News

MARKET BY JEAN-GEORGES

(AT THE SHANGRI-LA HOTEL)

1128 West Georgia St., Vancouver, 604-695-1115, http://www.shangri-la.com

How does a Vancouver mixologist convince Jean-Georges Vongerichten, one of New York's most famous chefs, that his liquid libations are worthy of a new cocktail menu?

By thinking like the master.

"With Jean-Georges' style of Asian-fusion cooking, every ingredient has a reason for being there," says Justin Tisdall, head bartender at Market by Jean-Georges in the new Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver.

"When creating a cocktail, you have to think the same way," Tisdall says. "Not just how does it taste, but how does it smell? What does it look like? Does the sweet balance the spice?"

The Market raw bar and lounge, a sleek whippet of a room burnished with glossy black marble, mother-of-pearl walls, hot-pink backlighting and aluminum stools, is stocked with fresh fruits, spices, herbs and purées for making such exotic elixirs as the ginger margarita and blood orange mojito.

But only two of the cocktails (the cucumber martini and the Thai Rye) are Vancouver originals. To get his own drinks on the list, Tisdall had to pass the chef's taste test. He was given about 10 minutes to come up with something impressive.

For the Thai Rye, he chose Canadian rye as the base spirit, partly out of patriotism but also because it's more bitter than bourbon.

"As soon as the drink touches your mouth, you get a little tingle on your lips from the rim and the rye. The chilies give you a bite on the back of the palate, but sweetness is the finishing note that it leaves you with."

And Vongerichten's reaction?

"He drank the whole thing," Tisdall says with a laugh. "I think it went down very well."

THAI RYE

Ingredients

2 ounces Alberta Springs 10-year-old rye

½ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 ounces reduced apple cider

METHOD

Shake and fine strain into a martini glass rimmed with a mixture of equal parts cinnamon, cayenne and sugar. Garnish with orange zest.

Reduced apple cider

1 litre organic apple cider

5 fresh vanilla beans, slit

2 Thai chilies

In a saucepan, boil the cider and vanilla beans until reduced by one third. Add diced chilies and simmer for 10 minutes. Cool. Remove chilies and vanilla beans.