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  5: THE BIT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR

  Employ a Hawthorne strainer to retain the ice as you serve the drink. And yes, there’s a correct way to do this, too. Hold the tin in one hand and hook your index finger over the top of the strainer, to hold it in place. Pour. Admire. Enjoy.

  MASTER SUSHI ETIQUETTE

  So, you know the difference between sashimi (thin, fresh slices of fish) and nigiri (little parcels of rice topped with raw seafood), and you have learned the basic dos (do ask the chef what’s best today) and the basic don’ts (don’t rub your chopsticks together). Yet since the delicacy went global, a host of misconceptions have been perpetuated about how to behave at the sushi bar. We asked Nobu Matsuhisa, the celebrity Japanese chef behind the acclaimed Nobu international chain of restaurants, to advise on the little touches that separate the pros from the pretenders…

  1: CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON

  If you’re eating sashimi, you must use chopsticks. For other types of sushi, fingers are perfectly acceptable. “You can do this the same way you use your chopsticks, but with your thumb and index finger,” says Matsuhisa. “Some people don’t like to touch the fish – of course, that’s OK, they can still use chopsticks.”

  2: RETHINK THE GINGER

  No, ginger is not intended as a garnish. “After you have eaten a piece of sushi with tuna, for example, and you want to eat sushi with salmon, you eat the ginger because it cleans the mouth. Then you can try the next piece without confusing the flavours.”

  3: DIP BUT DON’T DROWN

  When eating nigiri, dip it into the soy sauce fish-side first – going rice-first will make the sushi break up. More importantly, use it sparingly. “Otherwise it will just taste of soy sauce rather than the delicate flavours that make the sushi so good. I would recommend you put only a little soy sauce in the dish at a time.”

  4: FLIP REVERSE

  You can place nigiri in your mouth fish-side down. “A lot of the flavour comes from the fish, so it makes sense. But I would not do this if you have also dipped the fish in soy sauce.” Note: nigiri is designed to be eaten in one mouthful. “A proper itamae (sushi chef) will make it so this is possible.”

  5: HOT TIP

  You will likely already have wasabi in your sushi. If you need more, though, place it directly on to the fish with your chopsticks. “Just a small amount, perhaps the size of a pea or less – again, you don’t want to just taste the wasabi.” But mixing it into your soy sauce? Amateur!

  BARBECUE PERFECTLY USING SCIENCE

  A barbecue might seem basic – make fire, add meat, wait a while – but, in truth, it’s an art. Its masters flock to contests around the world, one of the most popular being the World Championship that takes place annually in Memphis, Tennessee. Back in 1991, a member of the winning team was Nathan Myhrvold, a Seattle-born foodie who had been devouring cookbooks since his early teens. Myhrvold would go on to train at the famous École de Cuisine La Varenne cooking school in Burgundy – yet he would not become a chef. In fact, he already had a career: he was a scientist.

  Myhrvold had earned a doctorate in theoretical and mathematical physics from Princeton University and once spent a year working under Stephen Hawking at Cambridge University. At the time of the barbecue competition he was working as a Vice President for Microsoft, and would later serve as the company’s Chief Technology Officer. As the years progressed, however, his two great passions began to converge.

  In 2011, Myhrvold released a book, Modernist Cuisine . This extraordinary 2,438-page, six-volume encyclopedia draws on years of scientific research to overturn widespread culinary misconceptions and set out the optimum techniques for preparing food. Chef David Chang called it “the cookbook to end all cookbooks”. As you might expect, Myhrvold has discovered plenty about barbecues. A crucial point being: contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t matter if you cook over charcoal or gas. “There really is not a difference in taste,” he tells GQ . “There’s less romanticism about a gas flame, but it does essentially the same job.” Ready to grill? Here are his five hottest tips…

  1: GO SHINY OR GO HOME

  Crimp aluminium foil around the barbecue’s interior. This boosts infrared radiation, which cooks the food. Myhrvold likens the effect of the foil to looking at your reflection in a pair of parallel mirrors. “The food ‘sees’ infinite copies of the fire,” he says. “So the fire seems to extend beyond the edge of the grill.” That widens the grill’s “sweet spot” where heat is consistent, allowing you to cook your food more evenly.

