Verdi's Favorite

In 1826 four brothers, confectioners from the Swiss town Pontresina close to St. Moritz, came to the Italian port city Genoa. The intention was work and save up money to emigrate and seek their fortune in America. Being successful and much appreciated in their new, supposed to be temporary home country, the Klainguti brothers decided to stay in Italy and set up a pastry shop in Genoa instead. In 1828 they opened Fratelli Klainguti on Piazza Soziglia in the heart of the old town in Genoa. The brothers soon became a beloved part of the city, especially among high society.

One of the most famous pastries at Fratelli Klainguti is the Torta Zena. Made with layers of sponge cake and filled with zabaglione cream, flavored with Marsala and rum, and topped with marzipan it is a cake found in many pasticcerie in Genoa today. The name Zena derives from the Genoese name for Genoa. Another of the Klainguti inventions is a brioche they created for their most famous customer, Giuseppe Verdi, who was a frequent patron of the pastry shop. They even named it after Verdi’s opera Falstaff and it was so well received by Verdi himself that he left Klainguti a thank you note reading: “Dear Klainguti, thanks for the Falstaff. Superb... much better than mine!”

In the late 19th century Italian pasticcerie, pastry shops, began transforming and adopting to the new Italian café culture, serving coffee and alcoholic beverages as well as lighter meals. This was a shift that spread across Italy and Fratelli Klainguti were part of this change. 

The creation of the Klainguti cocktail is lost in history but it is very much a part of the Italian cocktail culture. Probably made sometime during the 20th century it has a lot in common with its Italian cousins featuring Campari, Italian vermouth (even though it is usually of the red variety), gin and Prosecco. You could say that the Klainguti Cocktail is like a Negroni Sbagliato where the bartender didn’t use Prosecco instead of the gin but instead used both. Where the cocktail stands out is with the addition of Cointreau a product that doesn’t generally feature in the true Italian classics. 

THE DESIGNER
The glass, which is actually a candy dish, was designed in 1925 by the Austrian designer Oswald Haerdtl. 

Fog So Thick You Can Cut It

This is yet another Trader Vic original and its his most popular creation after the Mai Tai, and closely related to the Scorpion. The drink was first served in the 1940s at Trader Vic’s in Oakland, California.

The drink is very citrus forward and even with the addition of the favorite Tiki drink sweetener, orgeat, the Fog Cutter is definitely on the tart side, more like a sour than a tiki drink. It soon became immensely popular and thanks to this the original recipe has been tweaked in numerous ways like dialing down the lemon and changing brandy to pisco, as they do at Smuggler’s Cove, a tiki bar in San Francisco.

When making this classic, remember that Mr. Bergeron wrote in his Trader Vic’s Book of Food & Drink from 1946 “This is delicious but a triple threat. You can get pretty stinking on these, no fooling.” In the Trader Vic’s Pacific Island Cookbook from 1968 he explained that the drink should be served with straws (and two aspirin).

The Fog Cutter is said to be one of the very first tiki drinks that was served in a tiki mug. Ever since its inception in the 1940s the drink has been served in a signature mug adorned with a hula girl. In his Bartender’s Guide from 1947, Victor Bergeron even pictured the Fog Cutter hula girl mug along with specific glasses for all the different types of drinks in his book, 30 different glasses and mugs in total.

THE DESIGNER
The tiki mug used for this Fog Cutter is not Trader Vic’s. Instead it’s a mug, designed by Stella Bodey in the late 1950s, called the Island Chief. Bodey was very influential in the development of Tiki mugs, working for Spurlin Ceramics in Lynwood, California where she made most of her designs between 1957-1959.

Different Region Means Different Pasta

“La Pasta Italiana” is a new exhibition featuring posters with pasta from 8 different regions in Italy. It opens at the Italian Coffee Bar Sempre at Jacobsbergsgatan 5 in central Stockholm.

