05:31 AM
How a mixologist can help save the world
The Argentinian cocktail scene has been in the spotlight recently, largely thanks to the Buenos Aires edition of Tales of The Cocktail, organized at the tail end of last month. For a couple of days, bartenders and enthusiasts from the whole country – and the whole continent – came to the city to attend various seminars and spend some time in bars. Truth be told, Buenos Aires didn’t have to wait until 2013 to become a cocktail hotspot. Lots of bars have opened over the last few years and Argentina has a long and storied bartending tradition. To talk about all this, we gave a call to our good friend Federico Cuco.
“It began with the centenary of our independence in 1910. Buenos Aires was completely rebuilt: big avenues and boulevards were created. People opened Parisian Cafés and bars where they would serve cocktails. Back then, most head bartenders were either French or North Americans, with a few Italians and Spaniards too”. It is said that this first generation wasn’t very keen on sharing its secrets, but thankfully, other bartenders who arrived in Argentina during prohibition opened up much more. But “the locals were people who learned watching” anyway, says Federico. This, combined with a difficulty to get some of the products down south, helped create a unique cocktail culture.
Take the ingredients, for instance: genever is more popular than gin! Local distillers also provide with tons of excellent products one can’t find elsewhere: Hespedrina, an orange liqueur, aperitifs and bitters such as Hierroquina or Legui, etc. The list is endless. The tools are also quite specific, in particular their strainer (“it’s not a Julep nor an Hawthorne”) and their two-pieces shaker, La Chancha (“it’s wider than the Parisian shaker, here we like girls with curves”). Friends of the Cuban cantineros will also be happy to learn that the throwing technique used to be commonly practiced by older bartenders and that some of the new generation is making sure it doesn’t disappear.
Federico Cuco received his own schooling from old-school head bartenders although it didn’t take place in fancy cafés on nice boulevards. Indeed, if there’s one cantinero who actually started from the bottom ladder of the profession, it’s him. “I wanted to buy a bike, so my dad found me work, piling up glasses in a discotheque. Little by little, I started working in other places, always at the buffet: I’d make sandwiches and coffee, at a golf club and then at a rugby club”. With age came greater responsibilities, and that’s how he started mixing drinks in the 80’s and learning all about classic cocktails – it was love at first sight.
His generation came of age in the late 90’s. Back then, the cocktail renaissance was not yet in full swing in the United States, but in Argentina, the art of tending bar found a new life for other reasons… “We were trying to reproduce the things and the products that we couldn’t get in my country”. All the home-made infusions and macerations that they were making were the product of necessity, not of any desire to do fancier thing than the neighbour. This helped create a whole generation of creative and polyvalent bartenders. But, while always keeping his ear on the ground for novelties, Federico always comes back to the classics. For example, until very recently, he was managing the bars of the San Isidro Hippodrome, a position that didn’t let him tend bar as much as he would have loved. From March to December last year, he decided to pack his kit and visit one bar per week, where he would set his stall and mix a few cocktails for the guests. The menu of the cantinero viajero, as he called himself, was very simple. It only had four entries: a classic, a forgotten cocktail, a modern aperitif and a drink family (cobbler, julep, fix, etc – patrons could chose which base spirit they wanted to use).
Oddly enough, when you ask him what he loves so much about classic cocktails, Federico would rather talk about the men who invented them. “I admire the old cantineros”, he says. Maybe because he is of the opinion that mixing good drinks is not the be all and end all of the profession. He follows the example of Santiago Policastro, better known as Pichín. Pichín is to Argentina what Constantino Ribalaigua is to Cuba or Pedro Chicote to Spain. A celebrity in his own right (during the 40’s, he had his own radio program!), Pichín wrote many books and Federico is particularly fond of his “Decalogue of the Barman”. “Almost everything in there is about your attitude behind the bar. Things such as ‘be the most elegant at all times’ or ‘a cocktail is never ready without a smile’. Maybe it’s romantic of me, but it’s been guiding my whole life”. Federico is always paying tribute to the master, so he was very happy to help out Renato Giovannoni when he was working on the opening of Galante, an Argentinian bar in London where Pichín drinks take an important place.
Today, Federico is busy working on the opening of his own bar, the Verne Club. “It will have a steam-punk look and we will have classic cocktails and finger food, everything of the highest quality”. The Verne Club will join a host of other great bars in the city. “The new generation is opening world class places, and little by little, clients are learning to drink better.” Federico will also use the Verne Club to train young and willing cantineros. “I’ve been training young people for the last ten years. I pick promising ones and I tell them stories, we watch movies, I make them part of my life and family.” And, of course, he also teaches them how to make the classics. “And to shake with a smile on your face”, he is quick to add. “Making a cocktail is not that difficult, but getting young people to love this profession, well, I think it’s a way of helping saving the world.”
