If you are new to the hospitality industry or even an old-timer, you should listen to the next two episodes of Lush Life. The story that unfolds over these two episodes could be your story. Our guest, Tim Etherington-Judge has literally been through it all and come out the other side with all the tools necessary to help his fellow colleagues in the hospitality industry. Thank goodness he had the bravery to tell his story and then to establish Healthy Hospo which provides information, advice, and...
Jul 03, 2018•51 min•Season 2Ep. 83
Providing a great experience for his punters is the driving force behind everything today’s guest does. I can tell you right now Stephan Schulz has achieved his goal because everyone who either lives in Nuremberg, Germany or visits knows to stop into Mata Hari Bar . He wasn’t even supposed to own a bar but it might be the perfect instance of when a dream becomes a reality. Our Cocktail of the Week is the Mai Tai - Mata Hari Bar version. Ingredients 5cl Havana Club 3y. 4cl Apricot Brandy 2-3cl Li...
Jun 26, 2018•23 min•Season 2Ep. 82
I really want to make this the shortest intro of all. It’s just I don’t want to give away anything about our next guest until you hear it from him. Visit Justus Hoffstaedter at the Hotel Heureka in Venice now and I mean now because you’ll want to say you knew him when. As for his future plans, I’ll let him tell you, but it all began in Baden-Baden! Our Cocktail of the Week is the Lagoon Spritz. Ingredients 6 cl White wine (or Prosecco) 3 cl Cynar Dash of club soda Slice of lemon Green olive Add ...
Jun 19, 2018•23 min•Season 2Ep. 81
Our guest today is not a bartender, distiller, or brand ambassador - but boy, does she make what they do look good. If it weren’t for the kindness of the city’s bar staff, Sara Stode might never had stayed in London, but she did and we are the lucky ones. How did this Swede end up being the London’s most famous Drinks Illustrator, she was here to tell us. Our Cocktail of the Week is the Sgroppino from Bar Swift in London’s Soho: Ingredients 10ml Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto 1 scoop of lemon so...
Jun 12, 2018•28 min•Season 2Ep. 80
Our next guest spent her early years in the woods foraging for tasty treats, leaving her mother in constant fear that she might nibble on a poisonous mushroom. Happily, we can report that Sigi Klein is alive and well and using those same herbs to build her cocktails. Working at Gelbes Haus, the oldest cocktail bar in Nuremberg, Sigi revealed how she ended up as a Chef de Bar in the first place. Our Cocktail of the Week is the Schorsch Ingredients 5 crushed cloves 4 mint leaves 5 cl Pear Schnapps...
Jun 05, 2018•29 min•Season 2Ep. 79
Our guest today is a revolutionary and an innovator in the fIeld of Cognac. Even though her family have been making cognac for four generations before her, Fanny Fougerat came late to the party. She joins us today to tell us how she is making up for lost time. Creating the first of many mind-blowing cognacs which are making bartenders sit back and rethink everything they knew about the spirit. Our Cocktail of the Week is Petite Cigue 50ml Fanny Fougerat Petite Cigue Cawston Rhubarb & Apple s...
May 29, 2018•22 min•Season 2Ep. 78
Our guests today are the guardians of Lady Charlotte Fitzrovia’s daring love story. It was up to Sandy Kaur and Mario Romano to recreate the world of Lady Charlotte and her lover at Vijay’s Lounge in London’s busy centre of town. How did they even start? I’ll let them tell you all the details. Our Cocktail of the Week is the Ananda Brew created by mixologist Topesh Chatterjee who hails from New Delhi. Ingredients 1 Masala Tea Bag 60ml Vodka 50ml Egg white 20 ml Lime juice 20 ml Sugar syrup Fuse ...
May 22, 2018•22 min•Season 2Ep. 77
The family of our guest today views the world by what is edible and what is not edible. It’s not a shock that Valentine Warner would end up as one of the most well known chefs in the UK. Working hand in hand with Mother nature, Valentine’s first foray into the spirit would produced award winning Hepple Gin. Our Cocktail of the Week is the Hepple Martini. Ingredients 10 Parts Hepple Gin 1 Part Dry Vermouth Pour ingredients into a mixing glass filled with ice.Stir slowly 30 times. Strain into a ch...