Join me on Friday October 11 at 5 pm for an aperitivo at the best Italian Coffee Bar in Stockholm.

The Agent And His Sidekick Cocktail

October 4th is International Vodka Day, a day to celebrate the versatile liquor that accounts for almost 25 percent of all spirits sold in North America. Here’s to the spirit that “Leaves you Breathless”, as the Smirnoff ad campaign from the 1950s touted.

THE VESPER
In 1952 the British former spy and writer, Ian Fleming, wrote his first book in a series of novels about the British agent extraordinaire with a license to kill. The book was Casino Royal and it featured a double agent called Vesper Lynd. Being the first ever Bond woman and thus James Bond’s first love interest she got a cocktail named after her, the Vesper. The cocktail, a version of the Martini, was created by Ian Fleming himself and the instructions Bond gave to a bartender in the book were very clear. “Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel.” The only problem making it today is that the bitter Kina Lillet was discontinued in 1969 so you have to substitute it either with Cocchi Americano to get the original bitterness or use Lillet Blanc and maybe add some bitters to the drink. Ian Fleming might have gotten the idea for the Vesper from Ted Saucier’s 1951 cocktail book Bottoms Up, a book where the Vodka Martini first appeared in print. Saucier credited Jerome Zerbe, photographer, and Society Editor for Town and Country, with the recipe. On a side note, during the 1930s and onwards Jerome Zerbe worked at the Rainbow Room, the nightclub El Morocco and at the Stork Club as one of the first ever paparazzi.

THE DESIGNER
Lee Broom designed the glass, On the Rock, in 2014.

The Actor That Didn't Like Her Mocktail

In 2008 India’s health ministry proposed the World Health Assembly in Geneva that October 2 be declared World No Alcohol Day. The date was picked as it coincides with Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. So it’s the perfect day to enjoy the most famous non-alcoholic drink there is.

THE SHIRLEY TEMPLE
The Shirley Temple is possibly the most famous non-alcoholic cocktail ever made. It might even be the very first mocktail. The drink is named after Shirley Jane Temple, born in 1928. She was an American singer, dancer, actor and diplomat. She is most famous for her acting career as a child during the 1930s and, of course, for the cocktail.

As a child she lived the life of the movie star but in a city full of fancy restaurants and cocktails she couldn’t take part in the latter. On a night out for dinner at the Chasen’s restaurant in Hollywood her parents sat at the bar sipping Old Fashioneds. Naturally Temple also wanted a fancy drink but being very much under age, the bartender kindly whipped up a special drink for her. He added some maraschino cherries to make it look more like her parents drinks, and simply called it a Shirley Temple. At least, so the story goes. Ms. Temple herself said it was created in the 1930s at Brown’s Derby restaurant in Hollywood, another hangout for the Hollywood crowd, but that she had nothing to do with it. Shirley Temple herself was apparently never a fan of the drink. In an interview in 1986 she said that “all over the world I am served that. People think it’s funny. I hate them. Too sweet!”. During the 1940s she wasn’t as sought after as an actor anymore and in 1950 Temple officially left the movie business. Instead she started a career in politics, just like actor Ronald Reagan.

THE DESIGNER
The glass called Strikt was designed by the Swedish sculptor and designer Bengt Orup in 1953.

A New Yorkers Take On Japan

This cocktail first appeared in print in Jerry Thomas’s legendary book “How To Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant’s Companion” from 1862. The book, that also goes by the name “The Bar-Tender’s Guide” is regarded to be the first ever cocktail book, or at least the first book entirely dedicated to cocktails. At the time of printing the cocktail had been around for just two years. It was in all likelihood created as a tribute to the first Japanese Diplomatic Mission to the United States. After arriving in San Francisco the mission visited Washington DC before coming to New York where they stayed at the Metopolitan Hotel just a block away from Jerry Thomas’s Palace Bar on 622 Broadway.

