Garden to Glass

Mike Wolf

Description

Wide Appeal: The recipes will appeal to drinking enthusiasts of all kinds from cocktail bon vivants to wine and beer lovers and gardeners alike.

Mixology Expert: Wolf established the bar program at the popular restaurant Husk in Nashville, TN by utilizing on-site gardens, the bounty of Middle Tennessee, and a home garden comprised of upwards of 30 varieties of herbs and vegetables. His drinks have been featured in Imbibe Magazine, Local Palette Magazine, the Tennessean, Foodable TV Network, and more. Mike is currently opening the much anticipated Chopper Tikki Bar in Nashville and is also the co-host of the liquid gold podcast.

Cocktail culture: The desire for inventive drinks and sustainable home-grown ingredients at restaurants has grown tremendously over the past few decades.

Sujets

• Cuisine
• Cuisine par ingrédients
• Coktails
• Bartending
• Alcoholic Beverages
• Beverages
• Cooking

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 12 novembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781684422104
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

PRAISE FOR MIKE WOLF AND GARDEN TO GLASS
Garden to Glass is a back-to-the-land cocktail manifesto. Rather than chase down exotic liqueurs, Mike Wolf finds new flavors in roadside berries, garden-variety leaves and flowers, and even a few weeds. This is an inspired re-imagining of the twenty-first century cocktail, one that takes drinks back to their roots (literally) through the fruits and herbs that anyone can grow. Wolf s enthusiasm and improvisational spirit are refreshing-and after the first chapter, you ll never look at tomato leaves the same way again.
-Amy Stewart, New York Times best-selling author of The Drunken Botanist
There has always been one word to describe Mike Wolf and that is thoughtful . Thoughtful not only in his family life, but in the great detail in his work. Garden to Glass highlights the farmer in all of us and the ingredients it takes to put together ingenious cocktails.
-Katie Coss, chef, Husk Nashville
If the cocktail renaissance of the past 20 years or so has been about people rediscovering and refining cocktails, spirits, liqueurs, etc. from the past, and through their own perspective creating a new era of originality and creativity, it only makes sense for someone like Mike to show us what you can learn in your own backyard.
-Matt Tocco, beverage director, Strategic Hospitality
I m always drawn to people who go the extra mile with everything they do. Mike Wolf is one of those people. This book is a fantastic dive into the world of gardening and cocktails; two of my favorite pastimes. When I grab a seat at his bar, I m instantly at ease knowing that I m in great hands, and also about to have a fantastic conversation! With this book, the reader is able to experience those great vibes on every page!
-Andy Little, Chef, Josephine
Mike Wolf is among the best bartenders I ve met. His drinks are smart, creative, and most importantly delicious. This book is a must-have for anyone trying to build upon their bartending game and utilize farmed and foraged ingredients to create more interesting drinks. Also - Brian Baxter s watercolors are sick.
- Josh Habiger, Chef/Owner Bastion
GARDEN to GLASS
Mike Wolf
Turner Publishing Company
Nashville, Tennessee
www.turnerpublishing.com
Copyright 2019 Mike Wolf
Garden to Glass: Grow Your Drinks from the Ground Up
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to Turner Publishing Company, 4507 Charlotte Avenue, Suite 100, Nashville, Tennessee, [phone], fax [phone], E-mail: [e-mail] .
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Cover design: Bryce McCloud
Book design: Stacy Wakefield Forte
Illustrations: Brian Baxter
Illustrations: Jess Machen
Photography: Peter Frank Edwards
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request
9781684422098 Paperback
9781684422081 Hardcover
9781684422104 Ebook
Printed in the United States of America
17 18 19 20 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
DEDICATION
To Kate, Leila, Henry, Boone, June and the memory of Merle
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1
THE COMMENCEMENT
Bitter Beginnings
CHAPTER 2
THE WORLD IS YOUR GARDEN
Welcome to the Terroir Dome
CHAPTER 3
CYCLES OF LIFE LOSS
with the Barefoot Farmer
CHAPTER 4
RHUBARB, REDBUD,
the Spring Bling
CHAPTER 5
A BOUNTY OF BERRIES
Gin for the Win
CHAPTER 6
CAF MOJITOS, MINT,
the Soul of Cuba
CHAPTER 7
DRINK YOUR VEGETABLES,
Pimp Your Pimm s, Love Your Lovage
CHAPTER 8
STEPPING UP
the Garnish Game
CHAPTER 9
THE SWEET WATER OF LIFE
Cordials the Art of Finishing
CHAPTER 10
KNOW YOUR ROOTS
Your Farmers
CHAPTER 11
AS THE SEASONS ROLL
FOREWORD
