Tony C on Cooking Issues Podcast with Dave Arnold

It's a conversation I am sure many people have wished they could be a fly on the wall to observe..... well wish no more as you can now sit within the comfort of your own home and listen at your leisure.

I can barely begin to list the number of topics covered throughout the podcast suffice to say that anyone with any interest in either cooking or bartending should without doubt listen to this.

You can download and stream the podcast on iTunes here - ITUNES

Enjoy

Flavour of the Week - Kaffir Lime

Also known as kieffer lime, lima purut, jerk purut or makrut lime. It is native to Indochinese and Malesian ecoregions in India, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. You can find it used throughout southeast asian cuisine.

The fruit appears rough and bumpy as well as being slightly smaller than a normal lime. Though the juice is not used too often, the rind and is commonly used in cooking and adds an aromatic and astringent flavour as well as being used in various Martinique rums.

Though the juice is considered too pungent for cooking it is used for various other purposes including, shampoos, thai ointments, freshness of breath as well as being famed for being a good stain remover.

Flavour - It's leaves are aromatic and astringent as well as having a tartness and sourness.

Drink Factory Orgeat Recipe

In my personal opinion, orgeat (almond syrup) is one of the most under- utilised products behind a bar. Often reserved for tiki drinks or bold fruity punches, it can offer a great amount of subtle depth and compliment much less exotic drinks. This is, as always, the advantage of making your own batch. You can control sweetness, thickness and ratios or almond and o.j blossom and make something whose profile fits perfectly within the make up of your drink.

There are many many recipes on the internet, and you might be surprised to find how simple of a recipe it can be. We thought we would add our own recipe into the fray and hopefully you can try this for yourself.

We understand not everyone has a thermomix or induction heater, if you do then brilliant. If not I've tried to suggest alternatives.

What you will need:

Thermomix -

For anyone not familiar with this piece of equipment. It is essentially 5 or 6 kitchen appliances in one, but remains incredibly robust and simple to use. It is a food processor, that also weighs, cooks, chops, steams, crushes, whips, grinds, simmers, grates ..... the list goes on. Heat setting are very accurate and range from 0 - 100c whilst inside is a sharp two pronged blade which can either be set to destroy at a high speed that can get through ice, hard candy, or solid parmesan cheese in seconds or can be set to a gentle stir to keep a mixture moving whilst it is being heated.

Induction heater -

Induction cooking uses an induction coil to heat the base of an iron pan. Anything with aluminium, copper, or non ferrous pans generally do not work as well. An induction heater is generally more efficient and quicker.

Superbag -

A superbag is essentially a very very fine sieve, or filter. It is made from an inert, flexible and heat resistant material. It is perfect for clarify and strain, at the same time so saves alot of time and water.

Ingredients

Marzipan - 1kg
Water - 1600ml
Sugar - 700g
O.j blossom water - 10ml

Method

-Thermomix the marzipan with water. You can achieve a similar result by blending but it will take a longer amount of time. Ensure all of the marzipan is disolved.

-Fine strain through a super bag into a container. This will both clarify and strain the mix, you can use a normal filter however the results may not be as clear.

-Add the liquid to a pan along with the sugar and orange blossom water.

-Heat over a low temp until the sugar has dissolved. If you use a normal pan and hob just be sure to keep the mixture moving gently.

-Store in a fridge

-Homogenise for 30 sec at full power to finish

Free Beefeater 24 Molecular Cocktail Session

Beefeater 24 and Drink Factory are once again bringing a free masterclass to the Drink Factory Lab. Similar to previous sessions spaces are limited however those who do make it will be given an insider tour of the lab, and a look at the intimate day to day workings of Drink Factory.

The day will feature some of the already well known Drink Factory creations including the glowing martini, scents and smells, edible lipstick stained glass, in addition to tasting exclusive Beefeater 24 drinks that are not available to buy anywhere just yet.

As we mentioned spaces are limited to only 15 people. and open to all members of the public.

To book or for more information contact - info@thedrinkfactory.com

Date - May 19th

Time - 3 - 5pm

The session will begin at The Dink Factory, 35 Britannia Rown, N18QH and later move to 69 Colebrooke Row.

