MAGICAL MOLECULAR MIXOLOGY: BARCHEF

“My motivation, artistically is to create a multi-sensory, immersive and emotional experience for our guests, to completely challenge the genre of the cocktail and create an entirely new experience in the world of food and drink,” explains Solarik. “To blur the line between cocktail and cuisine.” For Solarik, it’s very important to be constantly pushing, creating, and evolving, both artistically and technically.

While BarChef cocktails are certainly dramatic, not to mention tasty, perhaps the biggest power comes from Solarik’s references of nostalgia and emotion. “My goal is to provide the tools to allow the guests to create their own references to positive and powerful emotions with flavor, texture, and aroma,” Solarik says.

Solarik’s creative process begins with a rough concept, considering potential ingredients and desired experience. It is fleshed out with sketches, and notes, drafted and altered numerous times. He usually begins to work on concepts at least two seasons in advance so he can work on new techniques and ingredients.

Molecular mixology is not for the faint of heart. BarChef’s bartenders are trained for months to be able to safely handle all of the ingredients and equipment.

BarChef makes many of their cocktail components in-house so they can  control of every aspect of the drinking experience, from each flavor profile, to viscosity, to aromatics, to visual wow. They make all of the bitters, infusions, syrups, and more. Many are quite esoteric, such as their vanilla-bean charcoal cream.

One of our favorite BarChef cocktails, “Spring Thaw,” is an ethereal mix of icy Campari and vanilla granita, with orange blossom, grapefruit and vanilla air, basil, chamomile syrup, and gin, topped off with a fizzy pour sparkling wine.

The “Clementine and Chamomile” cocktail is a work of art and a scientific wonder. An orb of delicate translucent toasted chamomile strands and a pole of cacao “soil” graces the presentation, with an usual elixir of clementine, Reposado tequila, Pastis, and Campari, accented with thyme, almond, and coriander.

Solarik’s creations are also deeply personal. One of his favorite cocktails is “Night Blossom.” The idea came to him as we was walking his dog in the park one evening and he came across the sight of a beautifully lit cherry tree, with green and purple flowers. He remembers the lighting, the slight chill in the air, the dark surroundings. He turned it into a piece of gastronomic wizardry.

The BarChef team recreated the tree with a 6′ long gel made of cacao, cream, sugar, green Chartreuse, Gellan and agar. The blossoms were made with a fluid gel of violet liqueur and almond orgeat  (a liqueur BarChef makes in house). A julienne of balsam fir and honey replicated the wood tones and the essence of the forest.

Spherified Amaro and patchouli, made with sodium alginate (a seaweed extract) and calcium gluconolactate (a soluble salt) are paired with the cacao. They pop on contact with your tongue, as do the strands of chocolate liqueur dipped in nitrogen. A warming cocktail of Bourbon, Islay Scotch, rosemary syrup and maraschino is poured table-side to melt the ice components, and thaw the gel. This cocktail requires both sipping and chopsticks!

Solarik invented white chocolate washed water, a delicate infusion that serves as a base for cocktails such as the “Mezcal, White Chocolate and Eucalyptus.” The water is made by melting white chocolate together with hot water, then cooling it in the fridge until the fat content of the chocolate solidifies on the surface of the water and is removed, leaving a vibrant infused water that isn’t overly sweet, but has the color, aroma, and flavor of white chocolate.

For this cocktail the water is frozen with balsam fir then splashed with Pastis and accented with rosemary, violet, vanilla charcoal cream, thyme, eucalyptus ice shards, and grapefruit zest.

White chocolate washed water also used in the “Oceanic” cocktail, this time poured over cedar ice, with coconut, tarragon, coriander, curacao, lavender infused maraschino, elderflower cream and a curacao wave.

For the “Day Into Evening,” cocktail, Solarik created a transitional edible base made of one piece of gel that transitions in flavor, from chamomile, which represents “Day,” to darker flavors of bitter almond and Amaro, which represents night. The drink is made of Reposado tequila, maraschino, and toasted chamomile poured over a cacao rosemary ice ball. It is accented with a very light textured strawberry gin cream. The whole presentation comes with its own turf of freshly cut green grass.

In autumn, there’s nothing better than BarChef’s Vanilla and Hickory Smoked Manhattan. Made with Crown Royal Special Reserve Rye, vanilla infused brandy, cherry and vanilla bitters, hickory syrup, smoked hickory and vanilla, it comes cloched, so you get a heady cloud as your first taste.

Another autumn creation, the “Apricot” cocktail, is by creating meringues made with apricot sugar, frozen in liquid nitrogen, and dehydrated to create spheres which are then filled with a fluid gel of bitter almond and Madeira. The spheres are then dipped in liquid nitrogen again to create a brittle orb that bursts to fill your mouth with apricot awesomeness.

See more beautiful molecular gastronomy stories in Art, Science & Food Waltz and Gorgeous Delicious Tech Now.

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