Questions and Answers with Adam Seger

In your craft, what or who inspires you?
Dale Degroff brought back the craft of the bartender and led the way for the new age of bartenders and mixologists to treat mixing as a professional artisan craft. Then, the great Francesco Lafranconi took that to the next level by introducing culinary methods and thinking into the crafting of classic and modern cocktails.

From the culinary world, Thomas Keller inspires my religious respect of ingredients, Grant Achatz my sense of innovation and creativity and Michelin Star Serge Knapp my balance of intensity and light heartedness.

What is your philosophy for mixology?
Drink Like You Eat.

What gave life to El Corazon, the signature cocktail you developed when you were with Nacional 27?
Knowing how controversial cocktail origins are as per the multiple claims of the invention of the Martini, Margarita and Cosmo go, I officially lay claim to my giving birth to 'El Corazon'.

This passion-pomegranate margarita with a salt and telicherry peppercorn rim was featured in Time Out Chicago in early 2005 as well as at the starchefs.com 2005/2006 'Rising Star' Gala in October 2005. It was also published in Food & Wine Magazine's 2006 cocktail book.

I came up with the drink on a Sunday afternoon at Nacional 27 when Randy Zweiban and I were waiting for a photographer to take an architectural photo of their sign. I came up with the name before the drink as I was developing a signature drink featuring Corzo Tequila.

Since Corzo is the heart of the 1st distillation redistilled and only using the 'heart of hearts' as they say, I wanted a name that helped communicate its uniqueness.

I knew I wanted both passion and pomegranate because of the aroma, image and color. In addition, both passion fruit and pomegranate have a natural affinity for tequila (for instance, mango does not have the acidity of these two fruits to marry with agave's natural acidity and works much better with rum). They are also both in the aphrodisiac camp, even though passion is called thus because its flower looks like a crucifix.

So I combined the two fruits and made a triple sec-free Margarita. The salt & pepper rim was Randy Zweiban's idea, taken from a drink they served when he was Chef de Cuisine at Norman's. The blood orange came the following winter when I realized a squeeze of fresh blood orange and a float of single village mezcal took the cocktail to the next level.

Called "As Balanced as Mary Lou Retton" by TimeOut Magazine, the pomegranate acts as the bass and the passion as the soprano, with a touch of blood orange to add surround sound, all co-existing in perfect harmony with the fragrantly spicy tellicherry adding a savory foil to the opulent fruit.

For more press on Adam's EL CORAZON see:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/el-corazon-cocktails-2006
http://www.starchefs.com/chefs/rising_stars/2005/chicago/html/drinks_a_seger.shtml
http://www.centerstagechicago.com/bars/articles/cocktail-flights.html
http://jump.suntimes.com/list.cfm?tag=cocktail

What do you see as current flavor trends?
Exotic Citrus, Hibiscus, Spices, Ginger

What do you see as current cocktail trends?
Classics with homemade ingredients, such as homemade maraschino cherries or homemade bitters and new seasonal classics designating ingredients from specific farms on the cocktail list

What's an underrated cocktail ingredient?
A perfectly cut lime wheel

What has attributed to the cocktailian revolution?
It is the next logical evolution after the Food Network created celebrity chefs and got people excited about cooking that America, as its food and wine culture has continued to develop, would look to drink better. America invented the cocktail, London put world-class mixiology on the international stage and now America is reclaiming its cocktail culture, setting new standards and raising the bar.

As a celebrity mixologist, what advice do you have for individuals starting out in mixology?
Use the best, freshest ingredients you can afford, shake your up cocktails with vigor and taste everything you make before your guest does. And have fun. If you are smiling when you make your drinks and you are putting a lot of love into what you are doing, your drinks will taste better.