04 Oct From Cuban mixology to cocktail innovation in Barcelona
Article from Excelencias Gourmet.
The theme and common denominator of the next Science and Cooking World Congress Barcelona 2023 is “Processes. Tradition and innovation.” For this reason, a block dedicated to mixology-cocktailmaking processes could not be missing.
As explained to Excelencias Gourmet, Pere Castells, President of the Science and Cooking World Congress, “if you appeal to the Royal Spanish Academy, cocktail making is the art of preparing cocktails. And a cocktail is defined as a drink, generally alcoholic, that results from a mixture of others with several other ingredients.”
The expert also indicated that “the beginnings of cocktails are not very clear and surely since ancient times mixtures were prepared that could be considered cocktails, but in the 16th century and hand in hand with the production of medicinal herbal spirits by the order Benedictine, and also from the emergence of the distilleries that were spreading, these mixtures spread. From there, mixing distillates with sugar, lemon, aromatic herbs, etc., became popular, and Jerry Thomas’s book gave it ideological consistency.”
According to President Castells, on November 15, within the framework of the SCWC Barcelona 2023, a set of presentations will be presented with the common denominator of Cocktails. They will be introduced and coordinated by François Chartier, Sommelier, aromatic researcher and creator of the aromatic science of Molecular Harmonies.
François will give an introduction to the world of cocktails and how this preparation can be given scientific-gastronomic content.
You may be interested in: SCWC 2023: Processes and dynamics in the world’s kitchens
Later, he will present Cuban cocktails with great icons such as the El Floridita and La Bodeguita del Medio establishments, among others. Led by Antonio Lavastida (Bartender-Cuba) and Mª Esther Abreu (Professor and President SCWC BCN La Habana) they will explain the tradition and innovation in Cuban cocktails and how it manages to continue being a reference in the world.
Then it will be the turn of the Paradiso cocktail bar (Barcelona), which, thanks to Giacomo Giannotti and a great team, has positioned itself as the number 1 cocktail bar in the world, according to The World’s 50 Best Bars. They will present their Paradiso Lab project that makes creativity its central axis. Their great support in science will be presented in the presentation titled: “Science at the service of creativity.”
And Marc Álvarez could not be missing, the considered Grand Master of Liquid Gastronomy, who has worked in the area of El Bulli, and who with Albert Adrià led their Cocktail projects.
A little over two years ago and in the middle of the pandemic, the Sips cocktail bar opened in Barcelona, which in such a short time has ranked number 3 in the world, according to The World’s 50 Best Bars.
A Barcelona Classic is also in the Gotarda group. Because of everything he has experienced, he proposes to us at the Congress to make a presentation titled “From 1933 to 2023 – 90 years of tradition and innovation in cocktails” that precisely reflects the spirit of SCWC Barcelona 2023.
We recommend: Science and development in the kitchen: sustainable collective restoration
It will end with the coordinator of the Cocktails block. François Chartier will round out the sessions by explaining “How to use the science of molecular harmonies in the world of cocktails.”
They will be moments in which we will try to reflect the great moment of cocktail innovation in the world and how through tradition we have reached this splendid 2023.
Cover photo: Mª Esther Abreu (SCWC BCN 2022). Professor and great Cuban scientist. President of the Science and Cooking World Congress Barcelona-Havana.