Eat Your Drink - Matthew Biancaniello
Eat Your Drink:
Culinary Cocktails
Matthew Biancaniello / 176 Pages / March 2016
In the world of bars and mixology, some bartenders give themselves certain names or rather titles, often you read about mixologists, alchemists, etc. Matthew Biancaniello, on the other hand, calls himself Cocktail Chef. This designation, which comes from the world of cuisine and restaurants of course, will also be reflected in his book. The book itself is probably named after a well-known series of tasting experiences and events, "Eat Your Drink", that he hosted.
This special relationship between culinary cuisine and cocktails is also evident in the table of contents, where you'll find the recipes divided into "Amuse-Bouche" and "First Course," "Second Course," "Main Course," "Dessert," and "After Dinner."
But before that comes the preface, fittingly written by the head of a well-known "Experimental Dining Experience" in Washington, as well as the introduction by Biancaniello himself. Similar to many of these kitchen cocktail books, as a half-Greek, half-Italian, he tells you about his grandparents which always grew fresh vegetables and fruits in their garden, weekend trips to farms for your kitchen, as well as the year and a half it took to set up the farm-to-glass concept at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in L.A.
This, by the way, was also his only big bar station for several years; in the 10-plus years since, he's worked independently as a consultant for restaurants, bars, hotels, done a lot of media appearances, etc.
One of the recipes from the Second Course (mezcal, aquavit, lime, agave, celery, salt, edible flowers)
Then come the recipes, and perhaps - like me - you were wondering earlier what "amuse-bouche" even is. It is perhaps the most interesting category of recipes purely from an "ordinary" bar book perspective. The term literally means "fun/laugh in your mouth" and describes small, usually fun appetizers with a twist or something surprising that are served on the house at the restaurant to start with or in between.
It's a ritual he's discovered and maintained over the years at the hotel bar, as well as his later-founded restaurant (unfortunately burned down in one of L.A.'s big wildfires of 2018).
Here you can find 8 exciting recipes for just such appetizers, often more food than drink, or more or less always a combination of both. Hollowed out fruits or vegetables, pickled finger-lime balls that then taste like a Caipirinha in the mouth, Meyer lemon foam on rhubarb-infused aperitivo (the only pure drink, so to speak), and so on.
Each of these courses/categories is nicely introduced with a few sentences on a double page, explaining what this and that course is actually for in the restaurant, what purpose it serves (cleansing your palate, calming you down, etc.) and how this is reflected in the drinks. 56 recipes in total (including those composed more of food than liquid), each recipe normally gets a double page with a picture, often this is extended for the infusions and recipes for the individual ingredients on some more pages.
Even by this books standards a special one (Desserts), selfmade vanilla ice cream with bourbon und mushrooms, also walnut liqueur, rosemary and walnuts.
The drinks in the following courses are then again more clearly just that, actual drinks, of course with special garnishes and such, which works half of the time basically as food pairing (cherry tomatoes, edible flowers, etc.). Until you arrive at the desserts, which again like the beginning partly tend towards being more food or are an 50:50 mix of both.
Overall the recipes are not so easy to assess in their difficulty, of course there is quite often at least one special fresh ingredient (apart from the citrus of course), for which you would have to go to a market or here in Germany rather to a good Asian supermarket sometimes. Often some kind of pre-mixes are infused beforehand, e.g. for a special Pimm's Cup basically the Pimm's will be made by you with fresh ingredients as an infusion. You will find dill, kumquats, special olives, special tomatoes, shiso leaves, 25 years (!) old balsamic and much more in the pages...
Ingenious decadent highlight: a White Truffle Eggnog served in an empty emu egg. Any questions left?
Almost impressive: despite all the high kitchen inspiration, no high-tech is needed, not even sous vide, theoretically everything is feasible in a normal kitchen with many empty containers and jars.
After the last chapter, "After Dinner", comes another double page with a conversion chart of temperatures and units of measurement (spoons to ounces to ml). After that again a few pages with sources used by him for his ingredients, e.g. wholesale markets or farms and brands in the U.S., which will help you less here in Germany. Finally only the index is left and that would be it. Indeed maybe the first bar book in my collection, in which with no word glasses or tools are mentioned even briefly on their own.
Conclusion:
"Eat Your Drink" is definitely not a quick & easy to use book for most home bartenders, that should be stated right away. But it can be a great inspiration for those, especially if they also like to be active in the kitchen. Or the other way around, it can also be a great gift for passionate hobby cooks who have perhaps worked not that much with spirits yet. Although one would have to give those still a book with bar basics then, since here you get absolutely 0, really 0 about any basics, let it be tools or ice, etc.
It is well done designwise and the pictures are solid, the price is also not too high and having the above mentioned points in mind, this book is a good recommendation for the correct target audience.