One of the members of the delegation was a 17-year old translator called Tateishi Onojirou Noriyuki, who everyone in the US simply called Tommy. Thanks to cocktail historian David Wondrich, we know that a reporter from the Minneapolis Tribune followed the delegation’s trip making Tommy into something of a darling to the media. He really enjoyed the western lifestyle, including cocktails, and apparently he was a bit of a ladies man.

The Japanese Cocktail is one of the few cocktails that are known to be created by Jerry Thomas, often called “The Professor” for his ability to cater even to the most demanding customers. Being known for his showmanship he traveled around the United States only using solid silver bar tools and cups decorated with precious stones.

Jerry Thomas’s creation, the Blue Blazer, was definitely his most spectacular. It is made from a blend of whiskey, sugar and boiling water that he set ablaze and then poured between two tankards while on fire. A show that set The Professor apart from his competitors.

THE DESIGNER
The glass is actually a wooden sake cup called Tohka Souen, designed by Masaharu Asano.

Straight From Peanut Country

This cocktail is not, as you might assume, named after actress, movie star and serious cocktail and Bourbon enthusiast Tallulah Bankhead. Instead, the cocktail is a tribute to the Southern blue collar tradition of putting a handful of peanuts into a bottle of Coca-Cola as a quick snack. This particular way of mixing salty peanuts into the sugary soda, sometimes referred to as “farmer’s Coke”, started in the 1920s when shelled and salted peanuts were first sold in small packets in grocery stores. The practicality of being able to have both food and drink in one hand, leaving the other hand free to drive your car or work made for it to quickly spread through the Southern states from Texas to the Carolinas. Basically all States that grew peanuts. 

According to the National Peanut Federation it was convenient in another way too. Workers with dirty hands didn’t want to eat their peanuts without first washing their hands. When that wasn’t possible they could instead simply dump their snack into their bottle of Coke. 

The Tallulah was invented by bartender Zak Kittle while working at Ollie Irene, a gastro pub in Birmingham, Alabama. The co-owner of Ollie Irene, Chris Newsom, had a great-aunt called Tallulah and her love for whiskey made them borrow her name for the drink. 

The Tallulah is made with whiskey, typically Jack Daniel’s, peanut orgeat, instead of the regular orgeat made with almonds and featured in many tiki drinks, Coca-Cola and a garnish of salted peanuts. 

THE DESIGNER
The glass was designed by Akira Minagawa, in 2021 as a collaboration with Sugahara glassworks. It is called Peanuts.

TALLULAH

2 parts Tennessee Whiskey
1 part Peanut Orgeat
2 parts Coca-Cola

Shake first two ingredients and strain into the glass. Top up with Coke and garnish with salted peanuts.

Enjoy it like a peanut farmer.

An Iced Tea From Long Island

The Long Island Iced Tea hasn’t got anything in common with Iced Tea, it does however seem to have a lot to do with Long Island either Long Island, New York or Long Island, Tennessee.

In 1972, a bartender called Robert "Rosebud" Butt, working at the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island, New York entered a competition to create a new cocktail requiring the use of triple sec. The result, the Long Island Iced Tea, didn’t actually feature that much triple sec but it did contain loads of liquor. Some say that this blend of equal measures of vodka, gin, rum, tequila, triple sec, lemon juice, sugar syrup and cola has the taste of a hangover but the fact is that it is oddly well put together. 

This is the most widely accepted origin story but there is at least one other often told claim. According to this, the drink was invented in the 1920s in Long Island, Kingsport, Tennessee by “Old Man Bishop”. This Prohibition era version was made with whiskey, rum, vodka, tequila, gin and maple syrup. During the 1940s Mr Bishop’s son Ransom Bishop added lemon and lime juice and a splash of cola to the drink. During Prohibition it was common for bar owners to mask the drinks by trying to make them look inconspicuous for example like an innocent glass of iced tea.