  2: PILE IT UP

  If you’re using coal to fuel the barbecue, pile briquettes into a pyramid to maximize their contact with each other. Ignite them with a propane torch, putting the flame to their tapered edges to help them catch fire faster. This method removes the need for firelighters. “Lighter fluid certainly works,” says Myhrvold, “but if you put too much on, you will smell it and taste it in the food.” Once the coals have whitened, rake them out to form an even layer.

  3: TOWEL IT DOWN

  It’s time to cook. Pat the food dry first. “If the outside of your food has got water on it, you will expend a lot of energy evaporating that water.” If that sounds fussy, Myhrvold notes a classic science demonstration in which a wet hand is plunged into a cauldron of molten lead and withdrawn without burns, despite the 600°C (1,112°F) temperatures. “The reason that works is the water takes a huge amount of heat to vaporize.”

  4: FAT IS YOUR FRIEND

  Cooking lean meat or vegetables? Place them near fatty meat because the “barbecue” taste comes from fat dripping on to the coals and flaring (the idea that coals in themselves produce flavour is a major misconception). If there is no fatty meat to hand, simply spray on some clarified butter. “You could squirt a little directly on to the fire,” says Myhrvold, “though the advantage of putting it on to the food is that it will drip more slowly on to the coals.”

  5: USE A HAIRDRYER. NO, REALLY

  For thick meat such as steak, first blow a hairdryer through the barbecue’s vents until the coals are red hot. Next, sear the steaks on the grill, before putting them in a pan and finishing in a low-heat oven. “That sounds boring, but if you like your steak something other than cremated, it’s the best way to do it,” says Myhrvold. Use a meat thermometer to work out when it’s ready. For steak, very rare is 50°C (122°F); rare is 52°C (126°F); medium-rare is 55°C (131°F); and medium is 60°C (140°F). “Above that,” says Myhrvold, laughing, “you shouldn’t be doing it.”

  CHOP AS FAST AS A CHEF

  It’s all very well having expensive kit or fine ingredients, but you’ll never excel as a cook without one vital skill. “Having control over your knives is crucial at the high end of the game,” says Jason Atherton. A Michelin-starred chef and TV regular, Atherton is the man behind Pollen Street Social in London and 15 other restaurants worldwide. Investing in one decent blade, he says, will take you far. “You need a 20–23cm (8–9-in) all-purpose cook’s knife, with about ten per cent flexibility in the metal.” The first thing to master is chopping vegetables. Here’s how to do that at a professional pace…

  1: GET TO GRIPS

  Hold the handle firmly, with your middle and ring fingers pointing into the palm and the thumb on the side. The index finger should lie on top for weight and control. “Then I can slice the knife underneath something or guide it over the top,” says Atherton, “and it’s that finger that’s doing all the action.”

  2: ON GUARD

  Steady the food in the “claw” grip, as shown, without touching the board. Tuck your fingertips out of harm’s way. For larger vegetables, keep two knuckles out in front; for something slimmer and rounder, such as a courgette, use just one knuckle because, Atherton notes, “you need extra support from your fingers”.

  3: CHOP CHOP

  Hold the blade against the middle bone of the front finger(s) – this is your guard. To slice, move the knife as if the handle is attached to a small wheel rotating toward you, so it slices forward
through the food on each stroke. “The tip of the blade should stay in contact with the board throughout the process.”

  4: THE SPIDER CRAWL

  Slide your fingers back toward your wrist as you chop, keeping your thumb static and the blade slicing against your knuckle. When your fingers are too bunched up to continue chopping, keep the knuckle in place but move the thumb back, then the rest of your hand (“like a spider”) and start over.

