The Madrusan Cocktail Companion truly is a one stop shop when it comes to cocktails. Here, the Madrusans adapted their in-house, under-bar manual used at The Everleigh since its inception. The manual was shared with many of the world’s best bars to create a seriously comprehensive collection. The 2,800-plus recipes include classics dating back to the dawn of the cocktail, together with modern variations that reflect the creativity at work in bars around the world here and now. Part one of the book is a guide to bartending, breaking down all of the methods, technique and philosophy that we have built and refined over the past 25 years.
For the enthusiast, it’s a peek behind the curtain, and for the career bartender it’s a fantastic training manual. Here’s Zara Madrusan now, zooming in on how she and partner Michael Madrusan pulled together all 583 pages of the only cocktail companion you’ll ever need.
We wrote The Madrusan Cocktail Companion because it was our responsibility to this industry to do so. This research project has been underway for over twenty years. It started as an initiative to make better drinks, not as a solo endeavour, but collectively. It was always a resource for the industry, and has been so fundamental to so many great bars over the years in its original form. We always knew that the project needed to be completed, and that we owed it to the global bar industry to go the whole nine yards: collect every drink worth drinking from books old and new, reformulate and rebalance according to today’s products and palates, and dig deep to categorise everything correctly and determine provenance. The challenge was always finding a publisher who would be willing to back such an enormous tome.
We have two young children and we have our own businesses. The book was written late at night and at the crack of dawn. Our library of dusty cocktail books littered all over the house for close to two years. After hours arguments over whether a drink was a sour or a daisy and drilling into the detail of specifics and definitions for each category. So many modifiers and syrups in the kitchen for constant trials and reformulations. Luckily we had written a book together once before, but man, this one was a double PhD and it very nearly broke us!
The main thing we learned writing it was how much drinks have meant to civilisation for so long, how bartenders shaped culture, and how simple formulations from as far back as the 1800s can still be relevant today.
There’s over 2,800 cocktails in The Madrusan Cocktail Companion, but three you can’t miss are…
Gosh I won’t say it’s easy to pick three out of 2,800-plus, but here are some essential variations that we call out for good reason. They really are too good to flick past:
Stay Up Late (Veronica Harrold, The Stork Club Bar Book, Lucius Beebe, 1946)
Gin, Cognac, lemon, simple syrup, topped with soda demonstrates how two base spirits can mix in harmony. It’s amazing how many incredible split-base cocktails there are. Get to know them.
Jasmine (Paul Harrington, Townhouse, Emeryville, 1993)
It’s gin, Campari, triple sec, lemon juice and a simple syrup. This is where a Negroni collides with a Chelsea Sidecar (aka a Gin Sidecar). It’s a gorgeous and vibrant pinky red colour and was a popular pick at The Everleigh.
East New York Flip (Jose Gil, Milk & Honey, NYC, 2006)
You’ll find this in the flips section of the Madrusan Cocktail Companion. You’ve got bourbon, tawny Port, honey syrup, cream and egg yolk. It’s our family Christmas tradition.
You’ll find influences from Melbourne’s cocktail and bar culture in the book. Zooming in, that looks like… The Everleigh’s legacy in Australia is astounding and will forever make us proud. In the book, you’ll find a number of drinks from Andy Chu (One or Two), Oska Whitehart (Bar Bellamy), David Molyneux (Gimlet) and Felix Woods (Reine & La Rue). And outside of our alumni, there’s recipes from venues such as Caretaker’s Cottage, Byrdi, Above Board, Pearl Diver, Elysian and Mr West to name a few.
If you take one thing from this book, it should be the inspiration to try variations on drinks you love. The book is built for this – if you’re a Negroni-lover, head to the Negroni chapter and a plethora of variations on the classic are organised by spirit, so it’s easy to find something up your street. We hope people will see how simple it can be to vary up a simple formula with few additional or alternative ingredients to create something unexpectedly excellent. The book allows people to play bartender’s choice at their next dinner party – if you like this, why not try this – it’s so much fun once you realise these classic formulas are easy to replicate providing you have your basics sorted (quality, fresh and measured ingredients, and decent ice).
But I’d also love it if you tried the non-alcoholics. We’re really proud of the non-alc chapter and how many stand out drinks are featured that truly compete with their alcoholic counterparts.
If you’re relatively new to making cocktails… Built drinks are a simple place to start. Take a look at Highballs, Negronis or Old Fashioneds. As categories, they’re generally more durable drinks (particularly when served over a large piece of ice that dilutes slowly and cools fast) so beginners may want to cut their teeth here before taking on methods with more steps, such as shaking, stirring, whipping and more.
If you’re looking to extend yourself a bit more, meanwhile, then perfect your Sazerac. It’s the drink with the lengthiest method in the book by far, and that’s after we trimmed it to the bone. Though it’s a simple drink, questioning each step in the process leads us to a method that pays strictest attention to dilution.
When you’ve finished reading The Madrusan Cocktail Companion, we hope you’ll have found a new favourite (or a handful) that you’ll be able to make for your friends or request from your local trusted bartender. We hope you’ll go and experience some of the bars we highlight in the book and continue the conversation and explore what they’re excited about. We hope that some of the exceptional lesser-known recipes may see a resurgence thanks to their exposure in this book. There are so many amazing drinks that deserve their time in the sun.
The Madrusan Cocktail Companion by Zara and Michael Madrusan (Murdoch, RRP $69.99) is out now and yours to purchase from the likes of such Victorian booksellers as Readings, Books for Cooks and Hill of Content.