Clint Pattemore - Caesars The Essential Guide to Your Favourite Cocktail

Welcome to my world of Caesars! In this book, Im very excited to share my thoughts, ideas, and recipes for Canadas cocktail. Since my first experience making and tasting the Caesars savoury tomato-clam mixture, as a rookie bartender on a riverboat, I have had a real fondness for this most Canadian of cocktails.

Now, as the Caesar Mixing Officer (CMO) for Motts* Clamato*, I get to spread what I call the Caesar love across Canada and meet die-hard Caesar fans all over this great country. I am continually blown away by how passionate Canadians are about this cocktailand now I get to share this passion with you!

The cocktail recipes in this book have been created simply, using common grocery store ingredients and basic drink-making techniques. They are designed to show you new ways to make your favourite Caesar, and to inspire you to get creative (and a little unconventional!) at home. Of course, there will always be purists who will drink only the classic version, and thats all right with mehey, its the classic for a reason, right? But I hope I can show you how the classic recipe also acts as a great platform to highlight other ingredients and flavours.

There are lots of hints and tips on how to make variations of each cocktail recipe throughout the book, so use them as guidelines and build upon them. My hope is that you will try the Caesars Ive created, then take those ideas and make them your own. Once you find the ingredients and ratios that taste best to you, share them with others, and help me to keep converting non-Caesar drinkers into new fans.

Happy mixinglets spread the Caesar love!

Clinton Pattemore
@CaesarClint

The year 1969 was an exciting one in Canada. Bell-bottoms were all the rage. Winnipeg rockers The Guess Who topped the charts with These Eyes, and John Lennon played his first post-Beatles concert with the Plastic Ono Band in Toronto. The Montreal Expos played their first home game, bringing Major League Baseball to Canada. And, in Calgary, a bartender mixed up a tasty new concoction that would go on to become Canadas cocktail: the Caesar.

That man was Walter Chell. He worked as a restaurant manager at the Owls Nest bar in what was then the Calgary Inn and is now the Westin Calgary. He was asked to come up with a new cocktail to celebrate the opening of the hotels new eatery, Marcos Italian Restaurant, and chose to name it Caesar, after the great Roman emperor. Working off the new restaurants menu, Chell based his new aperitif on the rich and complex flavours of one of the dishes, Spaghetti Vongole (spaghetti with clams). His cocktail creation featured a flavour profile of sweet (tomato juice), salty (clam nectar), sour (lime), savoury (Worcestershire sauce), and bitter (celery salt). The Duffy-Mott Company made life easier for bartenders and Caesar lovers alike by introducing Motts Clamato Cocktail, a cocktail mixer combining all these flavours, later that same year.

The Caesar has since evolved from its strictly vodka-based beginnings to include a myriad of spirit, spice, and flavour combinationsall anchored by the indispensable ingredient of Motts Clamato Cocktailand its popularity has kept on growing. In a 2006 survey conducted by the CBC, the Caesar was voted the 13th greatest Canadian invention of all time, and in 2009, while celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Caesar, the Canadian Parliament declared it Canadas National Cocktail. More than 350 million Caesars are now enjoyed by Canadians each year! We just cant get enough of this true taste of Canada.

All cocktails have a built-in sociability to them. Theyre designed to be admired, enjoyed, savoured, and celebrated in the company of friends and family. They are the classic accessoryor, sil vous plat, laccoutrementto good times. And yet, the Caesar is somehow in a class of its own. The vibrant colours and flavours of the classic recipe or any of its ever-evolving variations, accented with a bold and unique rim and an endless array of possible garnishesall combine to produce a cocktail that is as much a piece of art as it is an achievement in mixology. And that is what this book is all about: capturing that mysterious yet so familiar essence that is Canadas cocktailthe perfect additional element to good friends, good food, and good times.

The savoury, bold character of the Caesar cries out for tasty food dishes to accompany it, so along with the cocktail recipes in this book, there are also food recipes to enjoy with them. These recipes were created by Connie DeSousa and John Jackson, the co-owners and co-executive chefs of Calgarys CHARCUT Roast House. Connie and John believe in value, sustainability, creativity, and the promise food holds for community, both local and global, and theyve enjoyed a rush of critical and guest accolades for their urban-rustic fare. The food at Charcut Roast House is back-to-basics fare, expertly prepared, fresh and from scratch. Oh, and a sign that theyre perfect to write the food recipes for this book: one of the places they worked together early in their careers was the Owls Nestthe very establishment where Walter Chell first created the Caesar!