Pre-Dining Sweet Shop Experience at the Fat Duck

Just when you start to thinking Heston has started to wane and find his sanity he reminds us why his restaurant and his approach are so original.

The idea is very simple. People have to wait 2 months to for their table at The Fat Duck so why is that time not being used to create buzz and excitement for the customer. It is a period when a customers expectations can be built and their senses stimulated in anticipation. We all know how important memory cues are, whether they are visual, audible, or olfactory, memories and associations can be made before the meal and then harnessed during the meal.

Once a booking has been made people are emailed a link to an animated journey through a land that aims to whet both the appetite and senses in anticipation. Heston wanted to bring the sensations and excitement of "a kid in a sweet shop" to his customers before they had entered the restaurant.

The result is a tail that takes you through evocative and surreal landscapes, that have more in common with Alice in Wonderland than the real world, that lead you to the entrance of a sweet shop. The Neighbourhood decided the sweet shop would be pitch black but should stimulate you audibly rather than visually. They used the voice of John Hury and a binaural soundscape to provoke and draw out customers memories of childhood and bring them back to a time when they felt like "a child in a sweet shop".

Like A Kid In A Sweet Shop. from The Neighbourhood on Vimeo.

Beefeater 24 Classic Gin Cocktail Masterclass - New Date Added

Is there ever a bad time of year to drink gin? Probably not. In the same respect there is never a bad time of year to delve into Gins illustrious history and look at some classic gin cocktails that have built many foundations for modern drinks.

This particular masterclass could not be more apt especially considering the fact that gin heartland is but a bottles throw away. The area is rich in history and lends itself perfectly to exploring the heritage behind gin cocktails.

First the bad news. The original class on March 31st has sold out. The good news. A new date has been announced for April 21st.

Date - Saturday April 21st
Time - 2-4pm
Cost - £40
Book now by contacting maria@69colebrookerow.com

Make sure you book early as places will go vert quickly!

The Prairie Oyster

One of the tenets of Tony’s approach to drinks stemming the past twelve years has been a synergy between food and drink. It started in Isola conversing with Bruno Loubet about elements of cuisine that could be applied to the bar. For instance if you could make a puree from fresh fruit rather than buy it then why not? The bespoke product more often than nothas the edge.

The structure of dishes also influenced Tony’s approach to drink, escaping the gravitational pull of sweet and sour or aromatic pivot that informs most drinks, he started to look at the few savory drinks that peppered cocktails book here and there: the Tuxedo, the Dirty Martini, the Bloody Mary.

At the heart of all these drink was umami or savoriness, a quality hard to describe but long praised by Japanese chefs and central to a lot of Spanish and Italian food. Umami is present in high concentration in foods such as tomatoes, parmesan and miso. As such, the Bloody Mary was the ideal candidate not only for its ubiquitous presence in cocktail culture but also wider appeal in relation to the general public. But how to re-configure or make new this classic drink.

Three concepts collided: the original Prairie Oyster whereby an egg yolk was downed with a shot of tomato juice and spices. The classic oyster, a thrilling but alien food, which has always fascinated due to the way it slides down the throat and tastes of the sea. Finally the Bloody Mary, (which would form the road map of ingredients), replacing the tomato juice with a clarified tomato juice, reformulated to resemble an egg yolk. horseradish vodka, Oloroso sherry, Worcester sauce, pepper sauce, shallots (a traditional garnish for oysters), red wine vinegar and finally an oyster leaf (actually has an intense taste of oyster).

The drink is available from Tuesday to Saturday ONLY between 5pm - 7pm. More information to come next week.

The Scentisizer Olfactory Installation

"Scentisizer allows for the orchestration and spatial deployment of complex fragrances by giving precise control over the constitution and diffusion of scent accords in dynamic compositions. A tangible interface combines haptic and graphic features for managing an array of sixty four scent dispensers that maps a wide ranging olfactory field. Users can manipulate individual scent containers, much like organ stops to compose and time an accord in a direct and intuitive fashion. They can also control them with greater complexity and precision by means of a digital graphic user interface that allows for multi channeled sequencing and modulation of scent tones and dynamics. The analogue controls provide the haptic means for tangibly sculpting and visualising olfactory phenomena while the digital features add functionality and web connectivity, allowing Scentisizer to perform digitised olfactory score stored locally or accessed wirelessly."

