PARIS, Aug 6 — It's the soundtrack of summer: Ice cubes clinking, effervescent bubbles fizzing and corks a-popping. To help jazz up your backyard barbecue, summer dinner party or Sunday brunch, Colin Field, who helms the historic Bar Hemingway at the Ritz Paris, shares his recipe for the classic French 75 cocktail, made with gin, lemon and Champagne.
A historic watering hole named after its most famous and perhaps most loyal client, Ernest Hemingway, the Bar Hemingway is a small, intimate enclave at the rear of the five-star hotel, frozen nostalgically and elegantly in the 1920s.
In homage to the novelist, the bar is distinctly masculine and stately, with studded leather armchairs, a wood-panelled bar, and a horned animal head hanging proudly on the wall. Vintage typewriters, handwritten letters and portraits of Hemingway likewise line the walls.
Since taking helm of the bar in 1994, Field has become the face of Paris' legendary watering hole, going on to be named the world's greatest bartender by Forbes magazine, and creating a barman programme for France's Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF) programme at the Sorbonne. The MOF programme recognises the best tradesmen and women in their category in France.
For those who aren't headed to Paris anytime soon or can't afford the US$35 (€30, RM150) price tag per cocktail, Field shares a recipe for the French 75, a classic cocktail that's said to have such a kick, it feels like being shelled by a French 75mm field gun.
To recreate the classic cocktail, Field emphasises the importance of serving the drink in a highball glass — not a champagne flute — to replicate the field gun used in the First World War.
Ingredients
2cl gin
1cl lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
Half a lemon
Half an orange or clementine
Champagne to top
Dissolve sugar in gin and lemon juice. Add lemon and orange slices. Top with champagne. — AFP-Relaxnews
