Tales of the Cocktail® New Orleans 2016

Covert World War II missions for the French resistance, forged passports, delicious cocktails: Welcome to the amazing world of legendary Hotel Ritz Paris bartender and spy Frank Meier. While his Art Deco 1936 book, The Artistry of Mixing Drinks, is praised by cocktail lovers and his signature concoction, the Bees’ Knees, is still on menus, much of his heroic wartime activities have just come to light. This panel will seek to fill in the gaps in Meier’s life (including his time training at New York’s famed Hoffman House) and help to explain why he mysteriously disappeared and what happened to him after the war.

Why did France's modern cocktail culture only start developing in the last 5 years, decades after London and New York? What factors helped Australia go from not having a mixed drinks culture at all to being world-level in less than a decade? Why can’t you get a good cocktail in some countries? Join Audrey Fort, co-founder of The Rooster Factory, a brand development boutique agency dedicated to the drinks industry, and her stellar panel of international experts: Stephen Martin, owner of A La Française, a Parisian cocktail bar dedicated to the French bar and cuisine history, George Nemec, globetrotter Czech bartender, part owner of the Starling Bar in Shanghai and founder of the Bohemian National Club and Englishman Mikey Enright, Time Out 2014 legend award, owner of the multi-awarded unique Barber Shop in Sydney. They’ll take you through the macroeconomic factors, history, liquor laws, consumption habits, geographical facts, gentrification, online connection, food trends, daring individuals, etc… that explain why some countries have developed a mature mixology culture and why some haven’t yet.

What do William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Eudora Welty, Erle Stanley Gardener, Anne Rice, Rebecca Wells, Sherwood Anderson, Winston Groom, Stephen Ambrose, and a host of other prominent authors have in common? They all stayed (and probably drank) at the Hotel Monteleone. Join Philip Greene, author of To Have and Have Another – A Hemingway Cocktail Companion and a co-founder of the Museum of the American Cocktail, on this spirited study of this great hotel and it’s enduring literary legacy, focusing on the favorite drinks of the many authors who placed their corduroy-patched elbows on the bar!

Why isn’t bread alcoholic? Why are Campari and Aperol red? What is actually in Pat O’Briens Hurricane Mix? In Liquipedia, Tristan and Jake will answer all of these questions and eighty-seven more, as they attempt to pose and deliver a set of ninety broadranging booze questions and answers over a ninety minute period. The questions will be answered with a variety of methods including but not limited to, straight verbal answers, practical demonstrations, scientific experimentation, a one time only “phone a friend option”, or by reference to peer reviewed journals and publications. Every answer will, to the greatest extent possible, be a factually correct answer not an opinion, hearsay or folklore. The topics covered will be hugely varied but united by their appropriateness to a Tales of the Cocktail event ie: They will cover the: science/history/mathematics/language of alcohol, cocktails, New Orleans or of Tales of the Cocktail itself. Some of the questions will have a very quick answer, it might even just be a yes or no, some will take a little more time to reach a satisfactory resolution. The next question will not be raised until both Jake, Tristan, an independent adjudicator played by TIME Magazine's Jeffrey Kluger, and timekeeper, Ali Dedianko, have approved the answer given. Eighty of the questions and answers will be preprepared and rehearsed, but to add an air of excitement and challenge to the proceedings ten questions will be generated from the audience guests and via social media during the seminar. Two count down clocks will display the time elapsed and the number of questions answered to further increase the drama. Liquipedia is dedicated to all those alcohol-related questions that are unworthy of a 90-minute seminar, but that it sure would be nice to know the answers to. It will be entertaining, informative, engaging, irreverent, and at times... bizarre. Most of all, it will put to bed forever some of the more persistent pseudo science and urban myths of the drinks world.

