The Connaught Bar: Recipes and Iconic Creations

The Connaught Bar, in London’s Connaught Hotel, is, in the words of Massimo Bottura, “a theatre. One where the orchestra plays the sound of cocktails being made.” A locus of the European cocktail revival—energized by an Italian team led by Agosto Perrone—the Connaught combines classical elegance with thoughtful innovation.

There are 100 cocktail recipes in this sleekly handsome book, a dozen of them alcohol-free. They many not all receive the 6 pages devoted to The Connaught Martini, but each has a page of its own and a corresponding full-page photograph. This is a book about attention to detail.

That distinctive martini aside, most recipes are either riffs on drinks from the era when London was a cocktail powerhouse, with Harry Craddock presiding at the Savoy, or the Connaught’s own concoctions.  Among the Connaught’s inventions:

• Amber Black, combining cachaça and mastiha with Riesling and jasmine
• Daydreaming, mixing rum, amaro, vermouth, and sherry
• Italian Job, combining lime juice, passion fruit, pineapple, and Campari
• Number 11, in which gin and vodka are supported by Amalfi lemon peel-infused vermouth
• Voronoi, mixing blanco tequila, mescal, and lime sherbet

As sleek and elegant as it is inspiring, especially for professionals.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout