Presentations make creations an experience
Frankie Solarik, the owner of BarChef, 472 Queen St. W., can eat his favourite cocktail with chopsticks.
He invented the Night Blossom, $30, after seeing a cherry-blossom tree on a walk home. He starts by turning liquid chocolate liqueur and green Chartreuse into a gelatinous noodle by adding gelatin and shaping them into long blocks that are cut into ribbons once set. Those are placed in a bowl and covered in bourbon, amaro and other syrups.
Next, he adds bulbs of patchouli, which he created by mixing sodium alginate (an extract from seaweed) and calcium glu-conolactate (a soluble salt) and patchouli extract. When combined, the two chemicals form a thin membrane around the patchouli, absorbing it into a thin shell that pops on contact with the tongue.
He tops it with another string of gelatinous chocolate liqueur dipped in nitrogen, which solidifies it into a tangled mess that looks like a tree branch.
When the drink is served like a ramen bowl with a pair of chopsticks, out come the smartphones and up go the photos on Instagram.
Cocktail chemistry doesn’t come cheap. The process of pre-preparing the ingredients is time-consuming and bartenders are trained for months to be able to safely handle all the equipment, which drives up the costs of drinks.
But the presentation makes these novel creations an experience. When one per- son orders a Night Blossom, a few others usually follow, Solarik says.
Molecular gastronomy has been on the food scene since the mid-’80s, when Spain-based chef Ferran Adria opted to open elBulli for only eight months of the year, spending the rest of the year concocting food and drink recipes in his laboratory.
Molecular cocktails evolved out of this naturally with gastronomy chefs exploring unique drinks. Then establishments, including BarChef and Chicago’s the Aviary, opened their doors, focusing exclusively on drinks.
Today, Toronto has half a dozen-or-so molecular mixologists, including Bar-Chef, opened in 2008; Little Italy’s College Street Bar, which revamped its menu for more of a foodie/molecular focus in 2013; and the recently opened Roll Play off Dundas and Yonge Sts., whose molecularly trained bartender is creating its spring drink menu. This puts the city is on the cutting edge of the modernist-mix scene, says Irwin Adam Eydelnant, principal and scientific creative director at food consultancy Future Food Studio.
Eydelnant says molecular cocktails will never replace the standard gin-and-tonic because once you’ve had a $30 Night Blossom experience, do you need it again? But, for the time being, the popularity of these drinks, combined with easier access to instructions and materials (such as liquid nitrogen) online means more exciting drinks will be coming down the long bar.