after an hour or so of making them, you suddenly realize your party is going on around you. You're at the centre, but not in the way you want to be. I want to be able to take part in the conversation and circulate.

CHRISTINE: What makes punch better for the guest?

DAVID: Well, the other thing is that, by denying popular choice, people don't focus on the drink and instead they focus on each other. It's also a real ice-breaker to keep going back to the punch bowl.

CHRISTINE: Is there a prejudice against punch that some guests might still carry when they see the punch bowl? Are they surprised when they like it?

DAVID: First of all, a lot of people won't drink anything with spirits because they're wine or beer drinkers. But, on top of that, there are a lot of people who are afraid of punch because of a bad experience.

CHRISTINE: Do you mean from college days?

DAVID: Exactly. People recall the days of garbage cans, grain ale and assorted fruit juices – very dangerous stuff. That's not real punch – real punch doesn't taste like fruit juice and it's not made with any sneaky stuff. Good punch is made with cognac, dark rum, genever and even whiskey.

CHRISTINE: What's the best way to keep it cool?

DAVID: There are two main ways to serve punch. The first is to have a bowl of punch for a welcoming drink. For that, I use cubed ice which cools the punch down quickly and dilutes the drink. The other way is to have a bowl of punch out on the sideboard all night. For that, you want a large block of ice. It's easy to do at home, you just have to be willing to defrost your freezer and throw out all that junk in there you don't need that's been in there for years.

CHRISTINE: Do you have to maintain punch throughout the night?

DAVID: I don't like to put it out all at once. I like to bring out smaller bowls throughout the course of the evening, so I can slow it down and make one a little weaker if I need to. And that way guests can say: “Hey, we drank six bowls of punch!”

CHRISTINE: What's a rule of thumb for punch per guest?

DAVID: Like I say in the book, they're your friends, you figure it out. If the party really gets going, the punch goes. You could start with a cup of punch per head rule and then adjust it.

CHRISTINE: If you haven't inherited your great-grandmother's pewter punch bowl, what's the best way to serve punch?

DAVID: I like a Chinese soup tureen. That's what they used in the 18th century. I prefer to serve it in V-shaped sherry glasses. Those are very close to the original serving cups.

CHRISTINE: How do you keep hot punch warm?

DAVID: A crock pot just totally rocks. Other than that, you could use a hot plate or the traditional method – keeping a jug by a roaring fire. But, be careful with hot punches – they're lethal. The body just absorbs the alcohol faster.

CHRISTINE: Final thoughts on punch?

DAVID: Yes. Making punch is easy. It's really easy to make and serve. There's no reason everyone isn't making it; it's a deeply held tradition for a reason.