Dressed and Dry: CookHouse's Caesar Salad Martini
Bartender Gabriel Valladares offers a liquified take on the crowd-pleasing salad
Illustration: Rachel Krohn
At CookHouse in Baltimore, Maryland, salads are not just found on the food menu. What started as Bartender Gabriel Valladares’ “stupid idea” for a cocktail has turned into a guest favorite. His Caesar Salad Martini is more than just another gimmicky savory cocktail. It’s a drink fueled by technique, experimentation, and, literally, a Caesar salad.
“The first roadblock was, how do I not make this disgusting?” says Valladares.
Caesar Salad-Infused Gin
The three-day-long process begins with Valladares infusing London dry gin with lots of romaine lettuce, celery, parmesan, black pepper, anchovy paste, and a little bit of Champagne vinegar. The mixture is sous vide for eight hours at 150°F. Early iterations of the drink were finished here, but Valladares knew something was missing. “It was okay, but it wasn't ‘wow,’” he says. “It was just a weird martini. Once we realized it needed to go through a fat wash, we were like okay, we nailed it. Now it’s actually a salad in a cup.”
Caesar Dressing Fat Wash
What was missing, in hindsight, seems obvious: the Caesar salad needs a Caesar dressing. Valladares starts the second day of building with a Caesar dressing fat wash. He strains the gin infusion with a fine coffee filter so no particles get through and collects the savory leftover liquid. For the fat wash, he makes his own Caesar dressing with garlic, mayonnaise, mustard, anchovy, black pepper, parmesan, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, and lemon. He pours the gin infusion into the dressing and lets the lemon curdle the cocktail for 24 hours.
Caesar Salad Martini: Gin, Romaine Lettuce, Black Pepper, Anchovy, Celery, Parmesan, Garlic, Worcestershire, Mustard, Mayonnaise | Photos: Will Blunt
Bartender Gabriel Valladares of CookHouse
Finally, the drink is strained again, but this time into a three-ounce Nick and Nora glass, and what’s left is the Caesar Salad Martini. Though the batched drink takes days to prepare, it’s a quick build for service. The only thing missing is the garnish. The cocktail’s finishing touch is exactly what one would hope for and expect: croutons. Three croutons are laid out over a pick on top of the glass, allowing for the complete Caesar salad experience. As guests sip, they can munch on the croutons as a snack and a bit of a themed palate cleanser.
The guest response is Valladares’ favorite part. Though some people will always gravitate toward a savory drink on a cocktail list, oftentimes immediate buy-in is not the reaction. “People who read it on the menu see Caesar Salad Martini and think, this is probably going to taste really bad,” he admits. “When they get it, they’re like this is literally like my appetizer, this is insane.”
The result is a well-balanced, savory, and broth-like drink, making the involved, days-long creation worth the wait. “You have to do all of this process to get it really complex and right,” says Valladares. “I think for a savory martini it is definitely worth the three days, because it tastes really, really good.”
