Note – I won these
books in an online draw courtesy of the ever-excellent Floating Rum Shack and Sterling Epicure publishers.
Two books dropped though my letterbox just before Christmas
and while quite different in their styles both are written by people who truly
care about a good cocktail and have a quite staggering array of experience to
call on.
Classic cocktails
by Salvatore Calabrese
This is a pleasingly hefty new edition of Calabrese’s 1997
tome, a veteran of various legendary London venues such as the Lanesborough
Hotel and Dukes Hotel Calabrese is clearly passionate about his drinks.
An engaged and clearly passionate writer Calabrese
takes his time discussing the history of the cocktail, glassware, ice-handling
and even famous bartenders and drinkers of the past before diving into a
chapter devoted to the Martini. The book is gorgeously illustrated with
photography so the cocktails juxtaposed with old and rare bottles of the
spirits concerned, drawing the reader into the notion that these are drinks
that have been around for decades and we drinkers are another part of that
history.
There are another 200+ cocktails detailed within the book,
all being at the more refined end of the spectrum, as you’d expect from the
title, with little titbits about their history here and there. At the end is a sections of “Calabrese
Classics”, drinks he has created over the years for family members, celebrities
and special occasions including the wonderful Breakfast Martini.
I only have one small quibble with the book, while Calabrese
is clearly a very enthusiastic and passionate man the exclamation point is
deployed much too often for my tastes and it did begin to grate a little after
a while. That is, admittedly, a very minor point and a question of personal
taste more than anything else.
Currently at £14.94 on Amazon this is an interesting read,
with some delicious sounding cocktails I look forward to trying out myself.
Cuban Cocktails by
Ravi DeRossi, Jane Danger & Alla Lapushchik
Reflecting a generational difference to Calabrese this is a
more rrelaxed, informal feeling book.
The writers have cocktail CV’s including some of the legendary US venues
such as Death & Co, PDT and Cienfuegos, the Cuban rum bar that inspired
this book.
Now, there’s one rather obvious problem with a book on Cuban
cocktails from the US, they can’t actually use any Cuban ingredients thanks to
that pesky embargo (naughty, naughty communists). This being said once you
accept that it’s an enjoyable book to dip into with some delicious sounding
recipes that are more Caribbean-inspired than strictly Cuban in a lot of cases
e.g a mint julep with Barbancourt rum from Haiti it’s very enjoyable.
The
book shows some serious knowledge and it’s worn lightly with a
conversational writing style that’s relaxed and friendly with a section
covering the history of Cuba before an introductory section covering the
essential techniques, ingredients and so on.
The recipes themselves are divided into four sections
covering colonial times, citrus drinks such as the daiquiri, Tiki drinks and
modern interpretations.
The photography mixes street scenes from Cuba with shots of
the cocktails themselves, both are evocative and enticing, making me
simultaneously crave a Daiquiri and to start pricing flights to Havana.
At £17.99 on Amazon this is a well-presented and gorgeously
photographed book, albeit it feels more like a book to leaf through on an idle
Sunday afternoon than one I’d pick up and start trying to make the drinks
mentioned, delicious though they do sound.
