Hello Cocktail Lovers!
It’s crazy times, right? With COVID-19 keeping as all confined I’m taking the opportunity to record a few extra episodes of Paris Cocktail Talk featuring friends and contacts in the food and drink world in France talking about how the lockdown has affected them and their businesses. For this part, I’ve interviewed a dozen industry pros about their individual experiences and it’s a very interesting listen. This is part 1 of a 2 part segment.
Professionals featured on the show:
Caroline Conner is the founder of Lyon Wine Tasting. She is an American-British sommelier and chef with over a decade of experience working in the wine business across both sides of the Atlantic. She is a big nerd with a Cordon Bleu diploma, internationally prestigious wine qualification and a super useful undergrad degree in Archaeology from Oxford. Her wine philosophy is to help you drink better wine for less money. She’s super against wine snobbery.
She is the Secretary of Les Dames d’Escoffier International France Chapter, an international philanthropic organization of women in hospitality. She loves Lyon, skiing, and karaoke.
Check out her instagram and her blog at winedinecaroline.com.
Also, check out her virtual happy hour wine tastings she’s holding during the COVID-19 confinement.
Katie Peraudeau of Art is an Ale Brewing
Katie Peraudeau and her husband own and run Art is an Ale Brewing, an American style craft brewery using only the best French raw materials. They combine the unique complexities of craft recipes with quality of consistency.
They are also doing beer deliveries during COVID-19 Confinement.
Rosa Jackson runs the cooking school Les Petits Farcis in Nice and the Paris food tour company Edible Paris. She also leads culinary adventures to countries such as Morocco and Georgia, and writes about food for international publications. Follow her on Instagram to watch her mini-cooking classes on her IGTV that she started with the COVID-19 confinement.
Greg Inder is the co-owner of The Cambridge Public House, a Cocktail bar and Pub in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. He is British born and living in Paris for 4 years. At The Cambridge Public House they are using the COVID-19 Confinement time to get some things done behind the scenes. But, I highly recommend a visit to the Cambridge Public House when the quarantine is lifted and read about it in our review on 52 Martinis!
Jessamy Holland, along with her husband Charles Kokougan, own Paris beer shop the Beer and the Lady. Their shop is open and people are picking up craft beers there during the COVID-19 Confinement for lockdown apero hours!
Charles is a former professional soccer player, born and raised in the Paris region and Jessamy is an an American living in Paris for nine years, who teaches at an international school in Neuilly. They got into the beer scene when Jessamy introduced Charles to American craft beer and one day they went to A La Bière Comme A La Bière in Montmartre and the distributor was delivering their favorite beer. They got to talking and he needed some extra help, so they were introduced into the distribution business. That was around five years ago and since then they have has also created the company, Craft Beer France.
They’ve also been featured on a full episode of Paris Cocktail Talk about Craft Beer in France.
Omid Tavallai and Alannah McPherson are the couple behind Emperor Norton, specialized in the food of California, the American West, and the Pacific Rim. Known for bringing brunch and burritos to Parisians, they have been partnering with specialty coffee houses and collaborating with cocktail bars and spirits brands to do everything from specialty baked goods to pop-ups and one-off events.
Knud Strand of Left Hand Spirits
Knud Strand owns Left Hand Spirits. Left Hand Spirits is a company solely dedicated to the marketing and market introduction of the highest quality of alcohols, crafted in tradition and knowhow. Their philosophy is to shorten the distances and bring to the market, high quality products. Like left-handed people, they don’t follow the most “normal” pattern when conducting their business. Knud has contacts all over the world, so offers up a great global view of how COVID-19 is affecting the industry.
Mary Kirk, Certified Sommeliere
French-American Mary Kirk, certified sommelière, started her own business over 15 years ago as a wine consultant, leading wine events and tastings, wine education, and wine tours in the French vineyards and in Paris. Check out her website (currently being updated, so check back again for more info in the future!) Mary is brainstorming interesting online wine classes during her COVID-19 Confinement.
Yves is a drinks consultant and entrepreneur. After 17 years in brand marketing and business development in the spirits industry (at Moët Hennessy, Diageo, Berry Bros & Rudd and Pernod Ricard), he now advises spirits brands and trains bartenders. He also has plans (which were temporarily put on hold due to COVID-19) to launch his own spirit brand, an extra dry coffee liqueur called Algebra.
