CleverRoot

s u m m e r 2 0 1 7 | 5 5 parsley. The unaged rum's delicate floral notes don't overwhelm the uni: Acidity in both the tomato and citrus juice offset its richness, and vermouth's funky herbal tang ties it all together. For Spero, a dish usually comes before a drink—but Coronado has altered his thought process. "My mentality has definitely changed by working with someone like Juan; alcohol can definitely inspire a food pairing more than I originally thought," he admits. "After tasting a cocktail, the way it makes your mouth feel tex- turally sometimes makes me think about a dish that would work well with it." And ingredient- driven drinks like Coronado's are definitely easy to pair, he says. Another of Spero's creations starts with dairy cow, admittedly way more popular in Europe than in the United States. He discov- ered it a few years ago during a stint as an apprentice at renowned restaurant Mugaritz in San Sebastián, Spain. Because this kind of bovine spends its entire life doing nothing but grazing, it picks up overtly grassy notes—and more of the fatty, chewy textural component Spero seeks out. He sources his from a small farm in southern Virginia and cooks it sous vide for several hours before searing it. It's served over a sauce made with reduced beef stock thickened with seaweed, and with seaweed pickled with rice wine vinegar and sugar. Because the dish is both sweet and savory, it's an effortless match with a beet-based drink from Coronado. He starts with Cazadores Reposado Tequila ® , which is mixed with beet juice (to cut through the meat), lime juice, passion fruit purée (which lends acidity) and a syrup infused with vanilla (when you cook agave for tequila production, he points out, one of the flavors gleaned from caramelizing the sugars is vanilla). The cocktail is topped with Mt. Fuji Bitters and apricot liqueur, and garnished with a paper cone filled with pome- granate arils clipped to the glass with a tiny clothespin. "Beets are underrated—they run the spectrum of earthy to sweet," Spero says. Overall, Spero finds creating dishes to go with Coronado's inventive concoctions to be in- finitely more interesting than pairing food and wine. "With wine, the bottle is always going to taste like it does," he muses. "But the range is so great with cocktails; if someone has a really amazing cocktail and wants to showcase it, as chefs we should be versatile enough to taste it and say, 'Okay, I can work with that.'" Spero's uni toast is creamy and rich, so Coronado matches it with a Bacardi Carta Blanca Rum, tomato water, Martini & Rossi Dry Vermouth and lemon juice quaff designed to "jump start" the palate. ■cr LIVE PASSIONATELY. DRINK RESPONSIBLY. ©2016. BACARDI, THE BAT DEVICE AND ITS TRADE DRESSES ARE TRADEMARKS. BACARDI U.S.A., INC. CORAL GABLES, FL.

• Cover