Now, if one were to translate that into much simpler terms it would appear something like this. Scentisizer is a means for creating complex olfactory compositions, consisting of top, middle, and base notes, think of it like writing a song but with scent. The tubes allow users to specify how the scented oil, housed within each, is diffused. Below the tube is a heating mechanism which controls this. The sequence of scent intensity can be designed bespoke for each note. The graphic interface (towards the end of the video) allows a user to further specificy intensity and duration in a more accurate manner and leading to the composition being "played" by the Scentisizer. As show on the video each tube and colour represents a different scent.

The installation was built by Rodolphe el-Khoury who is the Canada Research Chair in Architecture and Urban Design and Nashid Nabian who is a partner in Arsh Design Studio, a practice based in Tehran with several award winning projects to its credit.

International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science

It is the threshold we all want to breach. How can we make cocktails more than just a cocktail. How can we build them into an experience, one that stimulates, excites and engages all of our senses much like food has done.

With the advent of The Culinary Journal on Gastronomy and Food Science, help is on hand. It is often described as a cross between the Modern Cuisinist and a science paper, however still maintaining its accessibility to the curious yet unschooled scientist. The information provided is vast and considering we have only currently seen volume 1, we can expect this treasure chest to grow and grow with each new release. Perhaps most notable, is the fact that all of this knowledge is entirely free and available to download as pdf's!

A little about the journal

"International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science is an English language, peer-reviewed publication in the area of Gastronomy and Food Science. The journal reviews and explores adopting a scientific approach to all the current facets of this growing field: applied culinary and food science, technology, new culinary concepts, nutrition, food service, global tendencies in food (health, globalisation, ethnic flavours, etc.) and the socio-cultural aspects of gastronomy."

Below are some of the most relevant excerpts from an essay on "Sous Vide Cooking: A Review". I tried to pick out sections that would translate most easily to bar work, so please do take the time to read the full journal and article. Although much of the content currently focuses on food and we might have to rethink a few dishes to get them fitting into a martini glass, the concepts and ideas we can take away and build on ourselves are still extremely valuable.

You can read and download the full article at - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgfs.2011.11.011

You can read and download the full journal at - Science Direct

Introduction

Sous vide is French for “under vacuum” and sous vide cooking is defined as “raw materials or raw materials with intermediate foods that are cooked under controlled conditions of temperature and time inside heat-stable vacuumized pouches” (Schellekens, 1996).

Food scientists have been actively studying sous vide processing since the 1990s (cf. [Mossel and Struijk, 1991], [Ohlsson, 1994] and [Schellekens, 1996]) and have mainly been interested in using sous vide cooking to extend the shelf-life of minimally processed foods—these efforts seem to have been successful since there have been no reports of sous vide food causing an outbreak in either the academic literature or outbreak databases (Peck et al., 2006). Chefs in some of the world's top restaurants have been using sous vide cooking since the 1970s but it was not until the mid-2000s that sous vide cooking became widely known (cf. [39] and [Roca and Brugués, 2005]); the late-2000s and early-2010s have seen a huge increase in the use of sous vide cooking in restaurants and homes (cf. [7], [Keller et al., 2008], [Blumenthal, 2008], [Achatz, 2008], [64], [Baldwin, 2010], [Potter, 2010], [Kamozawa and Talbot, 2010] and [Myhrvold et al., 2011]).

Sous vide cooking differs from traditional cooking methods in two fundamental ways: the raw food is vacuum-sealed in heat-stable, food-grade plastic pouches and the food is cooked using precisely controlled heating.

Vacuum-sealing has several benefits: it allows heat to be efficiently transferred from the water (or steam) to the food; it increases the food's shelf-life by eliminating the risk of recontamination during storage; it inhibits off-flavors from oxidation and prevents evaporative losses of flavor volatiles and moisture during cooking (Church and Parsons, 2000); and reduces aerobic bacterial growth—this results in especially flavorful and nutritious food ( [Church, 1998], [Creed, 1998], [García-Linares et al., 2004], [Ghazala et al., 1996], [Lassen et al., 2002], [Schellekens, 1996] and [Stea et al., 2006]).

