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...

We all have heroes, people we admire and want to emulate, perhaps to impress. Some of them will be distant figures who may have lived generations before us, others will be members of our own family. All of them make us who we are. A few years ago, I gave a series of dinners in celebration of some of my culinary heroes. This series of posts explores the lives and influence of those people and recalls the atmosphere and style of each dinner. In a dinner I called "Clean Air, Cold Water," I celebrated the great master of Nouvelle Cuisine and Godfather of Modern British cooking, Anton Mosimann. From its opening in 1931 until the 1970s, the kitchens of London’s Dorchester Hotel, and indeed every London hotel, had served mainly classic French cuisine. With its vast brigades and extensive kitchens, the hotel was well prepared for a style of cooking that can conjure an almost infinite variety of dishes out of five “mother” sauces and an array of pre-prepared flavouring ingredients. Th...