M ike Wolf was one of my first hires when I came to Nashville, Tennessee to open Husk. My hiring process tends to be an ardent one. I can tell pretty quickly when someone is going to fit into our culture by how many times they smile when I am rambling on about Southern food being amongst the best in the world. Mike was one of those interviews that stood out, and I hired him instantly. I wanted to work very closely with the bar team to ensure that what ended up in the glass matched the ethos of our cooking. My advice was to find the most vibrant and exquisite products each day, then do very little to them and make sure they sang. Mike had already been thinking in that direction, and I could see his face light up with curiosity and wonderment. As we embarked on the initial research and development for Husk Nashville s opening menu, I recall the relief I felt when I tasted Mike s first creations. I didn t have to worry about the beverage program anymore, because he was already thinking the way we do in the kitchen.
We built a large garden around the restaurant and made sure that the landscaping was mostly edible. My favorite herb, and most certainly one of my favorite smells, is lovage. On our opening menu I created a dish inspired by my mom s chicken and dumplings (one of the South s most iconic comfort foods). I added lovage to the dumplings and we had to plant a lot more in the garden to keep up. I recall going to the garden one day to pick some herbs and realized that most of the lovage from the day before was gone. Morgan! What happened to the lovage? Morgan replied, Mike is making something for his cocktail menu with it. I said, Please inform him that if he wants to use that much lovage, he needs to grow it himself! I was half-joking, but it didn t get translated to Mike that way. Before long he was coming to work with enormous bouquets of fresh herbs from his house and planting random things outside the back door of the restaurant bar. At one point, I was actually raiding his plants by the light of the moon after he had gone home. When you walked into the bar during service you were met with giant bundles of redbud flowers sitting in water, next to bunches of elderflowers and Queen Anne s lace. It appeared as though we hired a florist to just focus on the bar. It was exciting to collaborate with someone who was as inspired as I was by Mother Nature.
I always loved seeing Mike pop-in to the kitchen with his latest creation, presenting it on the pass the way a sous chef would present a new salad. Chef, taste this and tell me what you think! In Garden to Glass he showcases his alchemy with tinctures and potions that you can also make at home with herbs from your windowsill or dandelion from your front yard. After reading these pages you will start to see nature become your grocery store, and your back yard will likely be dug up to make room for more lovage before you know it.
SEAN BROCK
INTRODUCTION
I t s funny how the simplest things can fall forward in life, like how a glance around the bar in a quick moment before service became the first domino that tumbled into the creation of this book. I remember a day at now-defunct Nashville cocktail bar Holland House, when we had run out of blackberries and we happened to have a very popular blackberry old fashioned on the menu. I mentioned how I had been riding my bike down at Shelby Park, an immense public park with greenways and wild spaces in East Nashville, and I noticed wild blackberries growing all over the place. When I suggested we just go down there and pick some, everybody looked at me like I was crazy. When I went to pick blackberries the next day, I noticed exotic flowers popping up all over the place that turned out to be wild passionflower and elderflower. It took a lot of research and cross-checking, but my curiosity only grew from there. A few years later, I was working at Rumours East, located in a charming bungalow in the historic Lockeland Springs neighborhood. In the backyard, we had a garden filled with herbs and vegetables that the chef, Hrant Arakelian, who has since moved on to open the amazing Lyra, used in his signature modern Middle Eastern food. I realized that it didn t take an entire farm s worth of ingredients to make a big difference in the quality of the drinks. I would cut a few herbs here and there to garnish a gimlet, and during the summer I would pick from the honeysuckle vine that filled the whole patio and garden area with its warm, floral perfume. The combination of lemon thyme and honeysuckle flowers sitting on top of the foam from a silky egg-white whiskey sour, was a turning point for me. The aroma was so intense. The drink was dynamic and complex, and I knew I was beginning a whole new journey.
Gardening is a lot like the bar and restaurant business. Just when you think you ve got a handle on things, something unforeseen happens and you have a whole new set of problems on your hands. You think you ve mastered one particular area only to discover you neve