Precise temperature control has more benefits for chefs than vacuumized packaging does: it allows almost-perfect reproducibility ( [Keller et al., 2008], [Blumenthal, 2008] and [Achatz, 2008]); it allows greater control over doneness than traditional cooking methods ( [7], [64], [Baldwin, 2010] and [Myhrvold et al., 2011]); food can be pasteurized and made safe at lower temperatures, so that it does not have to be cooked well-done to be safe ( [7] and [Baldwin, 2010]); and tough cuts of meat (which were traditionally braised to make them tender) can be made tender and still be a medium or a medium-rare doneness ( [7], [Baldwin, 2010] and [Myhrvold et al., 2011]).

This paper first reviews the importance of time and temperature in sous vide cooking in Section 2. Section 3 discusses the basic techniques of sous vide cooking. Food safety principles important for sous vide cooking are detailed in Section 4. Some conclusions are drawn in Section 5. Finally, Appendix A briefly discusses the mathematics of sous vide cooking.

Plants

While vegetables are a rich source of vitamins and minerals, boiled or steamed vegetables lose nutrients to their cooking water (Charley and Weaver, 1998). Sous vide cooked vegetables, in comparison, retain nearly all their nutritive value ( [Creed, 1995], [Schellekens, 1996] and [Stea et al., 2006]). This superior retention of nutrients also intensifies the flavor inherent in the vegetable and can cause some vegetables, such as turnips and rutabaga, to have a flavor that is too pronounced for some people (Baldwin, 2010).

Vegetables that are boiled, steamed, or microwaved lose their nutrients because the cell walls are damaged by heat and allow the water and nutrients in the cells to leach out (Charley and Weaver, 1998). Sous vide vegetables leave the cell walls mostly intact and make the vegetables tender by dissolving some of the cementing material that holds the cells together (cf. [Plat et al., 1988], [Greve et al., 1994], [Georget et al., 1998], [Kunzek et al., 1999] and [Sila et al., 2006]). In vegetables, this cementing material starts to dissolve around 82–85 °C/180–185 °F. This cementing material can be strengthened by pre-cooking, say at 50 °C/122 °F for 30 min ( [Ng and Waldron, 1997] and [Waldron et al., 1997]). Starchy vegetables can be cooked at the slightly lower temperature of 80 °C/175 °F because their texture is also changed by the gelatinization of the starch granules in their cells ( [García-Segovia et al., 2008] and [Baldwin, 2010]).

While fruits are often eaten raw, chefs sometimes cook apples and pears until they are tender. Tart (high acid) apples, such as Granny Smith, soften faster than sweet (low acid) apples, such as Gala or Fuji, because the acid lowers the temperature at which the cementing material dissolves (cf. Charley and Weaver, 1998).

Legumes (beans, peas, lentils) are cooked to gelatinize their starches, make their proteins more digestible, and to weaken the cementing material that holds their cells together so you can chew them; see, for instance, Charley and Weaver (1998). Legumes cooked sous vide do not need to be pre-soaked, because they can absorb the same amount of water in 50 min at 90 °C/195 °F as they would in 16 h at room temperature (Charley and Weaver, 1998). Moreover, since the legumes are cooked in their soaking water, their water-soluble vitamins and minerals are retained.

Since vegetables, fruits, and legumes are cooked at 80–90 °C/175–195 °F, their pouches may balloon and need to be held under the surface of the water (say, with a metal rack). The pouches balloon because the residual air left in the pouch after vacuum-sealing expands and because some of the moisture in the food is converted into water vapor.
For example, Baldwin (2010) suggests that non-starchy vegetables be cooked sous vide at 82–85 °C/180–185 °F for about three times as long as they would be boiled, starchy vegetables at 80 °C/175 °F for about twice as long as they would be boiled, and legumes at 90 °C/195 °F for 3–6 h, depending on the species and when it was harvested.

Conclusion

Sous vide cooking is a powerful tool in the modern kitchen: precise temperature control gives superior reproducibility, better control of doneness, reduction of pathogens to a safe level at lower temperatures, and more choice of texture than traditional cooking methods; vacuumized packaging improves heat flow, extends the shelf-life of the food by eliminating the risk of recontamination, reduces off-flavors from oxidation, and reduces the loss of nutrients to the cooking medium.

