Brooklyn Booze Experiment

A belated nod to the latest in the Brooklyn Food Experiments series, the Booze Experiment! No, it's not a fratboy-style all-you-can-drink Friday night. This amateur cooking competition, which has previously featured such themes as tacos, chocolate and and brunch, this time tackled food cooked with alcohol. Needless to say, I was in attendance.

If you haven't been to one of these fine events, here's how it goes: on an unassuming Sunday, 20 to 25 amateur competitors flood into the main ballroom at the Bell House, a big, rambling Gowanus music venue. They carry stockpots and chafing dishes full of prepped and ready-to-serve ingredients. They line up in a ring around the room and wait for the hoards of hungry diners to arrive.

And then arrive we do. It's admittedly chaotic, but in kind of a fun way.

Plate of booze-infused samples. Photo by Han + DianaEats!

By way of background, the Food Experiments series is the brainchild of chefs Theo Peck and Nick Suarez, both famed for their dominance along the New York cookout circuit. (Yes, this exists. Think: Fondue Takedown 2008, Cassoulet Cookoff 2010, and, of course, the great Chowder Slam of 2009.) The former rivals are now semi-celebrities in the food media, and the Food Experiment events regularly sell out.

The Booze Experiment was not my favorite in the series, but it did provide for some really unique flavor twists - particularly in the savory category: fondue fennel with pastis tomato jam, empadados made with rum and coke pork, and the rich bourbon braised shortrib that took first place in the Audience Awards.

The sweets were no slackers, either. The blood orange ricotta doughnut filled with Rittenhouse Rye dark chocolate was a standout, though not my taste, as was the pecan pie with vanilla bourbon ice cream.

Pecan pie. Photo by Han + Diana Eats!

For their next trick, Theo and Nick are taking the show on the road. They just finished the first event in their national tour, a Pork Experiment in Austin, TX (oh, to have been there for that one!) and are planning stops in New Orleans, Washington, Philadelphia and Boston.