Aristotle argued that the secret of happiness lies in knowledge, and if a great philosopher like him said that, I am not in danger of making a bad impression in arguing more or less the same thesis, even though the word happiness, is a term I have a hard time even pronouncing, because perhaps I am an eternal dissatisfied. I prefer to say that I am never completely satisfied, because I alternate between moments when I feel that my 50 years as a man and 30 years as an entrepreneur have served me poorly, growing too little in relation to my expectations, and moments where, on the contrary, in my innermost subconscious I know that I am privileged because I do exactly the work I love and try to do it to the best of my ability, seeking knowledge, precisely, expertise, driven by incurable passion and curiosity.
In short, I wander here and there as Edoardo Bennato said in one of his wonderful songs, "one day you think you're right and you're a great man, in another you wake up and you have to start from scratch. "
One of the moments when I was able to give a positive, truly magical meaning to my work and I was able to really admire knowledge and expertise as the very meaning of one's craft, was my trip to New Orleans last July 2010 on the occasion of TALES OF THE COCKTAILS in New Orleans.
I had ventured into this particular sensory experience in the company of the great bartender Max La Rocca, with whom I had had no direct contact up to that point. I knew him by reputation and through his blog. Having the privilege of relying on such an accredited bartender as a traveling companion and mentor was no small advantage in savoring to the fullest what awaited me.
How to define Tales of the Cocktail ? It is reductive to say that it is a kermesse, because it is certainly much more than that almost ten years after its inception. It is certainly a laboratory of encounters and ideas, it is an international showcase, it is a gathering of the world's best bartenders, it is the history of a museum and a city, it is a megashow, but for those who, like me, love and work in this world, it is mainly a great dive into passion, genius and admiration.
The days spent between the Monteleone Hotel hosting the event and wandering the streets of New Orleans in search of the history of blended drinking, (which since the days of Prohibition has contributed so much to provide the city with a mark and a style), I experienced them a bit like a child who pops into his favorite adventure book and magically finds himself toddling between the pages of the book itself being able to observe and meet its heroes and myths.
And when I speak of myths I am referring to names like: Stanislav Vadrna , Salvatore Calabrese, Tony Conigliaro, Dale Degroff, Agostino Perrone, Peter Dorelli, and so many others, true living legends...in all more than 70 protagonists of international mixed drinking who have been joined by almost as many experts and specialists.
Once again, as always happens to me when I observe professionals of this level working, I am enchanted by the magic of their skillful gestures, by the rituality that is repeated every time a cocktail is created. Like stage actors and jugglers, these great bartenders from whatever part of the world they come from,
whatever culture they are from, whatever the color of their skin and whatever professional tendencies they express, they all always have something to teach me.
With Max La Rocca we exchanged a reflection regarding how much more the scoop is used abroad than in Italy. Perhaps we Italians give a lot of importance to the creativity and elegance of the preparation and we see in the measuring cup an object a bit like a pharmacist, more than a bartender, but I like to see it wisely used, even in this step of mixing there is something alchemical and mysterious, moreover the measuring cup is very useful to find the reproducibility of the cocktail and its perfect balance.
Around the event lives and pulsates the whole city of New Orleans, every bar, every venue, organizes events dedicated to Tales and one cannot help but notice how much the history of blended drinking is intertwined with the history of the city itself and the famous exclusive "Please don't tell" clubs, which during the prohibition period were known through a very secret word of mouth intended for small circles of customers.
So many historic clubs that survive to this day, unfortunately I have not had time to research them all, I will mention only two names just to give the idea: the Sazerac Bar and Arnaud's French 75 Bar.
The history of the Sazerac cocktail is famous and starts from the pharmacist Antoine Pechaud who was the inventor of it in the early 1800s, the base was cognac, but it was Thoms Handy who took over the Sazerac Café in the mid 1800s and replaced the main ingredient in rye whiskey. Now, the Sazerac Bar Restaurant, has been revived for several years in the bar spot of the Fairmont Hotel.
Arnaud's French 75 Bar, on the other hand, is still there in its place, exuding history, a temple of mixed drinks of yesterday and today, one of the most famous just from the Prohibition period, divided into two rooms one visible and the other, the one that was hidden back then, separated by a corridor.
A stop that cannot be missed by those who travel to New Orleans on the braids of the history of mixed drinks, is a visit to the American Cocktail Museum, an extraordinary place that collects in a rather circumscribed space as much as 200 years of history. museumoftheamericancocktail.org.
And what about the hotel itself that hosts the event?
The Monteleone is a historic hotel, from the late 1800s. i know that Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner and Truman Capote and many other very famous people have stayed here. It is in the heart of the old French Quarter, but more importantly it is the hotel where there is the very famous Carousel bar, which turns on itself and makes a full circle in 15 minutes. I was there, as were many other guests at the event. It was a great thrill to sit at the counter that spins around everything that smacks of history and maybe I sat on the same stool that a great writer or a famous jazz musician sat on, intent on pursuing his dreams...what a story!
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