Precise temperature control lets you take advantage of both the fast and the slow changes when cooking: the fast changes, such as doneness, are mostly determined by the highest temperature that the food reaches; the slow changes typically take hours to days and let you make tough cuts of meat, which would usually be braised, tender while maintaining a medium-rare doneness. Precise temperature control also gives you the ability to pasteurize meat and poultry at lower temperatures than traditional cooking methods and so they no longer need to be cooked well-done to be safe.

Vacuumized packaging is important when extended shelf-life is required: the vacuumized pouch prevents recontamination of food during storage and allows for the efficient transfer of heat. Vacuumized packaging is not necessary when doing cook-hold sous vide cooking and many restaurants do not vacuum package the food and cook directly in a convection steam oven or in a temperature controlled bath of fat (e.g., oil or butter) or flavored broth (e.g., stock) if it will be served immediately.

New Drink at 69 Colebrooke Row

Information is still sparse at the moment, but we do know this is a new drink coming to the menu at 69 Colebrooke Row.

The drink is available from Tuesday to Saturday ONLY between 5pm - 7pm. More information to come next week.

http://www.69colebrookerow.com/

The Sidecar

Tony C was recently featured in Olive Magazine briefly talking about the origins of The Sidecar. Bartenders across England and France lay claim to having been the originator of The Sidecar. It's true origin is likely lost and so the debate will no doubt continue.

There are two schools of thinking, when it comes to Sidecar ratios, the french and the english. This is the English version, as appose to the French which calls for equal parts of all ingredients. This recipe was first mentioned in 1930 within The Savoy Cocktail Book.

The Sidecar
40ml good quality cognac
20ml Merlet triple sec
20ml fresh lemon juice
Shake vigorously with cubed ice
Double strain

Prepare a cocktail glass with a full sugar rim, by rubbing a lemon wedge along the outside of the glass and roll it across a small plate of white sugar.
Remove any excess sugar from the inside of the glass with a napkin

Have Your Say - The New Food Science Course at Harvard

Friend of Drink Factory and all round great guy Naveen Sinha, would like you to offer your input in "designing the course of the future". This will invariably appeal to our American readers slightly more, however how do we move forward without open forums and the sharing of information? So with that in mind we encourage everyone and anyone to get involved.

Naveen played an important role in the Science and Food Course last year, which produced some incredible lectures from some of the world leading chefs and food scientists. The team at Harvard are currently tweaking the syllabus for the new iteration of the course, which starts later this autumn and would like your input. This is what Naveen see's this new class involving.

"I wanted to use the seminar to develop my dream class that combines the scientific and culinary worlds. I was inspired by Science Fare and similar blogs, and how the process of writing about experiments in the kitchen could be an engaging way to teach physics and chemistry.....I would be thrilled if some of the ideas could be implemented in an actual course."

"One of the first things we learned in the seminar was backwards design: start with what we want the students to be able to do at the end of the course, then construct lessons and assignments to make that possible. For my hypothetical course, I would tell prospective students how they could become active participants of a rapidly growing network of culinary experimentalists. Specifically, this includes the following stages:"

•Read and understand recipes from a full range of sources, including home cooks, professional bakers, and modernist chefs. You will become proficient in using ratios, calculating concentrations, working with significant figures, and making order-of-magnitude estimates. These are all the mathematical equivalent of knife skills, and lay the foundation for any quantitative work.

•See the underlying physical similarities between different types of materials, both edible and not. For instance, how is whipped cream like shaving cream? How are they produced? How are they stabilized? How does this relate to whipped cream from aerosal dispensers or an iSi Whip?

•Read the current science-themed food blogs and journals, such as Cooking Issues, The Food Lab, Ideas in Food, and Khymos. Since this is an emerging field, much of the exciting research is described in a variety of on-line sources. This course will help you understand the underlying scientific insights or technological advances that enabled the current work.

•Conduct well-designed culinary experiments, using a thorough documentation format. The range of options to explore is vast, so how do chefs select the relevant variables? In most science labs, the dependent and independent variables are clearly defined, but there is far more flexibility in the culinary realm to decide what to vary and what to measure. Through the weekly assignments, you will become skilled in finding systematic ways to explore culinary techniques.

