Le Cointreau Au Debut

Posted on December 5, 2014 | 1 comment

Earlier this summer Cointreau came to Calgary to host a cocktail competition as part of the French spirit’s cross-Canada tour to crown “Mademoiselle Cointreau-Canada.” Model Milk’s Madeleine MacDonald won with her inventive and delicious In Memoir cocktail.

The tour had previously been to Vancouver (two winners), and then continued on to Toronto (four winners) and Montreal (three winners). In total, 10 outstanding mademoiselle bartenders won a trip to France to visit the Cointreau Distillery in Angers. Fast forward two months and those liquid chefs, including MacDonald, were pitted against one other in the Mademoiselle Cointreau finale, held at Revival Bar in Toronto on Monday night.

Rachel Osborne readies the bar for her Cointreau-cherry juice cocktail on Monday night at Revival Bar in Toronto.

Competitor Rachel Osborne readies the bar Monday night at Revival Bar in Toronto while emcees Dee Brun (Cocktail Deeva) and Lolitta Dandoy look on.

I was asked to judge this competition alongside Alfred Cointreau (the great-great-grandson of founder Edouard Cointreau), Nishan Nepulangoda (bartender at Blowfish in Toronto) and Fanny Gauthier (owner of Ateliers & Saveurs in Montreal).

As we sipped our way through the cocktails, the calibre of the finalists became apparent. My favourite cocktail for taste was the Femme Fatale, a perfectly balanced sour from Bar Isabel bartender Leah Mucci. However, we based our marks on not only the drink’s taste and balance, but on the cocktail’s name and story, originality and inspiration, presentation, and execution.

Leah Mucci affixes a mint leaf and candied kumquat garnish to her Femme Fatale cocktail, a sublime twist on a sour.

Leah Mucci affixes a mint leaf and candied kumquat garnish to her Femme Fatale cocktail, a sublime twist on a sour.

By far the best story of the evening came from winner Rachel Osborne of Philemon Bar in Montreal. Hers was a tale of beginnings and perfect endings; of Cointreau’s start as a distillery making cherry liqueur, to her own start as a bartender at age 12 creating coconut cocktails for her mother. The perfect ending, of course, was how the two beginnings came together — cherry juice shaken with Cointreau and topped with coconut foam. It also helped that the drink was delicious and beautifully presented and executed. For her effort Osborne wins a trip to Miami to meet the city’s top mixologists, and the title of Mademoiselle Cointreau-Canada. Congrats!

Winning cocktail Le Cointreau Au Debut is a pleasing mix of Cointreau and cherry juice by Montreal bartender Rachel Osborne.

Winning cocktail Le Cointreau Au Debut is a pleasing mix of Cointreau and cherry juice by bartender Rachel Osborne. Extra points for presentation!

Le Cointreau Au Debut

  • 1-1/2 oz Cointreau
  • 2 oz cherry juice (fresh juice with a small amount of citric acid to make it more sour)
  • Foam of coconut milk with lavender-infused cane sugar simple syrup (you may have to travel to Montreal and hunt down Osborne for this)
  • Garnish: Dried lavender and a spray of liquid fleur de sel (hand-harvested sea salt) mixed with a small amount of cherry juice for colour.

Method: Combine Cointreau and cherry juice in a shaker with ice and give a short shake (you don’t want too much dilution). Make the foam in a syphon (or go foamless — the foam sort of got in the way of the main event, the Cointreau cherry juice, in my opinion). Strain into a highball glass with ice and top with the coconut foam. Sprinkle on the dried lavender and spritz with the sea salt-cherry juice mixture.

— Recipe by Rachel Osborne, Philemon Bar, Montreal

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Charlotte’s Web brought to life

Posted on December 4, 2014 | 1 comment

When Avery was in grade one I read her Charlotte’s Web as a bedtime story over the course of several weeks. I loved sharing this classic children’s story about friendship with my daughter, and watching her excitement at Wilbur the pig’s triumph (escaping the axe, thanks to the web-spinning efforts of his spider friend), as well as her sadness over Charlotte’s inevitable death (though Avery was happy three of Charlotte’s spider babies decided to live in the Zuckermans’ barn).

Charlottes Web is running at Alberta Theatre Projects through Dec. 31, 2014.

Charlotte’s Web is running through Dec. 31, 2014.

So it was especially satisfying to sit beside Avery and her classmates on a school field trip this week and watch the tale come to life through Alberta Theatre Projects’ production of Charlotte’s Web (running through December 31). What made the experience even more enjoyable was the fact that one of her grade four classmates from Colonel Walker School, RubyJune Bishop, plays Fern Arable, and RubyJune’s parents star in the production as well.

Fern Arable (played by RubyJune Bishop) talks to Wilbur (played by Guillermo Urra). Photo by Calgary Sun.

Fern Arable (played by RubyJune Bishop) talks to Wilbur (played by Guillermo Urra) during a production of Charlotte’s Web. Photo by Calgary Sun.