  5: PUSH OFF

  When you’re done, typically there will be pieces of vegetable stuck to the metal. It’s tempting to swipe these away with a stroke of your finger. Bad idea. “Just push them off, away from the edge of the blade, with your thumb. Don’t ever run your finger down the blade – my gosh!”

  SERVE COFFEE THAT’S A WORK OF ART

  In 1992, Seattle’s celebrated café Espresso Vivace began serving lattes with a “rosetta” leaf design drawn in the foam. It would become a staple of “latte art”, a catch-all term for such embellishments, which slowly caught on around the globe. One master of the form is Marco Arrigo. He encourages budding baristas to learn latte art because it necessitates pouring the milk at just the right speed. The Head of Quality for coffee brand Illy, Arrigo opened London’s University of Coffee in 2008 – oh, and he once worked at Espresso Vivace. Here are his steps to the ideal rosetta…

  1: GOT MILK?

  Prepare some decent espresso: nice and thick, with a serious crema (the tawny emulsion that sits on top of the coffee). Next, fill a medium-sized metal jug with milk to the base of the spout. “Then the spout can let me measure how much foam I’m making,” explains Arrigo.

  2: STEAM POWER

  Insert the steam nozzle near the edge of the jug, 2–3mm (1 / 10 in) below the surface. Hold the jug at a slight angle so that a whirlpool forms, sucking in air. Slowly lower the jug as the milk bubbles rise. Allow the foam to climb about halfway up the spout.

  3: THE SWIRL-AND-BANG

  It’s time to create the velvety milk “microfoam” required for drawing an image. Swirl the jug for two seconds and bang the base on the work surface. Repeat this twice. Pour away the top layer of larger bubbles – the layer below will be the microfoam.

  4: TIP YOUR HAND

  Grip the jug loosely with your thumb, index, middle and ring fingers. Hold the base directly above the cup and pivot from this position to pour milk into the centre of the cup. This angle forces you to maintain a higher speed than feels comfortable.

  5: ART ATTACK

  When the cup is half-full, move the milk stream to the far edge. Then work back toward yourself, swinging the jug from side to side in increasingly smaller strokes. Now you have the rosetta’s leaves. Move the stream quickly in the other direction to draw a stem up the centre.

  DEAL WITH A BROKEN WINE CORK

  A broken or disintegrating cork doesn’t mean that your wine is “corked”. It’s a common misconception, but “corking”, in fact, refers to a damp taste produced by a naturally occurring chemical compound called TCA. When a bottle’s cork is crumbling, the wine inside may actually be perfectly good. The onus is on you to rescue it. Giovanni Ferlito is Head of Wine and Beverage at The Ritz in London, which has a wine list of more than 800 bottles. For him, dealing with failed corks is par for the course – he simply uses the following methods. “All these techniques might happen in the restaurant right in front of you, but you will not notice because the sommelier will do it quite quickly…”

  1: REMOVE YOUR CORKSCREW

  As soon as you feel a cork start to give – as if you’re turning the corkscrew into butter – stop immediately and carefully untwist. Don’t worry, you haven’t done anything wrong; the cork is to blame. Often old age will have caused it to perish, though young corks can also degrade if they are too absorbent. “Another reason could be because the bottle has been stored standing up. It’s very important when we store wine for the bottle to be laid down so the cork touches the wine and doesn’t dry out.”

  2: MAKE A JUDGMENT

  If it’s not a particularly expensive bottle, or if you break the cork in the process of trying to pull it out, you may wish to try again to remove it with the corkscrew. “Do not screw in at the same place where you screwed before, because that part is already weak.” Instead, angle the corkscrew at 45 degrees, and wind it into the cork gently. Pull the cork until you can reach it with your fingers. Once you can grip the cork tightly, ease it out. “With your fingers you have much more sensitivity than with the corkscrew.”

