The Impatient Chef Cocktail Recipe: The Kodachrome Memorial Cocktail

Kodachrome Memorial Cocktail

Why make a Kodachrome Memorial Cocktail? As many of you know, The Impatient Chef moonlights as Gary Quay who also moonlights as Gary Quay Photography (or is it the other way around?). A staunch devote of film photography, I have watched film stocks dwindle to a trickle since around 2005 as many great emulsions left the market. Kodachrome was the first true color slide film, and as documented by none other than Paul Simon.

"Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give is the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away."

For me, the loss of Kodachrome was like the loss of Pete Seeger, or David Bowie. I had never known a world without them. They were iconic, and widely loved. So, when the last roll was developed in 2011, I came up with the idea for a Kodachrome Memorial Cocktail.

Why did it take so long? Remember those nice bright colors? That's why. I wanted the cocktail to be clear, and bright. I did not want to use vodka because the drink needed flavor. Above all, it had to have a hint of purple. My first attempts were less than stellar. Some ended up gray as different colors ganged up to defeat my Prime Directive. Some tasted awful. I tried off and on, for a couple of years, and then abandoned the pursuit as an impossibility.

In 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, I had a splash of inspiration. I had been trying to make purple out of a combination of red and blue liquors. I had the answer all along in my cabinet: Parfait Amor. It's a purple liquor that has a sweet, orange flavor. I needed the right gin, a bittering agent to cut down on the sweetness, and maybe an apéritif to give it some balance.

The right gin.

Oregon has had a vibrant craft liquor industry for over a decade.  These three Oregon gins will work in this cocktail:

• Joe Penney's Gin by McMennamin's Edgefield 
• Elk Rider by Heritage Distilling Co.
• Ransom Dry Gin

This cocktail requires a gin with some flavor, but not a Genever, or an Old Tom.  Use ONLY one of the 3 gins mentioned above.  I can't vouch for it with other gins.  

You must use a gin from the list above for this drink. It really does not work with a light gin like New Amsterdam, or Hendrick's. You could get away with using Tanqueray, or Beefeaters, but you would need to add a few dashes of orange bitters, and some of the magic would be lost.

The Impatient Chef Presents: The Kodachrome Memorial Cocktail.

3 oz Gin (Portland Dry)
1/2 oz Parfait Amour (Marie Brizard)
1 oz Lillet Blanc
8 drops citrus bitters (Bitterman's Hopped Grapefruit Bitters works best)
Stir with ice.
Garnish with a lemon twist.

The impatient Chef makes big cocktails. You can cut this one in half if you desire.

The Studio Setup.  

Note on the lens onto which the cocktail is placed:  It's a Voigtlander Euryscop Portrait lens, made in the sometime between 1888 and 1898.  

Thanks for reading!

--The Impatient Chef