After studying in England and 5 years in mergers and acquisitions, Timothee Badie decided to embark on a new and exciting adventure in the world of spirits. After bar training, he spent some time stirring up some delicious drinks at the Marseilles speakeasy, Carry Nation. Here, he discovered his love for the products and the thousand subtleties that spirits offer. So he called his friend Matthieu Henry and together they started Les Coquetelers, a company bottling high quality spirits. Want to enjoy some of their bottlings? Even while on COVID-19 Confinement, you can pre-order the coming summer release of the Blanche d’Armagnac and the Melon Liqueur!
Chef Eric Fraudeau created Cook’n With Class back in 2007 with one thing in mind, to share his love of French cuisine with enthusiastic food lovers of all ages.
In 2013, Eric’s wife, Yetunde Oshodi came on board to take charge of the marketing initiatives and has been a part of the team ever since animating the social media pages and photographing the classes and the recipes.
With his small team of international chefs, Cook’n with Class offers hands-on French cooking classes from macaron and bread making to French market classes including an informative and enjoyable shopping visit at a local market. Classes are deliberately kept small so that everyone can get into the fun.
They also lead culinary vacations in France. https://letseattheworld.com/course/cooking-vacation-france/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=52-martinis&utm_campaign=traffic-paris&utm_term=culinary%20vacations%20in%20France
Learn more on their Facebook pages:
Cook’n With Class Paris: https:/facebook.com/cooknwithclass.paris
Let’s Eat The World: https://facebook.com/letseattheworldsl
Chef Eric Fraudeau: https://facebook.com/chefericfraudeau (can remove this one)
Instagram:
Paris: instagram.com/cooknwithclass.paris
Culinary Experiences for Food & Travel Lovers: instagram.com/_letseattheworld
Youtube:
Cook’n With Remi channel (playlist): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi2zJK0R3U_LDwU9WkwrUmjnDLoX-F6vb
Cook’n With Class Recipes (playlist): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi2zJK0R3U_KSiBbLEXqRomeHZ-EnaVCh
They have a monthly newsletter in which they send out two new recipes per month. They have a number of public recipes on the recipe site but being subscribed to our newsletter opens gives you chefs’ tips, new monthly recipes, travel news, and more
Sign up: https://cooknwithclass.com/newsletter-subscription/
Cynthia Coutu is the founder of Delectabulles, a champagne networking club for women.
During the COVID-19 confinement she is producing a webinar series.
Learn more about Delectabulles, Champagne and and women in Champagne online and in her social media feeds: Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Or sign up for her newsletter for lots of info, tips, Champagne bar and event recommendations and a summary of her social media feed.
Also you’ll find lots of information about women in Champagne in these two articles by Cynthia:
Pairing Women and Champagne: Blending Business and Passion
International Women’s Day: Let’s Celebrate Women in Champagne!
Cocktail of the Episode: Bees Knees Cocktail
60 ml gin (we used Beefeater)
30 ml fresh squeezed lemon juice
25 ml Honey Syrup*
Shake all ingredients with ice
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass
*Honey syrup is equal parts water and honey. I pour the honey into a clean jar and put in the microwave or a bowl of hot water long enough to let it soften, to make it easy to mix with the water when added. Try and find a jar with a lid and straight sides so you can easily eyeball the 50/50 of honey and water, put the lid on and shake to combine.
Read more about the Bee’s Knees Cocktail and what cheese pairs best with it in our Cocktails & Cheese series.
Thanks to….
Thanks to all of my guests.
Thanks to Son Little for music.
As always, thank you cocktail-loving listeners for tuning in our downloading.
Don’t forget to drink responsibly!
More 52 Martinis:
If you’re looking for more cocktail and drinks talk between shows, head to our site, www.52martinis.com. And if you’d like to carry me around in your pocket, download our iOS app, Paris Cocktails, a guide to all the coolest Paris cocktail bars so you can find a great drink no matter where you are in the city.
While I love doing the podcast and bringing you what I hope is interesting news, getting reviews not only helps other people discover the show but assures me that I’m not just shouting into a void. It helps me to know that someone is listening! So, please, if you like what we’re doing, drop a quick review.
We’ll be doing Part 2 of this Episode with another dozen drinks and food professionals from France talking about how COVID-19 and the resulting confinement have affected their businesses and what kind of things they are doing as a result. If you are in the drinks or food business in France or know someone who is, drop a mail – we’d like to talk to you!
Until next time, Cheers!
