What’s in a Name -- Cocktails/Amuse

Friends – William Shakespeare said it best – What’s in a Name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. There are so many different names for food and wine but their origins may surprise you, as they did for us, thus the inspiration for tonight’s menu.

Dish/Drink History of the NameBitter End Cocktail

The bitter end refers to the flavor of Campari found at the bottom of this cocktail. This recipe is from Okanagan Spirits Distillery in Vernon, where they make Absinthe, which is in both cocktails tonight.

Absinthe is an anise-flavoured green-colored spirit derived from the flowers and leaves of Artemisia absinthium. Artemis was the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt, absinthium is from Greek apsinthion, for “wormwood”, historically associated with madness, originally thought to be due to the presence of the hallucinogenic compound, thujone.

Robert Burns Cocktail

Most people would associate tonight’s brown spirit cocktail with the famed 1700s Scottish poet. But, per the "The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book" where it was created, may have been named after a cigar salesman who was a regular patron there.

The Amaro in this cocktail, Mia Amata, is from an East Vancouver small batch distillery Odd Society Spirits. Mia Amata is named after the founder’s daughter, Mia, the name both references Mia and translates to “my beloved” in Italian.

Seedlip Cocktail

Seedlip founder Ben Branson stumbled across the book, The Art of Distillation written by the physician John French, in 1651, documenting how to distill herbal remedies in copper stills.. After being served a sickly sweet pink mocktail in a restaurant, he began experimenting, combining his family farming heritage, his copper still & French’s forgotten recipes to create proper non-alcoholic options. It is named after an implement used by his family in England, to hand sow seeds in baskets called ‘seedlips’.

Seedlip is available in 3 varieties. Tonight’s version, Spice 94 is made with cardamom, oak, allspice, grapefruit & lemon.

Carpaccio Tonight’s Amuse Bouche is beef Carpaccio, invented in 1950 by Giuseppe Cipriani at Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy. He prepared the dish for countess Amalia Nani Mocenigo after doctors had recommended that she eat raw meat. The dish was named after 15th century Italian painter, Vittore Carpaccio, a Venetian painter known for the characteristic red and white tones of his work.

Parmigiano Reggiano

Sliced atop the carpaccio is Parmigiano Reggiano. Among the oldest and best known “King of Cheeses”, the name refers to the Italian provinces of Parma and Reggio Emilia, where this cheese originated, and is a protected denomination of origin (DO).

What’s in a Name -- Cocktails/Amuse

Dean & Lisa