[:en]Stefano, reading your CV we discover that you are a journalist, writer and even a musician. How do you define yourself?
Let's say that what you listed are all passions that over time I have put together as if they were pieces of a puzzle. I define myself primarily as a journalist and for 17 years I have been involved with Bargiornale, a magazine that embraces the world of quality drinking at 360°. Thus, the birth of Cocktail Safari happened almost as a consequence, when I felt the need to tell the story of cocktails and at the same time the trips I made around the world to be able to taste them in their places of origin. It is a project that I created together with Andrea Fumagalli, "Andy", of Bluvertigo, who in addition to being a great musician is also an extraordinary artist. He was responsible for the illustrations of Cocktail Safari, which together with the stories that accompany them contribute to making the narrative truly unique.
In a world where everyone talks about cooking, how come you chose to talk about mixology?
I have been passionate about the world of nightclubs since I was very young. Consider that in the early 2000s there was still the tail end of the happy hour boom, especially in Milan, a formula thanks to which many new customers came into contact with the world of mixology that they previously neither knew nor took into consideration. Until the mid-nineties we went to the pub to have a beer or at most a glass of wine. Nobody felt the need for cocktails. They were considered Pleistocene stuff. And if the latest generations of bartenders have had the opportunity to bring the great classics back to light, we also owe it to many former boys, once known as "the abbufet people" and to the bartenders.
In your opinion, what differences are there between today's mixing and that of 10 years ago?
I believe that today's mixing follows a "Back to basic" trend which is divided into two trends: on the one hand there is the rediscovery of historical cocktails which is the result of a movement born in turn in the 90s, when in the United States United States, the trend of recovering forgotten drinks and even what we call "fossils" in jargon, dating back to the 1800s or even the 1700s, spread. The digital age has then allowed access to an infinite series of information that previously was much more difficult to find, so young bartenders began to study and re-propose techniques, cocktails and ingredients typical of past eras, effectively transforming bars from simple places where people drank to places of research where drinks became an experience in themselves , without the need for surrounding elements such as music or shows. In Italy it is a phenomenon that arrived much later and has exploded in particular in the last 10 years.
And the second trend?
I would say that it was born in the last four years and is always a "back to basic" branch entirely focused on the ingredient. The study that many bartenders today make of the raw material has given rise to a mix that is in a certain transversal sense, which embraces other knowledge such as physics, chemistry, herbal medicine and gastronomy. The cocktail thus becomes a total experience that begins and ends in the glass. The "liquid kitchen" philosophy was born within this trend, that is, the use of ingredients, techniques and work tools typical of the kitchen applied to the world of mixing. More and more often we hear about 0km cocktails, because the territory also has great importance in this new movement, as does reuse, an ethical choice that gives rise to flavors never tried before.
What are the characteristics that a good bartender must have today?
First of all, in my opinion he must be an excellent communicator. The bar counter is a bit of a stage for every bartender, but we must not forget that the main actors are the customers. Good dialogue is fundamental because it is an integral part of hospitality, since ancient times. A bartender who does not know how, or worse, does not want to dialogue and who hides behind a self-referentiality that is a product of the times has lost sight of the objective: to keep his customers drinking. I am horrified by the unjustifiable positions taken by some bartenders such as refusing to serve certain types of drinks. If you don't want to make spritzers and a customer orders one from you, it's not the customer's fault but yours, because evidently you didn't know how to communicate that people drink differently in your bar. No one would ever think of ordering a cheeseburger in a starred restaurant.
What's your favorite cocktail?
It doesn't exist, because there isn't just one. My favorite cocktails are the Ti' Punch that I drank that evening in Martinique, they are the Frozen Margarita that I drank on that beach in Cancún, they are the Negroni Sbagliato that I drank while interviewing its inventor, Mirko Stocchetto, who unfortunately left us left. My favorite cocktails are not cocktails but experiences in liquid form that cannot be taken out of context because they are themselves the context, its story and its characters.
[:]
