Gaby Mlynarczyk - Clean + Dirty Drinking: 100+ Recipes for Making Delicious Elixirs, With or Without Booze

For Iggy, I raise a glass to you, wherever you may be!

Text copyright 2018 by Gabriella Mlynarczyk.
Photographs copyright 2018 by Grant Cornett.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 9781452163949 (epub, mobi)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Mlynarczyk, Gabriella, author. | Cornett, Grant, photographer.
Title: Clean + dirty drinking / by Gabriella Mlynarczyk ; photographs by Grant Cornett.
Other titles: Clean and dirty drinking
Description: San Francisco : Chronicle Books, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017025825 | ISBN 9781452163819 (hc : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Cocktails. | Alcoholic beverages. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.
Classification: LCC TX951 .M59 2018 | DDC 641.87/4dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017025825

Food and prop styling by Maggie Ruggiero
Designed by Alice Chau
Typesetting by DC Typography

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CHAPTER ONE:
MISE

CHAPTER TWO:
FORAGING

CHAPTER THREE:
CLEAN+DIRTY COCKTAILS

To drink or not to drink? That is the question!

Is it nobler to treat your body like a temple, imbibing only that which makes you stronger? Or to live fast, die young, and leave a legend of debauchery on the journey to meet your maker? Ive walked both paths and, along the way, I found my balance. Too much of anything and youll find yourself in trouble; as Buddhist teachings tell us, we will find peace in the middle ground.

Dont get me wrongIm not a born-again bartender, and Im not going to spout Vedic scripture or suggest a week of standing on your head to negate the weekends indulgent practices. As a trip through this book will show you, I believe that feeding both your body and your soul doesnt have to be as unfulfilling as that plate of alfalfa sprouts and mashed yeast that Woody Allen turned his nose up at in Annie Hall. My philosophy is this: If a drink is going to pass your lips, even if the emphasis is on its health claims, it should be a pleasure to taste. And if, on the contrary, its a boozy bev, it could and should be beneficial in some wayafter all, most spirits were invented for medicinal purposes, even while they came with the (often addictive) side effect of making imbibers feel high.

I came to bartending in 1986. Back then, I had champagne taste on a tap water budget, but as a lover of fashion and a student of the rag trade, I felt it was my duty to be decked out in what my peers and I considered the best. Bartending filled my pockets with just enough money to keep my closet full of vintage cool and my lips painted with Chanel lipstick. Bartending was a job; it was never supposed to be a lifelong commitment. And yet, somehow, over time, it got into my blood.

That said, from my longtime position behind the bar Ive had the opportunity to watch some badass chefs in their element and soak up some of their tricks. When I step up to that slab of wood, my shy, oddball, inner kid transforms into a Martini-stirring diva with confidence for days. Although some of my 9-to-5-er friends criticize me for not having a real job, bartending has given me a flexible lifestyle: I can pack up and come and go as I please, and meet someone new every single day. And its a creative outlet as well, feeding my artistic hunger to constantly reinventif not myself, then at least what is in the glass before me. Its also the reason I get to write this book!

I come from a family of culinary tinkerers, inventors-by-necessity, and experimentation artists. My Pops Iggy was a musician and the master of both the Newkie Brown hot toddy (a blend of Newcastle Brown Ale warmed and blended with honey and, sometimes, garlic) and the perfect cup of tea. My mum and my aunts Janine and Judy were always on a mission to one-up each other with the lightest pastry recipe. Gramps was a gifted gardener: I swear, if he planted a toenail, he could grow a human. My witch-doctor Gran could banish demons from your head with a spirit-wrapped tea towel and a fireside chant, and she also taught me the discipline of working with needles: embroidery, crochet, and invisible hems. She drilled into my head at an early age the folkloric maxim, If you dont have good thoughts in your mind, what you have in your hand will come to no good. And she was right!

My unorthodox family, a clan of foreign outsiders in suburban England, was very Catholic, but at the same time paganish, you could say, in our connection to the earth we stood on and the seasons that governed our diet. My summers were spent digging for earthworms or lounging under sunflowers eating a bucketful of bush blackberries. Seasonality was not a choice; it was how my grandparents ate. And, so in turn, seasonality inspires my drinks: each is an ode to the time of year or a fresh ingredient at its growing peak.

Another big influence on my cocktail styling is that from my home-growing roots to my DIY adulthood, I never had much of a budget for luxuries, such as pricey mixers and other extras. So, as a bartender, and out of necessity, I adapted my recipes to whatever ingredients I could forage: fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables and herbs, or year-round oils, vinegars, teas, and dried herbs and spices. This practice earned me the moniker the Pantry Raider at Ink restaurant, where I worked for a spell for genius chef Michael Voltaggio.

But Im getting ahead of myself. As I waded into the world of watering holes, I picked up some training while working in London for Terence Conran, where my first mixed drink was a white wine spritzer requested by R&B goddess Sade. Later, in New York, an Earl Grey Tea Sour whipped up by Audrey Saunders of Pegu Club changed my life forever. The perfection of this drink sang to meand my brain worked overtime to figure out how it was made. Around the same time, I was introduced to two exceptionally skilled bartenders well versed in pre-Prohibition-style cocktail making. I had simply never tasted drinks so good, and I owe my fledgling cocktail education to themthanks, Audrey, for providing that initial spark, and Lynnette and Jim for filling in the numerous gaps!

A few years later, after several hundred incredibly hazy nights and several hundred more beautifully made cocktails, I found myself relocating to Los Angeles for a reset. L.A.the land of eternal sunshine, where the abundance of the seasonal harvest made me feel like the proverbial kid in the candy store. This was produce like Id never seen before, piled high in farmers market stalls: fragrant Thai basil blossoms begging to be sniffed; fat, bulging Japanese tomatoes; melt-in-your-mouth Seascape strawberries winking bright red and tasting like Mother Nature had intended. I felt like it was my ordained duty to celebrate this phenomenal edible bounty.