At first glance, famed restaurateur Grant Achatz’s new mixology bar, Aviary, looks more like a scene out of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” In reality, it is a cutting-edge cocktail bar that features creative new twists to take you out of your cocktail comfort zone. Vapors rise from the kitchen where a team of 40 “chefs” –akin to mad scientists tooling with funneled glassware and liquids–are concocting all sorts of variations on classic cocktails ranging from the deconstructed Moscow Mule to the seven-layered Hurricane.

Bacon + Maple + Chocolate + Cinnamon Vapor = HEAVEN

Well, actually it’s not that simple…

Last week, the Vapor Experts caught up with pastry chef Francisco Migoya in his kitchen at the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe on the Culinary Institute of America’s Hyde Park, NY campus. Our visit was quite a treat…