Interestingly the state of Tennessee had enacted their first prohibition laws as early as 1838 so bar owners were probably used to dealing with bootleggers in the 1920s. Especially in the eastern parts of the state, like Kingsport, where law enforcement officers were often in conflict with bootleggers and moonshiners. That said, it would have been very difficult to make a drink with five different types of liquor when spirits were already hard to come by, even with good contacts within the bootlegging world. Paired with the fact that vodka wasn’t widely used in the US until the 1940s, it isn’t very likely that the Long Island Iced Tea is native to Tennessee after all. Besides the drink wasn’t featured in print until the 1970s. 

Regardless of its reputation of being a drink ordered solely for its alcohol content the Long Island Iced Tea became immensely popular during the 1980s and remains so to this day. 

THE DESIGNER
The glass, called Crystal Edge, was designed by Japanese glass designer Kenji Matsuura for Sugahara Glassworks in 2014.

The World Mai Tai Day

On August 30, 2009, the city of Oakland declared that from then on August 30 should be World Mai Tai Day. It was a day in August 1944 Victor Bergeron made the first Mai Tai.

THE MAI TAI
The history of the Mai Tai is a story of two tiki bar giants. Victor Jules Bergeron (aka Trader Vic) and Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt (aka Donn Beach, or Don the Beachcomber). Donn Beach opened his first South Pacific style restaurant in Hollywood in 1933. He was a rum connoisseur and started making exotic rum drinks inspired by his many travels.

Trader Vic had his own restaurant called Hinky Dinks that he opened in 1934 in Oakland, California. After a trip to Cuba to refine his bartender skills and learn more about rum, the Trader remodeled Hinky Dinks into a Polynesian style tiki bar and changed the name to Trader Vic’s.

The Mai Tai was first made in 1944 for Ham and Carrie Guild, a couple of Tahitian friends of Bergeron’s. They liked it so much Carrie Guild exclaimed in Tahitian “Mai Tai-Roa A’e” meaning “Out of this world, the best”. “That was that”, as Mr. Bergeron said.

Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber fought over the invention of the Mai Tai for many years but when Mr. Beach claimed the drink to be his the Trader had enough. Donn was sued and lost. Trader Vic stated “There has been a lot of conversation over the beginning of the Mai Tai, and I want to get the record straight. I originated the Mai Tai, but many others have claimed credit … Anyone who says I didn’t create the drink is a dirty stinker.” Victor Bergeron might however have got the inspiration for the drink, along with making a tiki bar out of Hinky Dinks, from Donn Beach so without Donn we probably wouldn’t have the Mai Tai.

THE DESIGNER
The glass, called Pitagora after its triangular base, was designed by Marco Zanuso in 1969.

The Whiskey Sour Day Celebrated With A New York Sour

The Whiskey Sour Day on August 25 each year is a perfect time to try this 19th century classic. Make it with bourbon or whiskey or try New York Sour by adding a Claret float.

THE WHISKEY SOUR
The first time the word sour was used in regards to a drink was in 1856 on a bar menu at Mart Ackermann’s Saloon in Toronto, Canada. In print the sour, brandy and gin, appears for the first time in 1862 in The Bartender’s Guide by Jerry Thomas. Eight years later, the Whiskey Sour makes the stage in Waukesha Plain Dealer, a Wisconsin newspaper. In 1883 the drink had already developed and many bartenders started adding a Claret float, to the drink. Apparently the word Claret was used a bit loosely at the time and didn’t necessarily mean a red wine from Bordeaux. This version came by many names but the bartending world finally settled on New York Sour.

The Whiskey Sour is traditionally made with whiskey, lemon juice, sugar and egg white, an ingredient that will smooth the tartness of the lemon juice and give the drink a frothy topping. The egg white was probably added in the early 1900s. Today the egg white is optional and you often find bars serving the Whiskey Sour without it.

THE DESIGNER
The glass, called Dondolino, was designed by Setsu & Shinobu Ito in 2016 and is painted using a technique with Japanese lacquer called Urushi.

The Sneaky International Rum Day

August 16 is International Rum Day and a great way to celebrate is to make a Sneaky Tiki, a Dark ’n Stormy, a Mai Tai or any other rum based cocktail.

THE SNEAKY TIKI
This is a tiki drink that wasn’t created by one of the tiki bar giants, Trader Vic or Don
the Beachcomber. It was first made either at the Wheel Bar at Harvey’s Casino Resort in Lake Tahoe or at Tiki Bob’s in San Francisco.

Harvey’s first opened right after WWII by gambling pioneer Harvey Gross. The casino started small with just six slot machines and eventually grew to a casino empire. In fact, it was the very first casino in Lake Tahoe, right at the border between Nevada and California.

Another possible creator of the Sneaky Tiki was “Sneaky” Bob Bryant. He worked in San Francisco as a bar manager for Trader Vic’s, who taught him the tricks of the trade. After a falling out with Victor Bergeron, “Sneaky” Bob left and in 1955 he started his own tiki bar just down the street. A bar he named Tiki Bob’s.

Decorated with Polynesian and Asian artifacts and having the guests welcomed by a 50s style tiki column right outside the entrance, Mr. Bryant made a bar rivaling his former employer. The bar’s signature drink was called the Super Sneaky Tiki. “Sneaky” Bob had the foresight to introduce the tiki mug to his bar, a new concept at the time. The design for Tiki Bob’s logo and Tiki mug was made by Alec Yuill-Thornton, an illustrator who had previously worked with Bergeron, illustrating his book Kitchen Kibitzer. Being one of the first Tiki mugs ever created it is highly sought after by collectors.

THE DESIGNER
Alec Yuill-Thornton designed the Tiki Bob tiki mug in 1955.

A Sgroppino on Ferragosto

Ferragosto is celebrated on August 15 every year. It is usually one of the hottest days in Italy and most Italians try to leave the cities. The celebration actually dates back to the year 18 BCE when the Roman Emperor Octavianus Augustus decided to establish several days of formal rest for the hard working agricultural workers of the Roman Empire. Even farm animals were released from work and decorated with flowers. The festivities started August 1 with more days spread out over August. During Roman times it was called Feriae Augusti, Latin for The Holiday of Augustus. (Augustus actually gave name to the month). The Catholic Church eventually decided to move Ferragosto to August 15 to coincide with the Assumption of Mary m. However you celebrate Ferragosto, cooling off the August heat with a Sgroppino is a great way to do it.

THE SGROPPINO
The Sgroppino was probably first created in a wealthy home in Venice during the sixteenth century. To be able to make sorbetto for the Sgroppino you need ice and the only households that kept ice during the Renaissance were the aristocrats and the very upper class. Ice was collected form rivers and lakes during winter and stored in ice houses for use in summer.

The drink could either be served as a palate cleanser or at the end of a meal as you would a limoncello today. The name Sgroppino comes for the Italian word sgropare, in Venetian dialect sgropin, the name still used in Venice, meaning to untie a knot, referring to knots in the stomach after a big dinner. The Sgroppino is made by whisking together sorbetto and prosecco to create a froth. Over time vodka, sambuca or limoncello was added making it more complex.

THE DESIGNER
The Narcisso glass was designed by Italian-American designer and sculptor Isabel Antonia Giampietro-Knoll in 1957.

The Bellini and the Prosecco Day

Prosecco Day is celebrated each year on August 13, initiated by Riondo Prosecco to celebrate the sparkling wine from the Italian North-East an hour from Venice.

