Tag: team

50 Best Bars: Italy on the roof of mixing with the Connaught bar team – Italian Cuisine

Ago Perrone and company conquer the first place among the cocktail bars in the world with their Italic welcome in London, while two Italian clubs on the rise: 1930 in Milan and Drink Kong in Rome

If there was the national anthem to the proclamation of the winner of the 50 Best Bars, this year would have been Mameli's anthem. Italy exists and is on the roof of the world. Because it is true that the Connaught Bar, which is an elegant hotel bar in Mayfair, won London, but here the whole team speaks Italian. Agostino Perrone, with Giorgio Bargiani and Maura Milia have made the real Italian miracle, bringing the tricolor flag to the top of the ranking of the best bars in the world. IS even the Italian mixing has good reasons to celebrate because two clubs rise in the rankings by climbing several positions, equally distributed between Milan and Rome.

The Italians in the standings

Great success, in fact, for Benjamin Cavagna's 1930 Milanese secret bar, which rises from position 44 in 2019 to 25. A thirties-style speakeasy, as the name implies, but which for the judges of the Fifty Best could rightly be defined as a Futurist bar rather than a retro bar: "In 1930 – the description reads – you drink as if it were 2030 ”.
Blade Runner atmosphere instead for the Roman Drink Kong by Patrick Pistolesi and shareholders, which also scores an excellent performance, considering that he entered as a new entry last year in 82nd position and is promoted to the first part of the ranking with an excellent 45th place. Almost forty positions, conquered thanks to the continuous evolution and research that is carried out by Pistolesi and friends in their laboratory, without forgetting the roots and traditions of the place where they are located. “This convergence of science and tradition makes Drink Kong a special place in the panorama of Italian bars”, say from Fifty Best.

New entry and big absentees

Also noteworthy are two new entries all tricolor in the second half of the ranking, the one that goes from 51 to 100. Also in this case a tie between Rome and Milan the Freni e Frizioni in Trastevere in 87th place and the Officina Milano in 90th.
Too bad for the unclassified, because those good guys from the Roman The Jerry Thomas Project are missing (50th in 2019), Baccano has also failed in Rome (70th in 2019), probably due to the exodus of bar manager Mario Farulla who now we find at the Chapter and that promises great things for the next year. Also missing are Milan's Nottingham Forest which last year was in position 86.

And again Italy

It must be said that even the second place is a bit Italian. This is the Dante of New York, which last year was first, and which already from the name suggests that it is inspired by the Italic welcome. Many other Italian professionals follow, who for one reason or another are perhaps a little brains on the run from Italy, a little testimonial abroad of our innate hospitality. In 11th place we find Maybe Sammy from Sidney, Australia, led by Stefano Catino and Andrea Gualdi. At number 19 is Giacomo Giannotti's Paradiso di Barcellona, which created an excellent mix of Italian hospitality in a Spanish sauce.

Fusilli and zucchini: a team that wins is not changed – Italian Cuisine

Veg recipes, based on fish, colorful and appetizing. All the first courses based on fusilli and courgettes which you can't do without and our suggestions to make them even more special

What are we going to eat tonight? The open fridge, the empty mind and some nice fresh courgettes ready to give us a good idea. "Take me!" They seem to say while we are looking for a quick and tasty dish to prepare without thoughts. And if they may seem a little on their own, look at them from another point of view, that is, cut into cubes, cooked in a pan and sautéed with a generous dose of fusilli. Yes, that format of pasta that everyone likes because it collects the sauce, keeps the cooking well and creates a good volume in the dish. There are so many different ways to prepare them, here are some tips to be on the safe side.

Pesto, good idea

One of the most intriguing aspects of a dish of fusilli and zucchini is its green soul that we can accentuate by seasoning the pasta with fresh basil pesto before adding it with vegetables. In this way it will be very rich with each forkful, lending itself to variations based on rocket pesto and broccoli cream during the winter season.

