Like Whisky? Like BBQ? Enter Highland Park + Pitfaced BBQ Masterclass

Okay, so it was more a Highland Park masterclass that I cooked for, but still the BBQ pairing was part of the experience. I got to speak to a crowd of 70 about how we incorporated Highland Park scotch into the offering. Everyone then got about a 1-hour verbal tour of Highland Park scotch and a lot of their offerings from Global Brand Ambassador - Martin Markvardsen, who flew across the pond to put on a series of masterclasses this past week. Event lasted 3 hours in total.

This one was held at The Whiskey Castle which is a place that recently opened up near me. It is run by the guy who runs The Whiskey Crusaders on YouTube that I've done a few guest cooks/appearances with. His place has over 4,500 different bottles of whiskey on site. It isn't a bar, so you don't go in and buy a pour or two. It is an "educational" whiskey experience where you book an event and tell them what sort of theme you want to do (whiskies of the world, peated scotch, bourbon vs rye, rare whiskies, etc.) and the price gets set based on the value/rarity of the whiskies chosen. Typical experience is about $100 and is a flight of 8. There is some crazy rare stuff in there. He's got a whole bourbon side since that's kind of the "in" thing and it has all of the stuff taters chase down, but the scotch side has some rare and special bottles that make Pappy Van Winkle look like Wild Turkey.

We put the following menu together:

Coleslaw
Potato Salad
Chopped Brisket
Pork Belly Bites
Hatch Chill & Pepper Jack Sausage
Banana Pudding

The sausage was the only thing we didn't make ourselves. I got it from a place that makes excellent sausage, then smoked it, and tossed it in a homemade-ish BBQ sauce. "ish" because it is an off the shelf sauce as a base, but modified quite a bit.

It was a huge success. Lots of great feedback on the food. Had some good friends help out with the serving, Mom pitched in with the potato salad (her recipe is the best in all the land and VERY light/fresh tasting compared to typical "BBQ" potato salad), wifey did the banana pudding (she folded that scotch in exquisitely). All in all, it was a 6 person operation. Catering is NOT something I aspire to do full-time and this was easily the most formal event I've done - also the highest payout I've cleared, so worth it. I prefer to stick to cooking for family/buffet style gatherings and only when I feel like it or if it helps a cause, but it was a good experience.

I was in full go mode, so I didn't take any pics myself and the photographer on site didn't do the BBQ side of things any favors, but here are some of the pics of the evening.


Good view of the Castle:




Pic of the guests dining experience (my hottie of a wife was one of the servers):



My buddy and I doing the meat plating:



Discussing BBQ with the guests:



Closest thing we got to a plated photo:



Global Brand Ambassador - Martin Markvardsen:




Myself, Martin Markvardsen, the guy that did the cocktails, HP event planner, and Matt Zitrick (owner of The Whiskey Castle)):

 

That's pretty awesome. You make it all offsite and bring in or did they have onsite facilities?

 

Did all of the cooking off-site and brought it in. The Whiskey Castle doesn't have amenities on-site to support. We made it work, though. It was a helluva service!

 

Thats pretty awesome man, would love to do stuff like that.

 

Moving up in the world!