  3: CORKSCREW NO GOOD? USE A TWO-PRONG CORK PULLER

  This device is the cleanest, most reliable way to remove a bad cork. It is readily and cheaply available, but needs to be handled correctly. Slide the longer prong between the cork and glass, inserting it at the point furthest away from you. Slip the shorter prong in at the nearest edge of the cork. Flex the handle forward and backward, applying a little pressure each time to carefully work the instrument downward. “The two prongs are now holding the cork very tightly.” Simultaneously twist and pull to remove the cork. Voilà .

  4: NO CORK PULLER TO HAND? SIMPLY PUSH AND POUR

  In the absence of a two-prong cork puller, your best bet is to push the cork down into the bottle with your finger or the end of a wooden spoon. “You don’t want the cork to stay in the wine for too long, especially because the broken cork parts are quite fresh, so you’re going to decant the wine.” Line a funnel with a coffee filter or a clean and odourless piece of fine cloth, such as muslin. Insert a long implement, such as a cocktail stirrer into the opening of the bottle, to stop the cork blocking the neck. Decant the wine.

  5: INTRODUCING THE CORK RETRIEVER

  So, you have pushed in the cork and decanted your wine – but what if you wish to present it in the original bottle? You’ll need a cork retriever. Slide it into the bottle and shake the cork into position between the wires. Move the retriever’s collar up the wires to pincer the cork. This may take a few attempts: “I have to be honest,” says Ferlito, “it’s not the easiest!” Twist and pull firmly to remove the cork, then wash the bottle out and allow it to dry upside down. Decant the wine back into the bottle through a filter. Your 1995 Pétrus can now be served in the manner it deserves.

  CRACK AN EGG ONE-HANDED

  Having a date over for dinner is a big play. Not only do you have to serve up something excellent but, let’s be candid, you have to look stylish in the process. The culinary move with the greatest panache? Easily the one-handed egg crack. There’s a training method that has become quietly standardized among those inclined to learn the technique, and it goes like this…

  1: GET SOME BALLS

  Practise with two ping-pong balls. Hold them as shown.

  2: IT’S IN YOUR GRASP

  Pincer a coin between the balls. Rehearse holding then releasing it.

  3: THE KNOCK AND PRISE

  Graduate to an egg. Crack it on a bowl and separate the shell using the motion above.

  4: SNAP AWAY

  As the yolk slides out, rapidly move your hand upward to help the rest on its way.

  MIX A MARTINI LIKE THE WORLD’S BEST BARTENDER

  In Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms (1929), the protagonist drinks a series of Martinis and declares: “I had never tasted anything so cool and clean. They made me feel civilized.” This is exactly the desired effect, which is why it’s a shame that one of its most common variants, the olive-infused “dirty Martini”, often tastes grubby. But that’s not the fault of the drink, that’s the fault of the bartender.

  A man who knows how to make it properly is Erik Lorincz, who runs the American Bar at The Savoy Hotel in London. Not only was the place crowned the best bar in the world by the World’s 50 Best Bar awards in 2017, but Lorincz also trained the bartenders who served James Bond his dirty Martini in Spectre (2015). Here’s how to make 007’s cocktail…

  1: AVOID THE BIG MISTAKE

  The difference between a decent dirty Martini and one that’s undrinkable comes down to how you get
the olive juice. “Most bartenders use the brine from the olive jar,” says Lorincz. This is a no-no. Instead, drop four green olives into the base of a three-piece cocktail shaker. Lorincz likes to use the Nocellara del Belice olive variety from Sicily. “They are not too salty, with a soft and light vegetable taste and good texture.” Crush them with a muddler to extract their flavour.

  2: BREAK THE ICE

  Use a tea towel to hold a block of cloudless ice steady on a chopping board (though more experienced bartenders hold it in their hand) and hack off cubes. Fill the shaker two-thirds full with ice. Why cloudless ice? “It has no bubbles,” explains Lorincz, “so the dilution is slower.” Cloudless ice can be bought online, or you can make it. First, fill a picnic cool box with water (but don’t put a lid on it) and place it in a chest freezer. After four days, remove the box. Once the ice has slightly melted, tip out a clear block.