Latest news with #Seabass
Glasgow Times
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Glasgow Times
Katie Walsh salutes ‘absolutely brilliant' Rachael Blackmore
Blessed with supreme talent, Walsh believes every highlight of Blackmore's glittering career has been thoroughly deserved after she brought the curtain down with one final winner for long-time ally Henry de Bromhead at Cork on Saturday. Walsh told the PA news agency: 'Every opportunity she was given, she grabbed with two hands and she had a marvellous career. 'She would do very little wrong and all she would do is get better and better and better. She always had her homework done and knew exactly what she was doing. 'Her Cheltenham Festival winners were provided by Willie Mullins and Henry de Bromhead and to think she had the support of the champion trainer and another right at the top of the game was testament to her ability – and she also had an association with plenty of the big owners like Gigginstown. 'She had a great way of reading races, she was strong both physically and mentally and would line up there with the best of them every day of the week and she was just an inspiration as a human being, she was just absolutely brilliant.' It was once Walsh herself and contemporary Nina Carberry who were seen as the trailblazers for women in the weighing room, but Blackmore's achievements have rewritten the record books and surpassed the stellar accomplishments of her predecessors. The 35-year-old bows out with 18 Cheltenham Festival victories and as well as her historic Gold Cup triumph aboard A Plus Tard in 2022, is amongst a select number of riders to have held aloft all four trophies of jump racing's blue riband, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, Champion Hurdle and Stayers' Hurdle. Katie Walsh finished third in the Grand National aboard Seabass (David Davies/PA) Blackmore also eclipsed Walsh's then third-placed record finish by a female in the Grand National when becoming the first woman jockey in the 182-year history of the Aintree marathon to win the race aboard Minella Times in 2021, with Walsh highlighting a supreme dedication to her craft which allowed glass ceilings to be shattered. Walsh continued: 'It's been great to witness some of those great days and she's a star person and a perfect example to any young jockey starting out in the game – if you do what Rachael Blackmore does and you are good enough, success will come. 'She was extremely dedicated and worked very, very hard and you don't get anywhere in this industry without working hard – and that's what she did. 'She is a lovely person and she never changed a bit from the moment she started to the moment she finished and I'm delighted she gets to retire on her own terms.' Blackmore was once the Pony Club protege who became an unintentional superstar of sport, but despite somewhat humble beginnings, her record is backed to stand the test of time, with Walsh – whose brother Ruby is one of the most decorated riders of all time – feeling her name is more than worthy of being mentioned amongst the greats of racing. Rachael Blackmore celebrates on A Plus Tard after winning the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup (David Davies/PA) 'I can't see anyone in my lifetime that might surpass Rachael's achievements,' added Walsh. 'At this moment in time, there is nobody, but that's not to say that someone won't come through – you would not have predicted this would happen 10 or 15 years ago. 'Who knows and that's the beauty of it, but I'm just glad I was there for it and saw it all from the start to the finish – and in years to come, if no one else does come along, I can say I remember Rachael Blackmore and I know how her story started and how it finished.' There have also been tributes paid from the world of Flat racing, where Hollie Doyle – fresh from passing Hayley Turner to become the most successful British female jockey at Ascot on Saturday – assessed the incomparable legacy Blackmore leaves and the impact she has had on the sport as a whole. Leading Flat jockey Hollie Doyle has praised Rachael Blackmore (Mike Egerton/PA) 'She's obviously been a huge trailblazer and she's just a great jockey,' said Doyle. 'What she's done for everyone in racing really has been great and it's been a great lift really over the last few years to have someone like her do what she's done. 'She's done it all, hasn't she? She's ticked every box and I suppose shut down any questions that were asked. I think it's even harder in National Hunt racing and she has done it all. 'Henry de Bromhead has obviously been a great supporter and gave her the ammunition, but she's been a great jockey and I think she's proved a lot of people wrong.'
