The Aperitif Guy

This weekend, my private dining society met to enjoy Mexican food. The date had been chosen for its proximity to el Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican celebration in remembrance of lost family, friends and admired figures from history. The Day of the Dead is a deeply significant occasion for Mexicans. While Europeans and Americans might celebrate Hallowe’en as a carnival holiday for games and fancy dress, Day of the Dead is both culturally and spiritually profound. Originating in pre-Christian beliefs, the celebration marks the moment the dead may return to the land of the living for a while. In order to persuade them to come, offerings of foods and lively music were provided. With the arrival of Christianity, the celebrations were augmented and embellished with themes from the November feasts of All Saints and All Souls; the prayers for deceased family and recognition of holiness being blended with ancestor-worship in a lively celebration of the people we have loved and lost, an...

This weekend, the UK, along with several other Commonwealth countries, celebrates the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen. By any stretch of the imagination, 70 years of service is something to marvel at, and many people will be celebrating with parties, trips to events and concerts, or simply having a tipple while they watch the TV footage of others celebrating. Although I'll be at work for three days of the holiday, a friend and I have arranged a celebratory luncheon on Sunday afternoon. Weather permitting, we'll enjoy cocktails in my friend's garden, before repairing indoors for delicious food, lovely wines and a snifter or two of port. The cocktail we've chosen to serve was actually created for a royal jubilee in Thailand, but we chose it for its lightness and freshness as much as its name. It mixes gin with elderflower liqueur, grapefruit and sparkling wine, and I'm hoping it'll be the perfect foil to my crab barquettes and truffled asparagus vol-au-v...

Italy marks 15th August with a holiday. Strictly speaking, it's the feast of the Assumption, an important religious festival for Catholics. However, you'd be hard pushed to find an Italian who uses that name for it. Throughout the country it's known as Ferragosto - the feasts of Augustus. Romans have been enjoying a summer break since the very first emperor provided games and other entertainments at this time of year to maintain his popularity. Nowadays the word applies to both the Assumption day holiday and the fortnight's break that most locals take following it. The Beloved and I love visiting Italy. Being lovers of good food and wine, it’s natural that much of our holidays (and cash) are spent enjoying the local cuisine. Over the years, I’ve started to notice something in the Italian approach to food that you don’t spot at first. Every good cook knows that you’re supposed to take quality ingredients and let them shine, but nobody really tells you what that means. O...

The British summer is doing its best to surprise us, with its usual mixture of rain, gales and glorious sunshine all in one day. In many parts of the UK, Coronavirus restrictions are gradually being eased, and we're getting used to socialising outdoors and at a distance. The traditional British barbecue of burgers and hotdogs with a range of unmatched salads and plenty to drink doesn't hold the same attraction in the circumstances. Do not leave your barbie to gather dust, though. There is so much you can cook on it, and our current circumstances provide just the opportunity to experiment. A barbecue - charcoal or gas - is nothing more than a fire and a wire rack. It's just a heat source. That's it. And anything you would normally cook under a grill, in the oven or even things you'd do on the hob, can be cooked on a barbecue. All the flash gadgetry of a top-of-the-range gas barbecue is designed to make the heat more controllable, but you can achieve great results on ...

The Beloved and I became civil partners in 2006. We were amongst the first people to do so, within a few months of the law changing. Because it was such a new thing, there were no established conventions or traditions for what should happen at such a celebration. In many ways, it was nice to build our day from scratch. We kept the invitation list short, just immediate family, and treated everyone to lunch afterwards. Obviously, it was important to us to serve an aperitif before lunch, but what to have? Both sherry and Champagne seemed more formal than the atmosphere we wanted to create for our day. I can't remember which of us first suggested the Dream cocktail, but as soon as it was mentioned we both knew it was the perfect aperitif for us. We had encountered the Dream cocktail the previous summer, in Salvatore Calabrese's Classic Summer Cocktails , and we fell for it immediately. It combines one of my favourite cocktail ingredients - Dubonnet - with citrus fla...