THE BELLINI
The 15th century Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini, was famous for his vibrant colors and the bartender Giuseppe Cipriani was a big fan. When working at Hotel Europa in Venice in 1927 Cipriani got to know Harry Pickering, a young Bostonian, who was traveling with his wealthy aunt. After a fight his aunt left with her boyfriend and her money leaving Harry penniless with her dog. Giuseppe Cipriani lent Pickering 10,000 lire, an enormous amount of money for a bartender in 1927. Four years later, in February 1931, Pickering returned, not only with the 10,000 he borrowed but adding another 40,000. Enough money for Cipriani to open a bar of his own. His wife Giulietta found the perfect spot. A small old warehouse at the end of a cul-de-sac, just a stones throw from Piazza San Marco. It was exactly what they were looking for, a discreet 45 square meter bar right by the canal, a place customers had to know to go there. As a gesture of gratitude he named it Harry’s Bar.

Cipriani loved white peaches, which are plentiful in Italy from June to September. In 1948 he started making a white peach puree and adding prosecco. His customers loved it and a classic cocktail was born. He named it after his favorite painter due to the pink glow of the drink resembling a pink toga in a Bellini painting.

Over time Harry’s Bar became the favorite hangout for writers, actors and artists like Ernest Hemingway, Huphrey Bogart, Peggy Guggenheim, Charlie Chaplin and Lauren Bacall. In 2001 Harry’s Bar was declared a national landmark.

THE DESIGNER
The Jellies Family Flute was designed by Patricia Urquiola for Kartell in 2014.

The Perfect Cocktail for The World Tequila Day

The origins of tequila dates back to the Aztecs who used fermented sap of the agave plant for religious ceremonies. In the 16th century Spanish conquistadors arrived and introduced the distillation technique and the national spirit of Mexico was born. Tequila is divided into three different categories: Blanco, Reposado and Añejo. The blue agave is only allowed to be grown, and the tequila has to be distilled, in five designated regions in Mexico. Guanajuato, Michoacan, Nayarit, Tamaulipas and Jalisco. On World Tequila Day, July 24 this very Mexican spirit, on the rise all over the world, is celebrated.

EL DIABLO
El Diablo was first mentioned in Bergeron’s “Trader Vic’s Book of Food and Drink” from 1946 and started out as The Mexican El Diablo. It was marked with a TV in his book, to show that it is a Trader Vic original. Bergeron added a little warning to the recipe remarking that “I hate like hell to bring up unpleasant things at a time like this but go easy on this one because it’s tough on your running board”. The drink was taken off the Trader Vic’s menu in the 1950s but reappeared some years later in Bergeron’s next venture. In the early 1960s Bergeron was asked by a friend to open a restaurant in Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco. Wanting to open something Mexican he traveled all over Mexico for inspiration and was surprised he couldn’t find many drinks made with tequila, apart from the occasional Margarita or Tequila Sunrise (the original version created made with tequila, crème de cassis, lime and soda water). When opening his new Mexican restaurant, Señor Pico, in 1964, Bergeron added the drink to the menu and simplified the name of the drink to El Diablo, a name has been used since.

THE DESIGNER
The glass called Ginette was designed by Kenji Matsuura for Sugahara in 2010.

Great Tennis and a Great Drink

Wimbledon is considered to be the oldest tennis tournament in the world. The first Championships were held at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, 1877. Since 1971, when the first Pimm’s Bar opened at Wimbledon, the Pimm’s Cup has been their signature drink. Each year an incredible 300,000 Pimm’s Cups are served during the 14 days long tennis tournament.

THE PIMM’S CUP
James Pimm was a shellfish monger born in Kent in Southern England. At the age of 30 he was already the owner of five London oyster bars, often frequented by the Royal Family. Sometime between 1823 and 1840 he invented a herbal tonic to help digestion. The “house cup”, as it was called in the oyster bar, was made with gin, quinine, caramelized orange and a carefully selected secret range of herbal botanicals and spices. It was so popular Mr. Pimm bottled it, as Pimm’s No.1 Cup, named after the cup (a small tankard) it was originally served in, and started marketing it as a health tonic. With sales on the rise Pimm branched out and in 1851 he started making a Pimm’s No.2, with Scotch whisky, and No.3 with brandy. By 1859 Pimm started selling his own gin, and six years after that Pimm’s was available all throughout the British Empire. Before his death in 1866 James Pimm had sold his company and the rights to his name to a Fredrick Sawyer who, after 20 years, sold it to the Mayor of London, Lord Horatio Davis.