What’s in my Drink…Beyond Flavor & Taste? Reduces cocktails down to a sensorial level and explores how varying components beyond taste and flavor can affect the overall experience of a drink. We base our exploration around the use of ingredients that offer up varying perceived sensations, and examine their abilities to be manipulated, and in turn, how they influence the overall impact of a cocktail. The panel will highlight key sensory targets and the ingredients that bartenders have yet to fully harness to achieve affects consumers are not always fully cognizant of. We will examine chilies, and exotic culinary ingredients, but also go beyond with other resources that “trick” our perceptions, while subtly enhancing our sub-conscious connections with the drinks. Our expert panel will illustrate perspectives from flavor science and serve drinks reflecting the profiled sensation, along with a translated parallel drink from the bar science world in the areas of tastants, sensations and perceptions through the use of viable ingredients. The panel, led by flavor expert Derek Elefson and Sr. Flavorist, John Baughman, along with international award winning bartenders Ryan Chetiyawardana and Iain Griffiths of the esteemed White Lyan & Dandelyan bars in London, will look to further the audience’s knowledge into how sensations and perceptions can enhance, or even dull, particular flavors in different cocktails, as well as provide practical insights on processes and approaches that bartenders can utilize to capture these senses. So come and discover how tingling, warmth, numbing, lubricity & much more can enhance your cocktail designs.

The origins of the cocktail date back centuries—but what does the future hold? Will the cocktail bar of 2116 be more Jetsons or Soylent Green, or will it largely resemble the bar of today? This session will look at the future trajectory of the cocktail, with an eye to what drinks may genuinely look like a century from now. How will technological advances in distillation, culinary science and the bar itself influence the future cocktail? How will shifts in demographics, the tumult of global politics, and a booming population affect the cocktail bar? And how will the effects of climate change play out across the drinks world, from the agricultural inputs and aging process of spirits, to the availability and adaptability of fresh fruit and other ingredients in a hotter world? Join this panel of experts for a look into cocktail’s crystal ball, as we go back (bar) to the future for a drink in 2116.

Explore the real life of Ted Saucier, bon vivant, PR agent for the Waldorf Astoria & unknown Canadian legend. First to publish the Dry Shake, Last Word, Vodkatini & Hotel Georgia (made famous again in the renovated Hotel Georgia in Vancouver) Cocktails. How his underrated book from 1951 has reappeared and shown people the way into the modern age of cocktail bartending. We will also have an interview with Murray Stenson, the man behind bringing back the Last Word from obscurity; rescuing it from the dusty pages of  Bottom’s Up to become a cult classic and mainstay in any cocktail bar worth its salt. Why is the dry shake common practice in the modern age? How did the Last Word exist during prohibition? And how did so many obscure Canadian establishments sneak their cocktails into Saucier’s book? Explore the life behind this great cocktail pioneer with unknown history of his family life including the daughter no one knew he had; how he made his way from the streets of Montreal to New York, his friendships with everyone from movie stars to the King of Norway. This multi published author who wrote about war, movie credits, cocktails, of all things sardines and the introduction of beautiful pin ups into the world of cocktail books that would influence Playboy & Esquire cocktail books for years to come. The stories you know about this man are only the beginning on unravelling the true story behind him, his life and the cocktails he pioneered in bringing to the light.

Join Chef Rick Bayless for an exploration into the heart of Mexican flavor. Rick, award-winning chef (7 Beard awards, Top Chef Masters winner, others) and long-time Public Television host, is one of the most knowledgeable chefs when it comes to regional Mexican flavors. Together with Ivan Saldaña, expert in plant biology and spirit producer (Ancho Reyes & Montelobos) and Scott Baird, mixologist and bar owner (Trick Dog, San Francisco), they will tell the story of classic Mexican flavors—how they are created, how they came to be—culminating with the merging of the culinary world with that of cocktails. Given Rick’s depth of knowledge and much-lauded cuisine, we expect to offer attendees an amazing taste experience. Mexico´s biological and cultural diversity has created one of the most complex and sensorialy rich sources of flavors in the World. Of course, Mexico has many well-recognized offerings for any bar (Tequila, Mezcal, Sotol, Raicilla, Pox, Bacanora and so forth), but few bars and trade professionals realize the full potential Mexican chiles, herbs and spices in crafting cocktails. This seminar will explain the flavor of seven different chiles (and how coax multiple flavors from each). Then we’ll explore the use of lesser known herbs that are becoming available in the United States (epazote, culantro, hoja santa) plus the more common cilantro, chamomile and Mexican oregano, and take a quick look at the spice achiote. For all of these, we’ll demonstrate how different preparatory techniques create different flavors from each ingredient. Next, we’ll discuss the collaboration between the kitchen and the bar—a variety of infusion techniques and cocktail flavorings—allowing us to capture the full botanical potential of each ingredient. And, of course, we’ll end up with what we think are truly great cocktails with true Mexican spirit.