Roaming through my cocktail library this month I opened Trader Vic’s Book of Food and Drink and decided this would be the book to feature. My copy is honestly in a deteriorating condition and that gave me another reason to pick it up and check it out. The book is written by Victor Bergeron (Aka Trader Vic); Introduction by Lucius Beebe, and published in Garden City New York Doubleday and Co., Inc.
This 272-page hardcover is fun to read, witty, opinionated, and full of great wisdom. The author sets the tone with the following dedication:
Dedicated to those merry souls who make eating and drinking a pleasure; who achieve contentedness long before capacity; and who, never they drink prove able to carry it, enjoy it, and remain gentlemen”.
Victor Bergeron, Jr. was born on December 10, 1902, in San Francisco. He was one of two people who claimed to have invented the Mai Tai. In 1934 he opened Hinky Dink’s, a restaurant in Oakland, USA. There he invented his version of South Seas food – tasteful Cantonese cooking and rum-flavored drinks like the Sufferin’ Bastard, Missionary’s Revenge, and the legendary Mai Tai. The Trader Vic nickname was given to him by his first wife, Esther, because of his habit of swapping meals and drinks for supplies and services.
This is the first of several books authored by Mr. Bergeron. His writing style is casual, exotic and fun. Serving Trader Vic’s signature cocktails with original recipes.
This book is just loaded with wisdom and shows how knowledgeable Trader Vic was; his opinions on food, quality spirits; mixing drinks; on the art of the aperitif are solid and still valid today. He mentions that writing about quality ingredients is so obvious that “it kills him” to have to write about it.
The author gives tribute to many great bartenders and bars such as Frank Meier from the Ritz in Paris, known as the creator of the Bee’s Knees cocktail; possible creator of Sidecar Cocktail and many more.
So many are the great drinks in this book, a good mix of the author’s recipes and other classics. Drinks are categorized in in families: Tall Ones, Punches and Wine Cups, Cocktails and Short Hoists, Hot Ones, and Odd Stuff.
The recipe I’d like to highlight from this book was a first for me the GILDED LILY. Described by the author as “a beautiful golden drink with a Midas touch. That is, after the NTH you you’re petrified”.
Shake Well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