Olive? Yes thanks

If you love feeling a savory note in your dishes, don't give up the power of olives. Choose them fleshy, pitted and black, opting for those baked in the oven to find a pleasant bitter note. If you have reduced the zucchini in a very fine diced, you can also bet on the chopped mixed olives, the same that is used to enrich the bruschetta. In this case, however, we advise you to freshen it all up with some tomatoes without seeds and peel, previously seasoned with extra virgin olive oil.

The crunchy note

Fusilli are soft, delicate zucchini. Why not play with some contrast? Almond flakes, chopped pistachios and crumbled cashews will make you fall in love with the crunchy notes of this variant. And if you love strong flavors, remember to toast the grains in a pan with a pinch of salt!

In the gallery above, our fusilli with zucchini.

Run The Mix, the best Italian bartender team comes from the South – Italian Cuisine

Here are the winners of the team competition promoted by Pernod Ricard to enhance Italian mixology

The gold medal for the best Italian bartender team flies to the South. It ended in fact with the victory of the Southern Runners led by Matteo Bonandrini and Alexander Frezza the first edition of Run The Mix, the competition for talent of the tricolor mixology proposed by Pernod Ricard. That yes, he wanted to evaluate creativity in creating new cocktails and the ability to prepare them, but also the ability to present everything in an appealing way, to respect service times and establish an immediate and effective relationship with the customer.

The rules

The spaces of IT, in that of Milan, hosted the three finalist teams, divided by geographical origin. Nordic Runners, Middle Runners Southern Runners, coming respectively from North, Central and South Italy, found themselves having to propose a sequence of cocktails designed ad hoc for the challenge, served in combination with special dishes that have highlighted the possibilities in terms of food pairing. Everything was then presented to a jury of experts, who assessed the teams' performance by adopting peculiar points of view: Francesco Cione Bar Manager of the Octavius in Milan evaluated the technique; Marco Sacco, starred chef owner of the Piccolo Lago di Verbania, the ability to surprise, enhance and entertain through food pairing; Lucia Stragapede, founder of Pastichéri, the ability of to sell and customer loyalty; Nelum Francesca Caramini and Gabriele Litta, drink stylist owners of Fluffer Studio, the beauty of the presentation and the harmony between aesthetics and taste; Alberto Vaccaro, coach certified by the World Association of Business Coaches, empathy with the client and the ability to relate.

The winners

The three drinks presented by the Southern Runners to the jury somehow wanted to retrace the phases of every man's life: youth, adolescence and maturity. hummingbird, the first of the proposed cocktails, played on the union of citrus, cocoa and vodka scents Absolut Elyx. On the other hand, the suggestions in the glass of Punk, where the banana met the notes of Tequila Altos. The drink christened Owland finally concluded the service with the complexity – and therefore maturity – of whiskey Jameson Black Barrel. Riccardo Russo and Ugo Acampora from Naples, Giuseppe Milillo from Giovinazzo and the two under 30s Luigi Rosario Grasso from Catania and Giovanni Maffeo from Lecce, together with captains Matteo Bonandrini and Alexander Frezza, have thus won the honor of winning this first edition of Run The Mix. For them also a trip to London to discover the Beefeater world and the most renowned places of British mixology. The perfection of the simplicity of food pairing, the elegance of the presentation and the balance in the garnish, the opening towards the customer and the strong cohesion of ideas, styles and knowledge have led the team of the South to triumph over those of the North and of the Center, second and third place respectively.

Summer trends

"I am convinced that what my team has been able to propose fully reflects the current trends in our sector", he underlines Matteo Bonandrini, captain of the Southern Runners and bartender of the Mak Mixology of Palermo. «The search for the best quality ingredients, of course, but also a substantial reduction in alcohol content, in favor of aromas and flavors that wink at distant lands. It is no coincidence that among the most popular distillates of the season there is undoubtedly tequila, a precious product ready to be finally valued properly, which inevitably brings with it a load of tropical scents perfect for the summer ".