We asked five bartenders Quebecois to design a holiday cocktail based on local alcohol. This week, Jonas Kempeneer, who works at Café Entre-Deux, prepared a “blazer”, a flambé cocktail, using whiskey from the Montreal distillery Cirka.
Originally from Belgium (Flemish), where the minimum age for serving and consuming alcohol is 16, Jonas Kempeneer started working in bars at a very young age. Although he studied art history and teaching, he preferred to pursue a career in bartending.
“It’s a job that allowed me to travel a lot,” says the man who made cocktails around the world, in Europe, Asia and Australia, before settling in Montreal. Here, he quickly settled in one of the most cutting-edge establishments in the metropolis, the Cloakroom, where he ended up occupying the post of bar manager.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Jonas Kempeneer is bar manager at Café Entre-Deux.
Today, he works in a restaurant with a very relaxed atmosphere, the Café Entre-Deux, but whose cuisine, wine list, cocktail menu and even the coffee program are of a high standard. “I really like the synergy between all these elements. More and more restaurants are concerned with offering quality across the board. I want to continue in this vein, to open spaces like Entre-Deux. The team at this beautiful Notre-Dame-de-Grâce address, which has been open for less than a year, already has growth plans.
During the long period of bar closures, Jonas started the Neighborhood Foraging Instagram account with a friend in New Zealand. “We started making cocktails with edible plants that we found in our neighborhoods. It allowed us to get out of the house, connect with our neighbors and be creative. The Montrealer for his part experimented with dandelion roots, vinegar, white pine, crabapple, etc. Others bartenders from the UK and Hawaii, for example, joined in the adventure.
Jonas does not, however, suggest consuming wild plants without first identifying them. Her blazer contains pine needles, which can also be purchased at several delicatessens and health food stores, for example.
There are also hot spices in its version of a great classic popularized in the mid-19th century.e century by the legendary Jerry Thomas, father of American mixology.
Cirka blazer
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
Don’t try to be like Jonas Kempeneer when you pour the burning alcohol from one container to another! Keep the two containers close together.
Jonas considers Cirka to be one of the best Quebec and even Canadian distilleries. He likes the fact that the products are distilled from grain, without any use of purchased neutral alcohol. Cirka Whiskey # 2 is bourbon type, made with 100% corn. # 3 is a rye, made from rye. Be careful, this cocktail is technical, even a little dangerous to perform. To avoid setting the house on fire (!), You can work over a baking sheet containing a background of water.
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
Whiskey Cirka
Tools
A metal pitcher with handle (as for making Turkish coffee)
An insulating metal pitcher with handle (milk frother type)
Long match or kitchen torch
Ingredients
1 ½ oz of Cirka # 2 or # 3 whiskey
½ oz of green chartreuse
½ oz of honey (Jonah uses the Honey Catchers)
2 oz of white pine tea (water, handful of white pine needles, cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise)
1 large orange zest
Lemon juice
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
Hot alcohol is poured over the infusion of pine needles.
Preperation
1. Place a handful of white pine needles, a stick of cinnamon, 3 or 4 cloves and a star of anise in the pitcher with handle. To boil the water. Pour into the pitcher and let steep for about 3 minutes. Filter and immediately pour 2 oz of this infusion into a cognac glass.
2. In the pitcher with handle, now combine the whiskey, chartreuse, honey and orange zest.
3. Heat the pitcher from below with the torch or, gently, on the stove. Avoid boiling. When the liquid is hot, set it on fire with a match or torch.
4. Now is the time to transfer the flaming liquid from one pitcher to another, 4 or 5 times. The bartenders professionals will increase the distance between the two pitchers as they pour, creating a long blue flame – hence the name of the cocktail, Blue Blazer. Don’t try this at home!
5. Extinguish the flame by placing the empty pitcher on top of the other pitcher, above the fire. Pour the alcohol into the cognac glass over the infusion.
6. Add a few drops of lemon juice and enjoy.