Inside The Connaught Bar Book with Agostino Perrone
Take home 100 recipes from one of the most lauded cocktail bars in the world
The particular magic of the Connaught Bar defies category. The award-winning bar has been lauded for its elegant and timeless atmosphere. The cocktail menu, often cited as one of the best in the world and currently number five on the list of The World’s 50 Best Bars, both time travels and globe trots. The team of bartenders, headed by Agostino Perrone, orchestrates an intoxicating adventure with warm hospitality and agile professional flare. So, when it came time to create a Connaught Bar cocktail book, Perrone envisioned an artful representation to tell the story.
“We worked to distill the stories that we share daily in person,” says Perrone. To that end Perrone along with Gorigio Bargiani and Maura Milia poured through a decade of the archives to choose one hundred cocktails to highlight. “We certainly used popularity as an initial filter, then a variety of cocktail styles and ingredients, as well as our personal affection to certain drinks. Each creation reflects a story made of people, so it’s only normal that we all have a special connection with some of the drinks.”
The pale green cover has a luxurious texture and subtle iridescent sheen. The book begins with a forward by Massimo Bottura, an introduction by Perrone, and a glossary of essential bar tools before launching into a chapter about The Connaught Martini. For many guests a visit to the Connaught Bar will not be complete without a martini made tableside. Perrone feels that their martini cart encapsulates their ethos and approach to mixology and hospitality. “It is all about making the guests our focal point,” he explains. “This cocktail is all about personalization, from the spirit base to the aromatic bitter and the garnish. To bring home the magic that happens at The Connaught when we make the drink for our guests and we create memories for them, means that readers should focus on dedicating themselves to creating a special moment, whether for themselves or for their own guests.”
The second chapter begins with the curation of 100 cocktails that tell the Connaught Bar story in alphabetical order, beginning with the 21st Century and Amber Black and ending with the Yellow Submarine. Along the way fans of the Connaught Bar will find some of their favorite memories in anecdotes, recipes and photographs. “It’s a simple choice of setting the names and therefore the cocktail stories as a main criterion for the order. This is not a mere recipe book, but a collection of our legacy and all the drinks that help us build that.”
When asked about the balance of tradition and innovation in the cocktail recipes Perrone replies, “Tradition is rooted in our skills and knowledge of classics, techniques, as well as the style of The Connaught. Innovation comes from the will to do something unique, to always add a personal touch that might come from travel, personal taste, the encounter with a guest, the discovery of new ingredients and so on. We keep on injecting all these elements into our cocktails to delight our guests and create new flavors and stories. The matrix remains quintessentially classic though with the Connaught Bar signature always present.”
In addition, there elements that are inspired by Perrone’s childhood visits to Italy, like the creation of cocktails such as the Benvenuti with Ambrato and the Garibaldino with an Italian liqueur made with rose petals and bergamot. The menu also features ingredients from around the world from Japanese culture to Icelandic geography and even a Ukrainian mathematician. These global flavors and ideas are an integral part of the Connaught Bar’s story, appealing to their hotel guests from around the world.
Each cocktail is presented with an introductory story and recipe flanked by a full page photograph by Lateef Okunnu. “He knows our cocktail style very closely and dares experimenting with colors, light and composition in the same way we experiment with flavors and techniques,” says Perrone. “The elegance and class of our creations and work remaim central.” The imagery combines traditional cocktail photography techniques and uses different backgrounds to focus on the textures and colors of the bar’s décor.
The recipe for the Hidden Park Cocktail, inspired by shinrin yoku, the Japanese concept of forest bathing, reveals the experience of immersing oneself in the tranquility of nature in the glass. It is made with cucumber and rose gin paired with riesling, clarified grapefruit juice, basil and Szechuan pepper syrup, served with a pickled young peach in the bottom of a flute. The flavors are stirred together to heighten the gin’s flavor profile and highlight the floral notes in the wine to craft a sensorial adventure. “While there are instructions for homemade preparations to really make the readers raise their mixology game, we also wanted to immerse them into our own story,” says Perrone.
Perrone along with the entire teams that collaborated on the book wanted to make sure each cocktail recipe delivers a dedication to harmonious flavor combinations that carry a meaningful message. “Serving and pleasing our guests has always been a labor of love for our team and we hope that the Connaught Bar book conveys that,” he concludes
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