Alongside the original, No.2 and No.3, through the years there has been a No.4 with rum, No.5 with rye whiskey, No.6 with vodka and lastly No.7 with tequila. Today, only the No.1 and No.6 is left on the market with the No.3 brandy version appearing seasonally as Pimm’s No.3 Winter Cup.

THE DESIGNER
The Tank Highball glass was designed by the British designer Tom Dixon in 2014.

Finnish Design at its Best

Alvar Aalto was Finnish architect and design pioneer born in 1898. Known for his organic designs, Aalto's career was marked by a blend of architecture, furniture, and glassware, making him a key figure in Scandinavian modernism. His innovative approach to materials and forms, particularly his use of laminated wood and glass, set him apart in the design world.

One of Aalto's most iconic creations is the Savoy Vase, also known as the Aalto Vase. The story of this vase begins in 1936 when Aalto, alongside his wife Aino, entered the Karhula-Iittala Glass Design Competition. Their oflyt named entry "Eskimoerindens skinnbuxa" (Eskimo woman’s leather trousers), won first prize. The vase's design, was inspired by various sources, including the leather breeches of a traditional Sami woman, waves in water, and the contours of Finland's lake-rich landscape. The name "Aalto" itself means "wave" in Finnish, adding another layer of meaning to the design.

The Savoy Vase, created for the interior of the Savoy Restaurant in Helsinki, which the Aaltos were designing at the time. The vase's production posed significant manufacturing challenges, using a wooden mold that was slowly burned away, a technique that highlighted the vase's organic nature. Today, each vase is still hand-blown at Iittala, maintaining the original hand-crafted quality.

The vase gained international acclaim when it was presented at the 1937 Paris World's Fair, thereby cementing Aalto's reputation as a master of modern design.

In 1935 Aino and Alvar Aalto founded the company Artek together, with the aim of producing and selling their designs. Aino Aalto was the head designer and at Artek she created both glassware and furniture design.

To this day the Savoy Vase remains one of Alvar Aalto’s most famous and best appreciated designs. It is a great symbol of thee Aalto legacy.

Happy King Kamehameha Day!

King Kamehameha Day was proclaimed a national holiday on December 11, 1871 by King Kamehameha V to celebrate his grandfather, King Kamehameha the Great, the father of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Originally the people of Hawai’i wanted to honor Kamehameha V on his birthday on December 11, but being a humble chief he chose a date as far away from his own birthday as possible, June 11. Every year, a statue made in Italy in 1883, honoring King Kamehameha I in downtown Honolulu is draped with 90 thirty-foot flower leis. King Kamehameha Day is celebrated all over the Hawaiian islands with parades, dances and flower decorations.

THE ROYAL HAWAIIAN
Princess Ka’iulani was born in 1875 to Hawaiian Princess Miriam Likelike and Scottish-born businessman Arthur Cleghorn. At age 11 she lost her mother and at 13 she was sent to England to get a British education. While in England, in 1891, the King passed away and his sister, Lili’oukalani became Queen making Ka’iulani the heir apparent. When Ka’iulani finally came back in 1897 Queen Lili’oukalani had been forced to abdicate and a year later Hawaii was annexed by the US, something Princess Ka’iulani fought hard to stop. Having struggled with poor health during the 1890s the devastated Ka’iulani died in 1899, only 23 years old. Twenty eight years later, a pink palace, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel opened in Honolulu. During the 1920s they created a signature cocktail named Princess Ka’iulani as a tribute to the princess. The cocktail changed name in the 1950s to Royal Hawaiian, but the legacy of Princess Ka’iulani lives on as a symbol of strength, grace, and the rich cultural heritage of Hawai’i.

