Ewan Grieve

Hennessy BL
Take discarded lemon husks from venue juicing and split them into two groups. With group one, mix 1:1 with sugar and vacuum seal to create an oleo. With the remainder of the lemon husks, combine at a 1:5 ratio of lemon to boiling water and let steep for 1 hour before straining out any solids.

Combine the two liquids 1:1 to make a simple syrup, with correction to 50° Brix. Next, combine with Hennessy VS to create a liqueur. This should be at 25° Brix with a lightly syrupy texture.

Seaborne Rosé
Per 1 bottle of Galoupet Cru Classé, add 2.5 g of sea asters, 5 g of sea plantain, and 5 g of pineapple weed and bring to a simmer. Let simmer for 15 minutes before straining off any solids. Add sugar in a 1:3 ratio of sugar to wine by mass and 1% malic acid to the post-sugar mass of the rosé.

Tomato Water
Take 500 g of tomatoes (slightly underripe is better) and blend until smooth. Pass through a chinois to remove any larger unblended material. Separate out 1/3 and add 1 g of agar agar. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes, then add back the remaining two-thirds. Let cool and strain.

Foamer
To 500 ml, add 20 ml of Ms Better’s Miraculous Foamer.

Sea Rosemary, Sea Salt and Chili Cracker
150 g plain flour
1 tsp flaky sea salt
1 tsp golden caster sugar
1 tbsp finely chopped sea rosemary
1 tbsp chili flakes
80 ml water mixed with 2 tbsp olive oil

Combine the dry ingredients, then add the water and oil until a dough forms, adding extra flour if needed. Roll, divide, and sprinkle with sea salt, then place in the oven for 12–15 minutes until browned.

I’ll admit, I’ve been a bit cheeky. Not content with making just one drink, I thought I’d throw a little something on the side for you too. It’s not without reason though… I promise.

Hennessy BL, or Hennessy Bitter Lemon, is not some new product that you’ve missed by not paying attention to memos or press releases, but a homemade bitter lemon aperitif made with Hennessy VS as the base. It’s there as a bright but bitter palate cleanser before you start your main course. Playing off all the lighter notes of the VS, it’s meant as a light, easy opener to the rest of the beverage.

For the main, you’re treated to a drink inspired by bouillabaisse and the gorgeous sea flavours found in the Provence region of France. Like with the first part, I wanted to combine a French classic with a French classic, but move on to a main course. Seafood has always been one of my favourites, so it felt like a no-brainer.

Combining sea flavours with a crisp, citrusy rosé felt like the perfect combination of food and drink for that region, especially with a Provence rosé at that. The herbs introduced are there to both lift and enhance the already delicious liquid. Pineapple weed plays up the citrus and peach, turning that base up to 11. Sea plantain grounds it all in a creamy, earthy quality, as if it were the tomato running through the soup. Sea asters add that final seafood pop, bringing more traditional aromatic flavours of carrot and turnip that morph into a crustacean-esque flavour.

All of this sits over a slightly vegetal, rich tomato flavour with a gently cooked quality due to the method of clarification, something that really rounds it out. It is all held together by Hennessy VS, bringing almond and darker fruit flavours that add roundness to the drink.

To finish, there’s the addition of a foamer to add texture while also bringing some sea foam to the mix. It also helps the whole composition resemble a Pornstar Martini, and as someone who likes to subvert as much as I can, that makes this an absolute dream for me.

To top it all off, there’s a little cracker that can act like the bread to your soup, bringing a crisp, salty, slightly spicy bite to the rest of the drink.

As Part Deux is all about development, what better way to build on one part of a meal than with another? It’s from that idea of completion that Starter + Main comes. The core idea of the drink was to complete the meal that Suzette started, which involved, like Part One, looking through traditional French cuisine before settling on bouillabaisse. Having a dessert-based drink as the first serve needs something bright and savoury to cut through it and push towards the finale.

As I said in the initial entry, food and mealtimes are, and always have been, a ritual. The coming together of people, breaking bread, unwinding, unloading—it all provides what people look for in spirituality, but in a way that is for everyone, not just those actively seeking that spirituality. Having the opportunity to complete the ritual I started feels like something truly special. By continuing along the path of a meal, there’s a sense of fulfilment between the two serves, a closure to a mealtime shared with those who matter most.

To not develop the ritual of the serve would have been short-sighted too. As a result, I took inspiration from everyone’s favourite little cocktail ritual: the Pornstar Martini. It’s a drink that everyone always ums and ahhs about doing “right,” which has led to everyone developing their own little ritual for it.

In my case, I wanted to present the same style of serve, with an obvious order of events, while subverting what you might expect from something that looks like that. For me, the perfect ritual for Starter + Main is to have the shot first, then the cocktail. This way, you cleanse and open the palate with bright, bitter lemon before moving on to your sea-inspired drink, much like adding a squeeze of lemon before digging into a bouillabaisse.

To top it all off, you get a cracker alongside it that can be enjoyed with the drink as if it were the hunk of bread served with your soup. In that way, Starter + Main attempts to encapsulate all aspects of that eating ritual while still having a unique ritual of its own.

One of the main reasons for treating Hennessy VS in two very different ways was to explore the spirit in its entirety. The tasting of alcohol is another very ritualistic experience, from the nosing to the tasting to the contemplation. Including a way to showcase all parts of it within one experience allows those qualities to be exposed and celebrated.

The Starter brings out all the lovely lighter elements of the cognac: toasted nuts, vanilla, green fruits, and a light peppery quality. On the flip side, in the Main, the liquid acts as the base, providing support with its oaky, cinnamon backbone and creating a lovely layer to play off. The fun of pairing classic French cuisine with the best-selling French classic that is Hennessy VS was simply a match made in heaven.