Hmmmph. The new Astor Center culinary education complex looks fab indeed...but charging $95 for a two-hour cocktail demonstration -- even when they're demonstrated by a true luminary like Jim Meehan -- is a bit rich for my blood.
After all, the New School's demonstrations and tastings start at $55, and the Institute for Culinary Education's classes are $75. (Heck, for only thirty bucks more than what Astor Center's charging, you can go to a member's dinner at the James Beard House -- this one with single-malt Scotch pairings looks good.)
And one of the great things about cocktails is that they're made with consistent ingredients: Aside from minor things like the varying acidity of lemon juice, you know that if you are working from a good recipe and use the ingredients it calls for, the cocktail you produce is going to be pretty darn close to what the recipe intended; Cointreau tastes the same all over the world. I'd invest that $95 in a liquor-store run and a good cocktail book, and get a-shakin'.
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