Thought for Food

October 10, 2010

evoenyc:

Photo by Melissa Murphy.
On Wednesday we had the honor of serving cocktails to some of the greatest chefs of this fair city as part of Michelin’s Dîner en Rouge. The party, held in the historic Woolworth Building in downtown Manhattan, celebrated the 2011 release of the company’s famed dining guides.*
Generally speaking, when you throw an event or even a simple house party, you have an an ‘arrival grace period.’ You’re rushing-rushing-rushing to get everything in place before your guests arrive but you can be confident that no guest will arrive precisely on time, and the first through the door won’t be your VIPs. At 5:20 pm on Wednesday — precisely 10 minutes before we were expecting to begin service — our first two customers sidled up to the bar: Chef Daniel Boulud and Chef Eric Ripert, two of the most celebrated and accomplished chefs of their generation.
We prepared two glasses of the Trois Etoiles, a champagne cocktail with cognac, St-Germain, and lemon — and we’re off!
The evening’s food and drink was dreamed up and served by our supper club brethren, including Whisk & Ladle (with whom we hosted our first event), the Noble Rot (for whom we’ve created cocktails), A Razor, A Shiny Knife (the club responsible for our first meeting, two Septembers ago), and Studiofeast. Having tasted many of their creations for the evening we can say with confidence (and a measure of delight) that they did the concept of the Supper Club — once scrappy, now decidedly sophisticated — proud.
As for our menu, we took a culinary approach to the cocktail, with ample inspiration from our herb garden and spice rack. The photo above, stunningly captured by Melissa Murphy, is the Empire Cocktail: an autumnal blend pf Laird’s Apple Brandy, Gewurztraminer, Pear Eau de Vie, and Apple.
Also on offer:

Frozen Hot Chocolate created by Brian Sullivan, a pastry chef at Corton: cacao liqueur, Cynar, vermouth, bitters, and lemon, with an espuma of egg white and chocolate crisp. (Photo.)
Coast of Malabar, a tiki drink with the flavors of East Asia: gin, dark rum, Curacao, chili, cumin, Orgeat, lime, and mint.
Shanghai Maid, a refreshing cocktail with the classic flavors of gin, lime, cucumber, Thai basil (from our garden!), and salt.

Melissa took many gorgeous shots of the evening — she took all of those below and many more on her website. Thank you, Melissa! You may visit the Michelin Guide Facebook page for more photos.
* For the curious, this is a wonderful — and rare — behind-the-scenes peak at the rating of restaurants and making of the guides.

All photos ©Melissa Murphy

Photo by Melissa Murphy.

On Wednesday we had the honor of serving cocktails to some of the greatest chefs of this fair city as part of Michelin’s Dîner en Rouge. The party, held in the historic Woolworth Building in downtown Manhattan, celebrated the 2011 release of the company’s famed dining guides.*

Generally speaking, when you throw an event or even a simple house party, you have an an ‘arrival grace period.’ You’re rushing-rushing-rushing to get everything in place before your guests arrive but you can be confident that no guest will arrive precisely on time, and the first through the door won’t be your VIPs. At 5:20 pm on Wednesday — precisely 10 minutes before we were expecting to begin service — our first two customers sidled up to the bar: Chef Daniel Boulud and Chef Eric Ripert, two of the most celebrated and accomplished chefs of their generation.

We prepared two glasses of the Trois Etoiles, a champagne cocktail with cognac, St-Germain, and lemon — and we’re off!

The evening’s food and drink was dreamed up and served by our supper club brethren, including Whisk & Ladle (with whom we hosted our first event), the Noble Rot (for whom we’ve created cocktails), A Razor, A Shiny Knife (the club responsible for our first meeting, two Septembers ago), and Studiofeast. Having tasted many of their creations for the evening we can say with confidence (and a measure of delight) that they did the concept of the Supper Club — once scrappy, now decidedly sophisticated — proud.

As for our menu, we took a culinary approach to the cocktail, with ample inspiration from our herb garden and spice rack. The photo above, stunningly captured by Melissa Murphy, is the Empire Cocktail: an autumnal blend pf Laird’s Apple Brandy, Gewurztraminer, Pear Eau de Vie, and Apple.

Also on offer:

Frozen Hot Chocolate created by Brian Sullivan, a pastry chef at Corton: cacao liqueur, Cynar, vermouth, bitters, and lemon, with an espuma of egg white and chocolate crisp. (Photo.)

Coast of Malabar, a tiki drink with the flavors of East Asia: gin, dark rum, Curacao, chili, cumin, Orgeat, lime, and mint.

Shanghai Maid, a refreshing cocktail with the classic flavors of gin, lime, cucumber, Thai basil (from our garden!), and salt.

Melissa took many gorgeous shots of the evening — she took all of those below and many more on her website. Thank you, Melissa! You may visit the Michelin Guide Facebook page for more photos.

* For the curious, this is a wonderful — and rare — behind-the-scenes peak at the rating of restaurants and making of the guides.

All photos ©Melissa Murphy