Behind the scenes of the Cointreau Apprentice Program

Posted on July 28, 2009
Filed Under Blair Reynolds | 1 Comment

Like the rest of New Orleans, the Hotel Monteleone has a few ghosts rattling chains throughout its rooms.  Flashes of light are seen in the corners of your eye, and odd sounds are heard throughout the nights.  Well, during Tales of the Cocktail, don’t be too afraid.  The sounds of ice being crushed against metal, and visions of an ethereally fast being with a cart full of buckets may not be the apparition of a slave from the late 1700s, it might just be a bartender.

The Cocktail Apprentice Program, a regular event at Tales of the Cocktail, takes bartenders from all across the country and recruits them into a sort of working vacation.  When not walking down Bourbon street or sampling New Orleans finest cuisine, these rising stars of the cocktail world are in the Monteleone kitchen squeezing juice, preparing garnishes, working with cocktail luminaries, or off somewhere having a shot of some rarely heard of Mezcal.

For 2009, it’s known as the Cointreau Apprentice Program, a perfect sponsor match for renaming.  I couldn’t imagine the Cocktail Apprentice Bacardi.  Recruitment started very early in the year, when a notice went out across the internet and news wires everywhere.  The best and brightest of rising star bartenders were called to apply, be judged, and eventually selected to help out during Tales of the Cocktail.

Former Apprentices Don Lee and John Deragon, and Jeff Grdinich led the charge this year, going through each of the applications and selecting the few that would make the apprentice program this year.  The competition for these slots is fierce, with hundreds of applications in, and only 30-something  slots available. On April 12th, the applicants were notified of their selection.  With only a few months to go until Tales, prep time had begun.

Weeks before the start of Tales, apprentices were called on to contact panel and event hosts to begin planning out the drinks, the cues, and other general session information.  Through pre-planning, apprentices can make sure that the sessions go as smooth as possible.  Sometimes this went according to plan, and other times, well, 5 minutes prep time is still prep time, eh?

Once all apprentices had settled into the Monteleone, a meeting was called late Tuesday afternoon.  Just like the rest of the week, the apprentices had to be there just a bit before everyone else.  Ann Tuennerman gave a brief speech, thanking the apprentices for being part of the overall Tales of the Cocktail experience, and as would happen at every meeting, a shot of something nice was passed around.  Over the days, Apprentices would share in Fernet Branca, Del Maguey Tobala, A George Stagg Sazerac, and other strong offerings to start the day.

After prep sheets and schedules were passed around, apprentices were taken on a tour of the hidden passageways and secret storage facilities of the Monteleone.  These pathways gave a nice reprieve from the crowds, as apprentices transported liquor, storage containers, and whatever else was needed for the seminars.

Later that day, Cointreau had a little something up their sleeves for the apprentices, and held a Cointreau tasting, including Cointreau Noir.  After the tasting, a few icebreaking games were played, and the apprentices were taken on a tour of the French Quarter, visiting Arnaud’s French 75, Tujacques, and ending at the Alibi.

10 am daily meetings were de riguer, whether there was any sleep to have been had the night before or not.  There were a few rare clashes between the meeting and the early morning panels.  The 10am meetings would have the aforementioned drinks, and often a speaker or presenter demonstrating some interesting knowledge or technique.

The daily mainstay of every apprentice was the Monteleone’s Pastry Kitchen.  Things were boiling and bubbling, or just being poured into buckets as cocktails were batched for each panel and event.  Shifting the balance of a 5 gallon drink is definitely a skill to learn, where changes are made in cups, not 1/4 ounces.

Over the days, the 10am meeting was held, and apprentices would meet with their presenters, go over drinks and their presentation, batch the drinks, attempt to figure out what was going on, and move forward.  Lather, rinse, and repeat this several times a day.  If you had a few moments, time was taken to help out others in their presentations.

Overall the program was plenty of work.  If you really sunk your teeth in, you’d be busy from 10am to 6pm (often later).  While everyone had their own assigned seminars, help was always welcomed and appreciated.  One of the expectations coming into it is that you would batch together some drinks, haul them to the seminar, shake, serve, and your job is done.  But there was so much more to it than that.  No matter how much preparation there was ahead of time, there was always something that wasn’t setup to go right, or the presenters thought would be provided, or someone would ask you to move tables or tables had to be moved to get the seminar right, or a trip to the grocery store to get some eggs… you get the drift.  For all the effort, it was a great chance for some damned good people to get that rare chance to work with one another, work with cocktail luminaries, share stories and experiences, and do it all for the joy of the drink.

It all culminated at the Spirits Awards, where the apprentices were thanked with a certificate of appreciation, and a dram of whiskey or cup of punch.  Totally worth it.

Some of my personal highlights:

• Starting each day with a shot of Fernet Branca, and ending the night with the same
• The generous pastry kitchen cooks cheese biscuits!
• Filling 150 balloons with absinthe
• Best Swag: Plymouth leather bartender kit
• Tasting the Tobala with Steve Olson (after 30 minutes of attempting to wrangle Steve Olson)
• 250 Gin and Tonics?  Why not 300?
• An Army of Sugar Hedgehogs
• Pitching Beefeater 24 to Desmond Payne
• only 20 minutes to go and we need Tom and Jerrys for 150?  Let’s do this.
• Riding in vans with booze
• Splitting a bottle of Champagne with Tony Abou-Ganim backstage
• Working with some great people I am really hoping to see again soon

Will I be applying for the 2010 Apprentice Program?  We’ll see.  I’d definitely recommend it though.