Kevin Fischer is an award-winning veteran broadcaster who has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for nearly three decades.
Kevin, who is a legislative aide to state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, “InterCHANGE,” on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10, and heard filling in on Newstalk 1130 WISN. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, and their baby daughter, Kyla Audrey, in Franklin.
When I filled in at WISN all last week, one of my producers was Jolene, a very sweet young woman who moonlights as a bartender.
(As an aside, I asked her on the air what her cocktail recommendation was for summer days in the 90’s. Jolene says go with the ever-popular vodka and lemonade)
Jolene provides me with this edition of the culinary no-no, usually, but not always appearing, on Sundays.
Off the air, we talked about Bloody Marys.
Before I continue with what Jolene and I discussed, I offer this from thenibble.com:
The Origin Of The Bloody Mary
The Old Story: The way the story is often told, Mary was the brainchild of Fernand “Pete” Petiot, an American bartender working at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris during the Roaring 20’s. Bartenders regularly mix up all kinds of concoctions to keep their clientele interested: even the ones that enjoy popularity for a while drift into obscurity (whatever happened to the Side Car and the Sloe Gin Fizz?).
So, the story goes, it was pure luck, not strategic planning, when Petiot combined tomato juice and vodka. A colleague named it, and not after Rogers and Hammerstein—the drink preceded “South Pacific” by more than 30 years. Nor was it named after Mary, Queen of Scots. According to research by McIlhenny Company, makers of TABASCO® brand pepper sauce, an essential Bloody Mary ingredient, Petiot said that “one of the boys suggested we call the drink ‘Bloody Mary’ because it reminded him of the Bucket of Blood Club in Chicago, and a girl there named Mary.”
In 1934 Petiot took a job at the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City (ultimately becoming head barman). In the 1940s, he introduced the Bloody Mary there. The hotel tried to change the name to Red Snapper, but it didn’t have the same snap. But while they like the name, New Yorkers found the cocktail a bit bland, and encouraged Petiot to add some seasoning. He chose black pepper, cayenne pepper, Worcestershire sauce, lemon, and, for patrons who liked it spicy, TABASCO® sauce, largely reformulating the Bloody Mary we know and love. When the drink became a national sensation in the 1950s, Petiot claimed he had invented it while working at Harry’s New York Bar in the 1920s.
The Updated Story: However, more recent research has updated this story. As reported by Eric Felten in The Wall Street Journal* comes up with a more accurate version. Barry Popick, a consulting editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, did some sleuthing that found earlier references crediting the origin of the Bloody Mary to comedian, songwriter and movie producer George Jessel, the “Toastmaster General of the United States.” In the 1950s he even appeared in Smirnoff vodka ads declaring himself the inventor, and wrote the story of how he invented it in his 1975 autobiography (to clear his head after a night of drinking). Since Jessel was also a famous self-promoter, many doubted the claim; but Popick found this 1939 mention in Lucius Beebe’s New York Herald Tribune column: “George Jessel’s newest pick-me-up which is receiving attention from the town’s paragraphers is called a Bloody Mary: half tomato juice, half vodka.”
In a 1964 interview in The New Yorker, Petiot qualified his claim. “I initiated the Bloody Mary of today,” he declared. “George Jessel said he created it, but it was really nothing but vodka and tomato juice when I took it over....I cover the bottom of the shaker with four large dashes of salt, two dashes of black pepper, two dashes of cayenne pepper and a layer of Worcestershire sauce.” He added lemon juice, two ounces each of vodka and tomato juice and some cracked ice; then, “shake, strain and pour.” The current evolution, including much higher percentage of tomato juice, horseradish and a celery stick, must be credited to someone who has yet to step forth to claim it.
Back to Jolene at WISN. I asked her what kinds of drinks she hates to mix. Jolene says she can’t understand why people order 1, 2, sometimes 3 Bloody Marys…………after dinner.
I agree. That’s kind of yucky. Does anything more need to be said?
PREVIOUS CULINARY NO-NO’S
1) Ketchup on a brat
2) Green peppers on pizza
3) The dirty martini
4) Fruity brats