It was Avery’s first time watching live theatre and she was captivated from the beginning, and even more so when Charlotte, played by the enchanting Manon Beaudoin, first descended down to her web from the barn rafters.

From her web, Charlotte talks to Wilbur for the first time. Photo by Crystal Schick, Calgary Herald.

From her web, Charlotte talks to Wilbur for the first time. Photo by Crystal Schick, Calgary Herald.

“I really like this Mommy!” Avery whispered to me as Charlotte spun mesmerizing circles around her web, spelling the words “Some Pig,” “Terrific,” “Radiant” and “Humble” to describe her bovine friend to save his life while her own was slipping away. Avery also loved “Uncle,” the fat, cowboy-hat wearing, Texan-inspired pig that threatens to take first prize at the fair.

After the performance there was a question-and-answer session between the audience and the actors (the theatre was full of school groups that day). Though the education outreach coordinator never called on anyone from Colonel Walker School, other children asked some great, totally kid, questions:

Avery strains to have her hand noticed during a Q&A session with the Charlotte's Web cast.

Avery strains to have her hand noticed during a Q&A session with the Charlotte’s Web cast.

“Does anyone ever step on your tail?” one student asked Templeton (the rat). “All the time,” he replied.

“Isn’t it scary spinning from that cable?” another asked Charlotte. “At first it was, yes,” she said.  “But then I got used to it. It’s really fun.”

“What’s your favourite part of the play?” someone asked Wilbur. “When I first meet Charlotte and when I do my ‘Radiant’ dance,” he said. This is where he executes the Charleston, the robot and then moon walks to prove that he is, indeed, radiant. It’s one of many funny moments.

“Why did Alberta Theatre Projects choose to do Charlotte’s Web out of all the classic children’s stories?” asked another student. “It reflects our values,” replied the education outreach coordinator.

It is a well done, heart warming story of friendship. And Avery was especially proud to see her friend RubyJune do such an amazing job.

 

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Strega Sour and other Whistler Cornucopia adventures

Posted on November 21, 2014 | 1 comment

I spent last weekend in Whistler at Cornucopia, a 10-day festival that celebrates all-things-food-and-drink in the mountain town known for its bacchanalian vibe come ski season. I had heard stories of great Cornucopia parties involving vodka shots in an ice room and seminars featuring 10 whiskey samples, and was eager to see if the festival lived up to the hype. I wasn’t disappointed.

I’ll be sharing some snapshots of Cornucopia in a couple of publications in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, here’s a rundown of how Party Night No. 1 played out…

1. Cocktails and dinner at Alta Bistro. Yes, please! I tried the cocktail special, a Strega Sour. Strega is an Italian liqueur with 70 herbal ingredients including saffron, fennel and mint (as I’ve come to learn, the Italians can make booze out of pretty much anything). Alta mixed the Strega with gin, lemon, honey syrup and an egg white to make a light and well-balanced sour with just a hint of liquorice (from the fennel). Everyone loved it.

I loved this Strega Sour from Alta Bistro in Whistler.

I loved this Strega Sour from Alta Bistro in Whistler.

Strega Sour

  • 1-1/2 oz Boomsa gin
  • 1/2 oz Strega
  • 3/4 oz honey syrup (1:1 honey-to-water ratio)
  • 1 oz fresh lemon juice
  • 1 oz egg white
  • Nasturtium leaf garnish

Method: Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker and dry shake. Add ice and shake again. Fine strain into a coupe glass and garnish with a nasturtium leaf (if in season).

— Recipe courtesy Alta Bistro, Whistler

2. Belvedere Ice Room at Bearfoot Bistro. This is just what you need after cocktails and wine at dinner. In the corner of the bar is a Belvedere-sponsored freezer room with walls of ice into which are carved niches that house over 40 bottles of different brands of premium vodka. To go inside the freezing space (it’s kept chilled at -25C) for a private vodka tasting you don a Canada Goose jacket (they’re rated for something like -100C, so you’re actually kind of hot), and send up a prayer that you don’t pass out after four vodka shots in five minutes (and get left inside the freezer overnight). The theory behind the room is that the cold tamps down the alcohol’s heat so you can actually taste the vodka flavours. Like kids in a dangerous candy shop, we tried regular, cherry, grape and salted caramel.

If you like vodka, this is the room for you.

If you like vodka, this is the room for you.

3. And then there was the bobsled. Bearfoot Bistro’s owner, Andre Saint-Jacques, keeps a bobsled suspended from the ceiling in the restaurant’s wine cellar. Naturally, we found ourselves wandering about down there after four shots of vodka. We asked Andre if we could get into the bobsled and the next thing we knew, he was lowering it down using some kind of hydraulic system. We piled in for a very strange photo op.

Piling into the Bearfoot Bistro bobsled. That's owner Andre Saint-Jacques at the back left.

The Bearfoot Bistro bobsled. That’s owner Andre Saint-Jacques at the back left.

Ah Whistler, the party carries on no matter the season! And, if you love skiing, you’re in luck — Whistler Blackcomb opens for the 2014-15 ski season November 22.

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