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Like any successful cocktail, there's a formula for a successful mixologist: Combine equal parts mad scientist and artist with a few strong dashes of ambition. But there’s successful and there’s incredible. To concoct the latter, you need Gabriel Orta, co-owner of Miami’s Broken Shaker. This is the guy, after all, who invented the Chorizo Cordial, a sweet-and-smoldering distillation of the Mexican sausage into cocktail form. This is the guy who turns Cocoa Puffs into an Old Fashioned, and who may be the first bartender to deploy a hashtag in a drink name: the #ShakerLife Punch.But it’s not all whimsy here. Orta understands that a great cocktail is more than just cleverness: It’s “ingredients, good spirits, technique, glassware, but most important, balance,” he says.Orta, who grew up in Colombia and Hawaii, set off on the road to greatness early on. “I got here by working my ass off since I was 15,” he said. Along the way, he’s held “every position in F&B from barback to dishwasher and cook.” He’s especially proudto have cooked a vegetarian meal for Adam Yauch from the Beastie Boys at the Tibet Freedom Concert in San Francisco. With his business partner, Elad Zvi, Orta opened Broken Shaker as the first pop-up bar in Miami, in 2012. Their signature drinks, stirred with custom-made ice and fresh herbs snipped straight from the garden, were among the first such cocktails in the Miami bar scene—and launched the trend there. The 30-day pop-up turned into a mainstay at the Freehand Miami Hotel (and now ranks #16 on the "World’s 50 Best Bars" list), and has since expanded to Los Angeles and Chicago. Orta and Zvi also co-founded Bar Lab, an agency that helps clients, from American Airlines to the W Hotel, craft innovative hospitality experiences and creative beverage programs.Orta’s cocktails may be Wonka-esque, but he says his spirit is mezcal: “Like me, it’s smoky, rare, and delicious.” It’s a rare and delicious opportunity to have Orta on Panna, and when you stir up his cocktails, you’ll sip the exquisiteness, too.Gabriel's Restaurants: 27 Restaurant and Bar (Miami Beach, FL)Broken Shaker LA (Los Angeles, CA)The Anderson (Miami, FL)Broken Shaker Miami (Miami Beach, FL)Broken Shaker Chicago (Chicago, IL)

How many chefs can trace their first restaurant job back to a countess? Daniel Boulud, winner of half a dozen James Beard Awards and owner of multiple Michelin-starred restaurants, can. Appropriately enough for a chef who shows a reverence for great ingredients, Boulud began his life on a farm: “There was a certain connection to everything,” he recalls about growing up on a 60-acre plot near Lyon. He was surrounded by vegetables, orchards, chickens, and cows—and it was there that his grandmother first taught him to cook, at a small café attached to the ranch. For years, he’d deliver fresh milk and eggs to a countess, who eventually heard about his dream of becoming a chef. She placed a call to the chef at Nandron, a two-starred restaurant in the city, to get Boulud a job. Only three years later, at just 17, he was awarded Best Culinary Apprentice in France by the Maitres Cuisiniers de.From that point on, Boulud charged through the cosmos of France’s Michelin-starred restaurants on a meteoric rise: he worked for Georges Blanc, Roger Vergé, and Michel Guérard, some of the greatest French chefs of our time. After his first experience working abroad in Copenhagen’s Plaza Hotel, Boulud took an even further leap to Washington, D.C., as the private chef to the Ambassador of the European Commission. But Boulud couldn’t contain his ambitions within a private kitchen, so he soon made a break for NYC, where he cooked alongside Thomas Keller at the Polo Lounge.From there, it’s easy to run down Boulud’s impressive resume, from his six career James Beard Foundation awards to the expansion of his restaurant empire from Singapore to Miami, London and beyond. But you can't eat glitz and panache! Instead, find proof of his genius and culinary mastery in his refined, custardy French omelette; Basque-style cod simmered in tomato-chorizo sauce; salade niçoise drizzled with his grandmother’s garlic vinaigrette; and luscious chocolate soufflés that tremble on your spoon.French cuisine is all about technique. These dishes, in particular, can be challenging to make if each step isn't carried out just right; with written instructions alone, it can be hard to achieve the best results. That's why video instruction from a perfectionist like Boulud is a rare gift. Simply press play to plunge into his delectable universe, and you'll amaze yourself by what you can accomplish with Boulud's help.Daniel's Restaurants:DBGB Kitchen and Bar (Washington, DC)Café Boulud (New York, NY)Daniel (New York, NY)DB Bistro & Oyster Bar (Singapore)Daniel's Books:Letters to a Young Chef (2006)Daniel (2013)