During Drink.Write 2009, one of the sessions dealt with garnishing cocktails.? The panelists were Tiare Olson, Rick Stutz and Martin Cate.? The session was split into three sections.? The first was twists where we learned how to make twists using various citrus peels – thin tight twists, thick twists, etc.? The second section concerned fire.? We learned different methods of incorporating fire into a garnish.? The most interesting thing I learned during this section was the use of croutons soaked with pure lemon oil as the flammable material.? The is the method that Martin uses in his bars.? Definitely something for me to try!? And the third section was a free-for-all.? The panelists discussed other types of garnishes such as flowers (which may or may not be poisonous), cinnamon sticks poked through citrus peels, etc. – the point is you are only limited by your imagination, patience and materials.
During each section, we were tasked with completing a garnish to match that section.? The panelists walked around the room and judged each students garnish and the winner would get a prize.
If you’ve been following along at home, you should know that I love playing with fire.? AS A GARNISH!!!? Geez,? you people . . .? Anyway, I love garnishing with a flamed citrus peel (watch the video) or using a lime shell to flame some overproof rum.? In fact, I created one for Gina Chersevani of PS7 in DC and a week later she started serving a cocktail with the same garnish.? Not saying I had an influence, but . . . (Love you Gina!)
So I was pumped for the flaming garnish section.? I knew I would incorporate the lime shell.? But what else?? I needed a WOW factor.? I decided I wanted to try my hand at a volcano.? Using some of the very long swathes of grapefruit peel from the earlier section, I started playing around to get the best volcano I could.? I tried tightly rolling up the peel and then pulling the inside out to create a cone.? That didn’t work? – the walls would separate and the whole thing was unstable.? After a few more failed attempts, I tried making the volcano from the top down.? Worked like a charm!? I secured the volcano inside the lime shell with a piece of bamboo skewers I had soaking in water.? I then decided to add a sun over the volcano using a round of lemon peel.? Again this was secured by using a piece of waterlogged bamboo.
We were then served cocktails on which to adorn our newly created flaming garnishes.? Once the Pompeii garnish was atop the cocktail and a little overproof rum later . . .
As the tiki-gods shown brightly over me and after the panelists/judges walked the room to survey the fiery garnishes upon the table, Martin Cate announced that my Pompeii garnish was the winner of the flaming garnish section!? Woot!
As my prize, I received an antique postcard that Martin had purchased of Tujague’s Restaurant.? Now I just have to get it framed!
Cheers!
Nice and fun garnish Marshall!
That was really interesting reading as i have wondered how you people liked the garnish session.From all the amazing creativity i saw i indeed could see that everyone enjoyed themselves and so did i but its fun to read about this session seen from someone elses point of view.And the whole table looked like a battlefield for fruits!
I also do agree with you that fire is fun!
I think the whole Drinkwrite was a success!
Cheers!
T
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[...] presentation of various garnishes and drinks etc we turned the session into a workshop.? (UPDATE: Here is Marhall?s post about this session that he posted on August [...]
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[...] Blaze Marshall over at Scofflaw’s Den won a cocktail conference garnishing session with his Flaming Pompeii Garnish. Some may think fire as a garnish might be hazardous, but we say go for it, as long as [...]