•Share your results in an on-line format, so that your results can be replicated by people around the world. The best authors explain their motivation for doing the work, use clear photographs to demonstrate their procedure, and elegantly present their results in a visually-compelling format. This course will develop each of these skills.

•Propose solutions to culinary problems, based on your knowledge of the physical structure of the food. In addition to presenting your own results, by the end you will be able to post insightful suggestions on other blogs. You may not have the culinary experience of the authors, but your unique viewpoint of starting from the microstructure could lead to useful ideas.

For more information head over to Science Fare or get involved immediately by tweeting @nisinha or @harvardscicook with any ideas or thoughts you might have.

Flavour of the Week - Aloeswood

Often found in Japanese incense and Chinese medicine. Aloeswood is resin produced from the aquilaria tree which is native to India, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The tree produces snow white flowers that have a heavenly sweet scent. However the most valued product of the tree is not it's flower or bark it is infact it resin. The resin is produced in response to fungal or mold attacks to counteract the attack and protect the tree. The resin produced is extremely aromatic and it is this resinous wood that is valued so highly around the world. The resin is commonly referred to as Jinko, Aloeswood, Agarwood and Oud.

In recent years the resin has tried to be artificially induced by deliberately wounding the tree leaving it open to infection. This, however, produces something known as agar#2 which is notably less aromatic.

There are six kinds of Aloeswoods found and often used in Japanese incense. - Kyara, Manaban, Rakoku, Manaka, Sumotara Sasora

Kyara - This is the most famous and well known of all Aloes wood. Kyara has a particular odor described as: "A gentle and dignified smell with a touch of bitterness. The fragrance is like an aristocrat in its elegance and gracefulness." Kiyoko Morita notes in her published work, "The Book of Incense,"

Rakoku - 
A sharp and pungent smell similar to sandalwood. Its smell is generally bitter, and reminds one of a warrior.

Manaka - 
Smells light and enticing, changing like the mood of a woman with bitter feelings. The fragrance is of good quality if it disappears quickly.

Manaban - 
The smell is coarse and unrefined.

Sumotara - 
Sour at the beginning and end. Sometimes mistaken for Kyara.

Sasora - 
Cool and sour. Good-quality sasora is mistaken for kyara, especially at the beginning.

Though the oil and resin of Aloes Wood is very hard to come by , the incense is quite easily available with a bit of searching. Anybody who has experimented with smoking will know it can be a dynamic addition to any drink.

"In The Lab" with Tony C part 2

The second and final part of Ian Cameron's unparallelled look into the working of not only the Drink Factory Lab and it's day to day running but also what has driven Tony C to persue a path which was imagined as far back as 1999 and many neysayers have described as madness on the way.

In part 2 Tony gives insights into scaling the mountain because it is there, how drinks will change in dynamic and rival food experiences, and always making sure that the fun and humour of junior school is never to far away.

"What will the drinks of the future look like? A few years ago, the work of Eben Freeman in New York and his world of Solid Cuba Libres and Absinthe Gummi Bears briefly inspired a generation of imitators. While at Shochu Lounge Tony himself also played with caviars, jellies and the like - since then foams and emulsions have since become par for the course at many bars, though Tony has not played with texture in such a way since."

""I think that sort of 'molecular' style is beyond passé. We've never had anything like that on the menu at 69. I realised a long time ago it's more important what you do with flavour than texture. A drink is majority flavour, not texture, unless you know what you are doing. It can go wrong, terribly wrong.""

To read the full article follow THIS LINK

Matt Pyke Digital Art

Anybody a fan of modern artistic techniques will enjoy this video. The short comes from our friends at Nowness, who created a beautifully worked film of the original lab above 69 Colebrooke Row shot by Todd Selby, if you missed it you can watch it HERE.

The film below is a glimpse into the mind of Matt Pyke from his digital fantasy land installed at Super Computer Romantics which was the first major exhibition at Paris' La Gaite Kyrique. Based in a log cabin studio he is an a digital artist, curator, designer, painter and animator.

“I’m interested in bringing life and empathy into digital art rather than keeping its cold, abstract, machine sensibility,” Pyke says.

The English mastermind is behind design studio Universal Everything, a collective of designers, programmers, musicians and artists known for their boundary-pushing commissions for clients including Chanel, MTV and London's 2012 Olympics.