THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT, WAITLIST ONLY
Imagine Mario Andretti teaching you how to drive. Ansel Adams coaching you on photos. Voice lessons from Elton John.
This is what it is like to learn about spices from Lior Lev Sercarz, the master spice blender and owner of the legendary La Boite spice company in New York City. Lior's spice blends are a thing of dreams for big-deal chefs, at-home cooks and anyone in between who loves to eat and drink. Lior seeks out the very best sources in the world for everything from saffron to cinnamon, and combines them like no one else does.
We recently collaborated with Lior on our Terra Botanical Gin, and now, we're hosting him at Cardinal Spirits for a spice-blending event.
Join us for a fun evening where you'll meet Lior, create your own custom blend alongside him, sample small bites and cocktails prepared with his spice blends, and leave with a signed copy of his beautiful new book.
Tickets are $50, and include small plates, cocktails and Lior's latest book, The Spice Companion.
Here is the plan for the evening:
Spice blending presentation from Lior. He'll answer the question everyone has after sticking their nose in a tin of one of his blends, or tasting a dish that has been seasoned with his spices: How does he do it? Secrets revealed! Knowledge bombs dropped! Minds blown! But also: Practical spice advice for home cooks on sourcing, blending and seasoning.
Spice-blending bar, where Lior guides each guest to create a custom blend to take home.
Book signing for Lior's latest book, The Spice Companion, a magnificent, beautiful, keep-it-forever hardbound guide to more than 100 spices and how to use them in incredible ways. (Book included in ticket price.)
Small plates + cocktails prepared with Lior's spices
Lior has worked with some of the most notable chefs in the world, including Eric Ripert and Daniel Boulud, who rely on Lior who rely on Lior to come up with blends that express their legendary culinary creativity.
But you don't have to have a Michelin star to use his spice blends, or think about flavor and seasoning in the imaginative way that he does. (Also, you don't have to be a chef to buy them — his blends are sold online at laboiteny.com)
Lior won't make you feel bad about your spice rack at home. And he won't shame you for buying your spices at the grocery store. He will change the way you look at flavor and seasoning — from salads to veggies to roasts to cocktails — in an eye-opening way.
Here's what it's like to experience spices Lior's way, 'from the New York Times:
"The spices he laid out smelled and tasted nothing like the time-forgotten powders in my pantry. They were steroidally potent, burrowing in my nostrils like tiny aromatic voles. After giving an umber mound of cumin a whiff, I felt as if someone had probed my sinuses with a wire brush. I realized then how ignorant I had been."
We hope to see you here at the distillery for this wonderful, one-of-a-kind event!