Cocktails and canapes

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Cocktails and canapés

Cocktails - the modern way

What exactly is a canapé?

Tapas, canapés, dégustation, snacking and grazing are fast becoming popular ways to eat. Smaller portions, more courses and variety of ingredients all give the customer more chances to taste more food. It’s all very social and, with a bit of careful planning, can help both your bar and kitchen use up leftovers and slow moving products. These food-and-drink based promotions appeal to customers keen to try new foods as well as those who have experienced them already on a foreign holiday.

Cocktails and canapés can be a one-off promotion, a trial event or an ongoing weekly themed evening. It’s for you to decide.

When to run a cocktail & canapés event

Ladies nights, book launches, guest appearances, art exhibitions, pre-theatre meetings, inaugurations of new venues, outside and event catering and even during televised sports events such as tennis and cricket (but not football and rugby!)

A canapé, traditionally served with drinks, is a small decorative snack that can be eaten in one bite with the fingers. The base consists of a cracker, toast or pastry covered with a savoury spread and topped with meat, cheese, fish, caviar, foie gras, purée or a relish.

How to create a menu without spending any extra money

Look in your fridges, freezers and dry stores and think of different and new combinations of ingredients that can be presented as a canapé. For example, if you have slow-roasted shoulder of lamb on the menu, take a few lean off-cuts from it, mince or pulse blend in a robot coupe and mix with a few spices to create mini lamb kofta burgers. Serve them on a small disc of pitta bread with a little Greek yoghurt mixed with a dash of mint sauce as a dip on the side.

A canapé should be eaten in one mouthful, preferably with the fingers so think of alternatives to flour-based platforms. For example, take a ½ inch slice of cucumber and partially hollow out the centre with a melon baller. Mix some shredded roast duck or chicken with a little hoi-sin sauce and top with a spring onion curl. A classic combination, served in a colourful and inventive way – good for dieters and coeliacs!

A cocktail these days can be just about any drink containing alcohol (though non-alcoholic versions are also a good idea for drivers and non-drinkers). Traditionally a cocktail is based on at least one kind of liquor with mixers such as bitters, fruit juice, honey, soda and herbs. For some good recipes go to www.cocktail.uk.com

Many of the extra ingredients you’ll need such as sugar syrup, fruit juices, garnishes and crushed ice can all be prepared in house. Coloured straws, swizzle sticks and paper umbrellas should be available cheaply from your dry store supplier or bar merchandise vendor.

Your cocktail list shouldn’t be too long and should be well-balanced, to include the classics as well as the more exotic and should ideally feature current favourites like the popular Mojito (see sample menu below).

Make sure your staff can actually make the cocktails by holding a training session before the event and giving them ‘homework’ – memorising the list and ingredients.

Like wine with food, cocktails can be matched with canapés using the same principles. Consider these pairings.

Cherry and blackcurrant (kir or cassis)

- lamb, duck and steak flavours

Strawberry, raspberry

- tuna and salmon

Champagne cocktails

- most canapés, oysters, smoked salmon, caviar and fish roe

Lemon and lime

– chicken and veal based canapés

Orange (Curacao, cointreau, grand marnier)

- cheese, fruit and nuts

Chocolate, coffee and cream based cocktails

– petit fours

Bloody Mary
Vodka, Tomato Juice, Worcestershire Sauce, Tabasco Sauce, Lemon Juice, Salt and Pepper

Cosmopolitan
Absolut Citron Vodka, Cointreau, Cranberry Juice,

Lime Juice

Daiquiri
Havana club 3yr Rum, Lime Juice, Sugar syrup

Kir Royal Creme cassis, Champagne

Margarita
Jose Cuervo Tequila, Cointreau, Lime Juice

Moscow Mule
Russian Vodka, Lime Juice, Sugar Syrup, Ginger Beer

Mojito
Havana 3yr rum, Lime, Mint, Cubed Sugar

Negroni
Campari, Sweet Vermouth, Gordons Gin

Sidecar Cointreau, lemon juice, Cognac

White Russian
Vodka, Kahlua, Cream, Milk

Matching canapés to cocktails

Your target market for this event will be

Local interest groups such as book clubs, theatre groups and ladies organisations
Customers on your database with common interests (theatre-goers, arts enthusiasts, dégustation, cocktails, sports lovers)
New businesses opening in your area who need catering
Literary agents looking to promote new authors
Offices and businesses wanting to hold a meeting or a party with a difference.

Create an atmosphere using effective lighting and background music. You could theme the evening depending on the occasion.

Example

Use a Hollywood theme for a local film premiere. Create a nostalgic 20’s atmosphere by having staff style their hair for that era and wear black, white and pin-stripe clothes.

Carry on the Hollywood idea with a James Bond theme. Male staff wearing dinner suits and bow ties and female staff in classy evening wear. Push the martinis! (shaken not stirred of course)