Who,

The reality is yes there is a difference. The question is whether or not you can tell the difference. As you can see from the variety of posts, there are a number of people that don't have the palate to be able to differentiate the flavors, hence comments like bourbon is the same as whiskey, brandy is the same as cognac, etc...

Try the recipe as Kevin suggests. If you like the result, fantastic. If you want to serve it again and don't want to spend the money for a nice bourbon, go buy something cheaper. Otherwise give the chef that wrote the recipe the respect he probably deserves and reap the benefits of his work.

Cheers,