*
Opium Ron Fashioned
* 60 ml Havana Club Seleccion de Maestros
* 15 ml Chinese Black Tea syrup
* 2 dashes of Angostura
Douse in syrup the inside of an old-Fashioned glass, add orange twist and ice. Pour rum and bitters, stir gently until ice-cold. With a cold smoker, fill up the glass with Eucalyptus and cinnamon smoke and tap with a coaster to keep the smoke in until served to client.
“It began with the centenary of our independence in 1910. Buenos Aires was completely rebuilt: big avenues and boulevards were created. People opened Parisian Cafés and bars where they would serve cocktails. Back then, most head bartenders were either French or North Americans, with a few Italians and Spaniards too”. It is said that this first generation wasn’t very keen on sharing its secrets, but thankfully, other bartenders who arrived in Argentina during prohibition opened up much more. But “the locals were people who learned watching” anyway, says Federico. This, combined with a difficulty to get some of the products down south, helped create a unique cocktail culture.
Take the ingredients, for instance: genever is more popular than gin! Local distillers also provide with tons of excellent products one can’t find elsewhere: Hespedrina, an orange liqueur, aperitifs and bitters such as Hierroquina or Legui, etc. The list is endless. The tools are also quite specific, in particular their strainer (“it’s not a Julep nor an Hawthorne”) and their two-pieces shaker, La Chancha (“it’s wider than the Parisian shaker, here we like girls with curves”). Friends of the Cuban cantineros will also be happy to learn that the throwing technique used to be commonly practiced by older bartenders and that some of the new generation is making sure it doesn’t disappear.
Federico Cuco received his own schooling from old-school head bartenders although it didn’t take place in fancy cafés on nice boulevards. Indeed, if there’s one cantinero who actually started from the bottom ladder of the profession, it’s him. “I wanted to buy a bike, so my dad found me work, piling up glasses in a discotheque. Little by little, I started working in other places, always at the buffet: I’d make sandwiches and coffee, at a golf club and then at a rugby club”. With age came greater responsibilities, and that’s how he started mixing drinks in the 80’s and learning all about classic cocktails – it was love at first sight.
His generation came of age in the late 90’s. Back then, the cocktail renaissance was not yet in full swing in the United States, but in Argentina, the art of tending bar found a new life for other reasons… “We were trying to reproduce the things and the products that we couldn’t get in my country”. All the home-made infusions and macerations that they were making were the product of necessity, not of any desire to do fancier thing than the neighbour. This helped create a whole generation of creative and polyvalent bartenders. But, while always keeping his ear on the ground for novelties, Federico always comes back to the classics. For example, until very recently, he was managing the bars of the San Isidro Hippodrome, a position that didn’t let him tend bar as much as he would have loved. From March to December last year, he decided to pack his kit and visit one bar per week, where he would set his stall and mix a few cocktails for the guests. The menu of the cantinero viajero, as he called himself, was very simple. It only had four entries: a classic, a forgotten cocktail, a modern aperitif and a drink family (cobbler, julep, fix, etc – patrons could chose which base spirit they wanted to use).
Oddly enough, when you ask him what he loves so much about classic cocktails, Federico would rather talk about the men who invented them. “I admire the old cantineros”, he says. Maybe because he is of the opinion that mixing good drinks is not the be all and end all of the profession. He follows the example of Santiago Policastro, better known as Pichín. Pichín is to Argentina what Constantino Ribalaigua is to Cuba or Pedro Chicote to Spain. A celebrity in his own right (during the 40’s, he had his own radio program!), Pichín wrote many books and Federico is particularly fond of his “Decalogue of the Barman”. “Almost everything in there is about your attitude behind the bar. Things such as ‘be the most elegant at all times’ or ‘a cocktail is never ready without a smile’. Maybe it’s romantic of me, but it’s been guiding my whole life”. Federico is always paying tribute to the master, so he was very happy to help out Renato Giovannoni when he was working on the opening of Galante, an Argentinian bar in London where Pichín drinks take an important place.
Today, Federico is busy working on the opening of his own bar, the Verne Club. “It will have a steam-punk look and we will have classic cocktails and finger food, everything of the highest quality”. The Verne Club will join a host of other great bars in the city. “The new generation is opening world class places, and little by little, clients are learning to drink better.” Federico will also use the Verne Club to train young and willing cantineros. “I’ve been training young people for the last ten years. I pick promising ones and I tell them stories, we watch movies, I make them part of my life and family.” And, of course, he also teaches them how to make the classics. “And to shake with a smile on your face”, he is quick to add. “Making a cocktail is not that difficult, but getting young people to love this profession, well, I think it’s a way of helping saving the world.”
*
Opium Ron Fashioned
* 60 ml Havana Club Seleccion de Maestros
* 15 ml Chinese Black Tea syrup
* 2 dashes of Angostura
Douse in syrup the inside of an old-Fashioned glass, add orange twist and ice. Pour rum and bitters, stir gently until ice-cold. With a cold smoker, fill up the glass with Eucalyptus and cinnamon smoke and tap with a coaster to keep the smoke in until served to client.
By François Monti
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