Pat Carden is no bartender.<\/p>\n
The term suggests a mere custodian, one whose job is simply to make sure the customers’ glasses are filled and their tabs are paid. Pat Carden is much more. He is a genuine cocktail chef, a creator of truly original and memorable drinks. He is a genius.<\/p>\n
Carden’s greatest triumph is the Ten-Minute Martini™<\/a>. It is our favorite drink, and I’m proud to say that I learned to make it from Pat himself, in a sushi-and-martini class he led at the old Kandor in Boise \u2014\u00a0a class that Chef Sin bought me for my birthday several years ago. I’ve followed Carden’s recipe religiously ever since when I’ve made it for friends and family \u2014\u00a0once even famously refusing a request to substitute vodka for gin (more on that later).<\/p>\n This martini is unusual in that it’s neither shaken nor stirred; rather, the spirits are poured over ice into a shaker jar, which is then plunged into an ice bucket or bin and left to stand for 10 minutes. The chilling process, the theory goes, causes the gin and vermouth, with their varying specific gravities, to gently mix without dilution. The result is spectacular.<\/p>\n Pat’s creation has earned him the \u00a0Boise Weekly’s title of Martini Mix-Off champion year after year, first when he worked the late, great Milky Way, and more recently at Chandler’s.<\/p>\n I order Pat’s martinis at Chandler’s\u00a0\u2014 hand crafted by the master himself. They are tremendous.<\/p>\n But the ones we make ourselves at home are better.<\/p>\n Here’s why:<\/p>\n The Ten-Minute Martini at Chandler’s is\u00a0marketed as the original, and it is almost the real deal. You wait a full 10 minutes (or more) for it to arrive at your table. \u00a0The shaker comes encrusted in ice, proof that it has spent the requisite time in the bin. The wait staff are skilled at the dramatic pour into the chilled glass, sending the expertly carved and curled lemon peel swirling.<\/p>\n But here’s the thing.<\/p>\n The olives are wrong<\/em>.<\/p>\n At Chandler’s\u00a0\u00a0\u2014 at least, each of the four times I have been there in the past 18 months\u00a0\u2014 the olives have been wrong. They are traditional, pitted, pimento-stuffed queen olives, available in any grocery store and acceptable in any conventional martini. But not in a Ten-Minute Martini.<\/p>\n