THE DESIGNER
The glass for the Royal Hawaiian is fittingly called Princess and was designed by Danish architect and designer Bent Severin in 1957.

THE ROYAL HAWAIIAN
3 parts Gin
2 parts Pineapple juice
1 1/2 parts Orgeat
1 part Lemon juice

Shake ingrediens with ice until well chilled. Strain into chilled glass. Garnish with an orchid.

Happy King Kamehameha Day!

Home Made Pasta From Sicily

The Casarecce pasta originated in Sicilia and got its name from the Italian word “casareccio” meaning home made. The distinctive scroll like shape is obtained by rolling small rectangles of dough round a thin wooden stick or metal rod called a “ferro”. This process creates a pasta with the perfect amount of nooks and crannies to evenly distribute the pasta sauce to every forkful. 

If the Casarecce isn’t home made the best  commercially made pasta is produced with a bronze die, creating a rougher pasta surface that is even better at catching sauce than the home made version. 

In Sicily, Casarecce is often served with traditional dishes from the region such as Sicilian pistachio pesto or seafood and fish like swordfish.

A New York Style Swedish National Day

LAUNCH OF SEX AND THE CITY
Based on author Candace Bushnell’s newspaper column and later book anthology the HBO comedy-drama Sex and the City, first aired on June 6, 1998. After 94 episodes and six seasons the last episode was released on February 22, 2004. As June 6 is also the Swedish National Day and that the Cosmo is made with Absolut Vodka it is a great reason to have a Cosmopolitan today.

THE COSMOPOLITAN
Even though the Cosmopolitan isn’t that old, the origin isn’t quite clear. It might have been invented in 1985 by Miami bartender Cheryl Cook at a South Beach bar called the Strand. Wanting to make a perfect cocktail for a Martini glass, Cook used the Kamikaze as a base, used citrus-flavored vodka and added a splash of cranberry juice.

Maybe more likely, it was first invented by bartender Toby Cecchini in 1988 when he was working at Odeon in New York’s Tribeca. Odeon was one of the trendiest bars of the 1980s, frequented by celebrities like Madonna, Robert DeNiro and Andy Warhol. An Odeon waitress had tried a new cocktail in San Francisco made with vodka, Rose’s Lime and grenadine. Liking the idea but hating the taste Cecchini wanted to make something less sweet and artificial. He used Absolut Citron, just released in 1988, added Cointreau, lime juice and a splash of cranberry juice. Soon Madonna, Basquiat, Lou Reed and Andy Warhol were sipping Cosmos and before long NY was flooded with them.

Ten year later, when New Yorkers were sick of them, in steps the characters of Sex and the City. The Cosmo didn’t actually appear until the second season, in 1999, but it soon became as important as the Manolos. The glamorous life of the “Fab Four” was unobtainable for most fans but anyone could afford a Cosmopolitan.

THE DESIGNER
The glass is called Margot and was designed by Ferrone in 2013.

Inspired By Ugliness

Konstantin Grcic was born in 1965 in Munich but was brought up in Wuppertal, a city in the industrial part of Germany. The city is considered to be one of the ugliest cities in the whole country. “Growing up there created an awareness in me that there is beauty in ugliness” as Mr. Grcic describes it. 

During the 1980s he studied cabinet making at Parnham College in British Dorset after which he continued studying Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art in London and worked for a while with Jasper Morrison. In 1991 Grcic went back to his home country to start his own design studio, Konstantin Grcic Industrial Desig, in Munich. Throughout his career Grcic has been fascinated by the industrial process following the footsteps of designers like Marcel Breuer, Vico Magiatretti, Gerrit Reitveld and Achille Castiglioni. 

The Chair One was designed for the Italian design company Magis in 2004 and is a great example of Konstantin Grcic’s approach to design.