opinionated alchemist

Do you have also the feeling that last year passed light-speedy fast?  And to be honest,  there hasn't been a lot of room for trends to stick - except everything related to the pandemic (we are talking about take away, in different iterations, ghost kitchens and so on). I try not to go too much in this trends and stay with true beverage related trends (products and all) - if you are interested, let me know, if you like to see another article about trends, which are more venue related... So which trends can we predict for 2022? Alcohol-free spirits This is a big one. It seems to really penetrate the market. Even here in Dubai - even the major supermarkets start to carry those spirits. I do think though, that there is definitely a lot of area of improvement. Some products are good (e.g. gin) - some are simply not enjoyable (until now I could only try one "0º Whisky which was simply disgusting! Alcohol-free spirits are changing totally the paradigm for alcohol-free cocktails....

  It is the season. There are more events (yeah - events with people, pandemic is kinda mitigated - yay…), hot drinks are requested. Before especially in events I have used “coffee urns” which kept warm with gel-stoves. It works quite well, they don’t need a lot of space, they are also keeping things warm. But: you cannot really control the heat (its real fire).  And beverages which are thicker (e.g. hot chocolate) start to burn. Also: if you are holding alcohol drinks warm, it will evaporate and overheat. What is the solution: Using a water-bath. A bain-marie is not exactly something new - only that the kitchen appliances usually take more “real-estate”, and the manual ones are not made for beverages (not deep enough - they are made only to hold food warm), and the electric ones are not only big - but they are also very expensive. Enter Sous Vide, or better said an immersion circulator. If you are only heating a couple of bottles of a beverage, a wine bucket is alread...

Who would knew, that I am reviewing a budget vodka here - on the opinionatedalchemist.com. But this isn't a normal review. I skip the marketing perception and use this product to cut directly to the case: Vodka is a "rather" neutral, colorless, "rather" flavorless and odorless distilled beverage from any agricultural source - and depending on the country, it has a minimum of 37.5% and 40% abv. As I said time and time again before: at times it is absolutely nonsense to talk about premium and luxury, when the original product doesn't really "hold this promise". Luxury water can have luxurious marketing, luxurious packaging, can be even rare and slightly more expensive "to produce". However really it is just water. Maybe it has some nuances to normal water - however those nuances (in a blind-test) are pretty small. Vodka is extremely similar - and the chain of evidence (despite a lot of people trying to proof otherwise) makes it re...

The opinionated "shots" is a new category on www.opinionated.alchemist.com, which will just capture new ideas, new concepts. But they are only "tickers" - short notices... and might be picked up in future posts. Fat Washing I think the technique of fat washing is great and it incorporates a surprising amount of flavour. Yesterday I have cooked spinach tamale stuffed chicken roll and used coconut oil for the tamale mix. I was pretty stumped, that the coconut aroma is so noticeable [especially, as I am not that fond of coconut]. But that let me think of doing homemade coconut infused rum or coconut rum liqueur [maybe the liqueur could be actually sweetened with coconut-sugar]. Another amazing flavour is happening to be cocoa butter. It really taste like chocolate [maybe less pronounced and the texture is different]. Hence making a cocoa butter washed whisky [or rum, or tequila, or you name it], might be very interesting. Indian "eating vessels...

I have had today a small promotion in the Ritz Carlton Club Lounge. We offered a couple of special drinks for our club guests. While it is a nice thing to do - you have to be very carefully what kind of drinks your offering - on one hand you have no proper bar set up. On the other hand, you might need to do a lot of drinks - so don't put yourself into the shit. I took the opportunity to promote La Baie Lounge styled drinks - and also I have proven the point, that with quite some mis en place, you can serve very fast, very good drinks - and this was also very important for me. One drink was a reconstructed pina colada - fresh pineapple juice, Matusalem platino and a hint of coconut [in La baie I thought to clarify the pineapple juice] topped with coconut espuma [made with coconut milk, lime and xanthan gum]. A lot of guest liked it and drink several of those. But the real triumph was a strawberry-basil soda. I served it as Gin & Tonic [added tonic at last] an...

Sometimes it is quite tough to get proper products here in the Middle East. After the whole controversy with Monin , I was looking for a good syrup company. Some syrups like grenadine [made with real pomegranate juice and cane sugar, a bit off hibiscus, orange flower water and maybe even aronia juice] is pretty easy to make yourself. However others like elderflower, which is quite a trend flavor [and really a great flavor] is much more difficult to do - at least here in the Middle East, where you don't have elder trees growing. To be honest I was quite disappointed by Fabbri. While I am still a big fan of their amarena cherries, their syrups... suck! They are a bit more natural as the ones of Monin - but still pack quite some conservatives, artificial color and other stuff, which is simply not convincing. Still have to test Toschi - but these syrups might be very similar to the other big commercial companies. I will test them in future; stay tuned. Back to Darbo - I got ...

I just read the article " Dessert in the Sky " in TimeOut Abu Dhabi. It is interesting, that a quite simple culinary experience can capture guests [and journalist], and not only impress people - but also lure them serious money out of their pockets. A three-course menu for AED 1,220.00 ain't cheep. Please read the details in the link above - just to give you a short synopsis: Dinners are strapped into chairs around one big table. The structure with the chairs and tables are lifted by a crane to 50m height. You will have a 3 course menu [obviously it is rather simple, as the chefs don't really have a lot of equipment - they can more or less just arrange the food - but not cook it]. You have a breathtaking and slightly freighting view around you and subsequently you are a big pile of money lighter after the experience… Nice. I usually like to have it less flashy. But we can definitely learn out of this concept: The experience is all about the perception of gues...

For the moment, I am not only working on new menus, but overall on the strategy of Skylite. I made quite some progress - but finally got stuck on one important question: Customer [or better said guest] expectations. Now, you could tell me know 20 different guest expectations - however, are you really sure about this? And even more importantly - do these obvious guests expectations have priority, for the guest? Don't get me wrong - I think cleanliness, attentiveness of the server, food & beverage quality and so on are essential - but maybe, just maybe we can make the difference, if we are really sure about the priorities of guests. You can find a lot of discussions and studies about customer expectations - but surprisingly, they are based on assumptions and not evidence - and I could not find one study related to F&B, gastronomy or hospitality, which goes beyond the surface. Wanna have a practical example? There is a whole list of standards [which are based on ho...