Forbes
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Dill Cocktails Take Center Stage At Bars Around The Country
The Seabass cocktail at Indienne features fresh dill and a dill dust garnish. As cocktails become more culinary in nature, and modern bars continue to overlap with kitchens, the bartender's arsenal keeps expanding. Ingredients usually reserved for Greek salads and roast chickens are now stocked alongside bottles of whiskey and gin. Add dill to the shopping list. The herb once relegated to savory cooking has begun popping up in cocktails, as more bartenders enlist its unique flavor to liven up recipes. 'To me, dill has a little bit of an eye-raising character to it,' says Logan Rodriguez, the head bartender at Smithereens, a seafood restaurant and bar in New York. 'I like to think of it as a flavor underdog, since I'd wager that the main flavor association in popular culture is with pickles and possibly tzatziki.' He says the herb's grassy, anisette brightness can cut through the flavor noise in cocktails like the Goblin, a Gimlet-esque recipe that draws loose inspiration from leche de tigre. Dill is merged with other savory ingredients, including tomatillo, serrano pepper and cilantro, to provide a counterpoint to coconut oil-washed gin and orange. At Little's Oyster Bar in Houston, mixologist Oliver Brooks features a dill cordial in his Dill Breaker cocktail. The cordial is made with fresh dill, citrus, sugar and water, and then blended and strained before it's eventually shaken with vodka, lemon juice and rich simple syrup. Brooks wanted to use vodka to let the dill shine, but he says that gin can also work nicely with dill. Smithereens uses dill's grassy, anisette brightness to cut through coconut-washed gin in the Goblin cocktail. 'The real limit is just how adventurous a drinker you are,' Brooks says. 'I think if you got it just right, rye whiskey would be truly groundbreaking, but it would be tough pairing. I also think some French rhum agricole or Mexican rum would make an interesting Daiquiri–style drink.' When experimenting with dill, Brooks thinks of complementary, non-spirited ingredients like citrus—specifically lemon and grapefruit—as well as cucumber, mint and parsley. 'Yogurt would also be great, either incorporated into a syrup or as some kind of spirit wash, which would lend a nice creaminess and would soften the dill a bit.' He can even imagine a summery Bloody Mary made with a light tomato base, and suggests consulting Scandinavian, Middle Eastern and Israeli cookbooks to get more inspiration for how to use dill in drinks. Isai Xolalpa, the director of beverage at W Philadelphia, also mentions Mediterranean cuisines as inspiration for introducing dill's distinctive, aromatic flavor into cocktail programs. 'Dill offers a refreshing and unexpected savory note, perfectly suited to contemporary palates looking for complexity beyond sweetness,' he says. Patrons of the W Philadelphia's Living Room bar can get a dose of dill in the Oaxacan Negroni, which Xolalpa makes with lemongrass-dill infused mezcal, red Italian bitters, sweet vermouth and super foam, a housemade egg white substitute. The drink is garnished with a trio of pickled onions for an extra kick of savoriness. W Philadelphia's Oaxacan Negroni features lemongrass-dill infused mezcal as its base. If you want to use dill in drinks at home or behind the bar, Xolalpa says that 'infusions work exceptionally well, capturing the dill's vibrant aroma, herbal complexity and subtle sweetness. When infused into spirits, dill highlights refreshing notes of anise and delivers intriguing layers of savory flavor.' Elsewhere, Michelin-starred Indienne in Chicago serves the Seabass, a dilly drink that repurposes kitchen waste. Head mixologist Akshar Chalwadi starts by infusing gin with steamed and blended smoked salmon and sea bass trimmings, a combo that is macerated for 24 hours and then strained. The cocktail also incorporates lacto-fermented cucumbers, which are steeped with dill for 24 hours and balanced with sugar, and the finished drink is garnished with dill dust. Dalida in San Francisco turns to nearby Presidio Park for inspiration. Bar director Evan Williams wanted to capture the flavors of the park in his beverage menu, so he incorporates a number of fresh herbs, herbal teas and herbaceous spirits. The Halfdan Was Here cocktail calls for dill aquavit, clarified granny smith apple juice, celery, tarragon, musk willow water and lime. In a bit of cocktail inception, it's topped with a vegan foam made from the same cocktail so drinkers can see how the texture changes the flavor. Halfdan Was Here is a park-inspired cocktail that starts with dill aquavit. Right, so it's not just dill-spiked Gin and Tonics and Tom Collins we're seeing on bar menus. Though, to be clear, both classics are great vehicles for dill. For decades, the herb has taken a backseat to other more common ingredients, and it's still not enjoying the ubiquity of something like mint. But bartenders are taking notice and harnessing dill's unique flavor. 'As we enter an era of mainstream experimentation in cocktail techniques, there's real novelty in branching out from herbaceous staples like mint, basil, rosemary and thyme and getting a little more culinary,' says Rodriguez.
