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The Cocktail Kitchen
intended to be – the balance between
the fundamentals of accurately pairing
food and beverages outside of the wine
world. Ben’s world travels and detailed
research have allowed him to create a
series of month-to-month menus for the
Cocktail Kitchen Series that are simple
expressions of a particular region’s cuisine
and culture. It is these dishes that the
contestant bartenders are challenged to
pair with creative cocktails.
Some of the first Cocktail Kitchen
series’ contestant bartenders were
hand-selected. Some were invited
to participate based on reputation,
others applied or made themselves
stand out at preliminary trials held
in June 2010. The trials involved
The Refinery’s co-owner Raymond
Staniscia heading out to bars and
restaurants with his bar management
team and secretly ordering off-the-cuff
strange creations. The reason was to
challenge Vancouver mixologists to
create avant-garde, creative cocktails as
this experimentation paves the way to
the future of the cocktail. It was these
spontaneous creations that allowed The
ACHioTE AnD WHEAT ALE-MArinATED FLAnK STEAK PAirED WiTH An
“HorCHATA PiCAnTE” CoCKTAiL
for recipe, please see page 126
Refinery to discover bartenders with
true Cocktail Kitchen potential.
Homemade bitters, tinctures, sodas,
syrups, super foods, scientific method
and food science are just a few of the
key concepts at The Refinery. Over the
last 18 months, the Cocktail Kitchen
Series competition has become the
developmental outcome of an innovative
cocktail program pushing creative
boundaries. Here are some examples of
the results – three outstanding pairings
with recipes for both cocktails and
dishes. Feel free to try these at home!
TASTE 31