‘Lost in Laos’ with Matt Biancaniello

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It was the summer of 2008 and Los Angeles was at the dawn of the craft cocktail movement. In the small dark Library Bar of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, a new bartender named Matthew Biancaniello leaned over to a coworker and whispered, “What’s in a cosmopolitan?”

That anecdote seems completely implausible to me since now Matt forages and scours farmers’ markets all over the world to source 15-ingredient Bloody Marys and cocktail concoctions that feature uni and emu eggs. His favorite recipes are compiled in a new book, “Eat Your Drink: Culinary Cocktails.”

This drink “Lost in Laos” was the first time I really understood how the talents in the craft cocktail movement were exploring flavor in a glass.