May 15, 2018•31 min•Season 2Ep. 76
Our next guest was born for the role of brand ambassador with his love of the chat, his eagerness to teach, and his lively and generous spirit. I finally pinned down my friend Peter O’Connor, the European Brand Ambassador for the Irish Whiskey Roe and Co, and got him to start from the very beginning. Our Cocktail of the Week is the Roe & Co Peaches and Cream Ingredients 50ml Roe & Co 30ml Fresh peach 25ml Lemon juice 1 Barspoon of lavender infused honey 25ml Egg whites Cinnamon pinch Cho...
May 08, 2018•40 min•Season 2Ep. 75
When our guest today, David Wallwork, was naming his birch spirit - only Freya would do. Sustainably sourced and distilled from wild birch tree sap and named for the Norse Goddess of love, life & beauty! If anyone knows anything about the Norse Goddess Freya, they know she has the reputation of being the ‘party girl” of Asgard. She can’t help it if she’s the goddess of nature and fertility. Our Cocktail of the Week is the Freya Spritz: Ingredients 10ml Elderflower cordial 25ml Freya Birch Sp...
May 02, 2018•37 min•Season 2Ep. 74
This episode is a little different from the previous ones. Last weekend I was in Edinburgh for Tales on Tour, three days of event, including lectures, bar takeovers, tastings and overall fun and festivities held all over Scotland's capital city. Instead of meeting just one person, you’ll meet a whole slew of people in the drinks industry who, while creating new brands, are also hoping to change the world for the better. Our Cocktail of the Week is the Tricentennial Old Fashioned. Ingredients: .2...
Apr 24, 2018•21 min•Season 2Ep. 73
Our cocktail of the week the Banana Old Fashioned or Banana Republic is a yummy mix of rum and one of Colombia’s main exports - the banana. Apart from coffee and flowers, bananas are one of Colombia’s main exports. The Riascos family used to cultivate bananas before moving into ageing fine Colombian rum. This cocktail showcases the family’s heritage in a smooth, fruity classic. 60ml / 2oz La Hechicera 20ml / 2/3oz Banane liquor 3 drops Angostura Aromatic Bitters If possible, add 5 drops Chocolat...
Apr 17, 2018•42 min•Season 2Ep. 72
Two brothers from different parents, that’s what my guests call themselves. Friends from birth, born almost on the same day and with the same entrepreneurial spirit, Robin Clough and Max Davies-Gilbert join me today to talk Tequila Enemigo and how they are convincing the inconvincible that tequila is not just for shots any more. Our Cocktail of the Week is the Mineral 89: 50ml of Enemigo 89 175ml of Sparkling Mineral Water (with a Calcium concentration of over 150 or a Magnesium concentration of...
Apr 03, 2018•34 min•Season 2Ep. 71
Our guest today hails from Heidelberg Germany originally and he knew, for sure, he could never sit at a desk all day. Good thing a friend asked him to join on a trip to Brazil that would change his life. Noah Dorian Matthies had the luck to be at the beginning of the El Barón movement to bring the cocktail scene to Cartagena. Our Cocktail of the Week is the Geóloga Galáctica. Ingredients: 300 ml of Bulleit Bourbon 150 ml of Johnnie Walker Double Black 230 ml of Caramel Syrup 300 ml of Lime Juice...
Mar 20, 2018•16 min•Season 2Ep. 70
Julian and Nikol have combined the classic Espresso Martini and the Carajillo Cocktail to make their own Carajillo Epoca. You too can make at home as long as you have Aguardiente, the Colombian national spirit - like grappa with a slight anise flavour to it. It’s our Cocktail of the Week. Ingredients: 1½ oz of Aguardiente 1 oz espresso 1 oz Sugar cane syrup 1 oz Acacia 1 tablespoon coffee parchment Mix all the ingredients in a shaker full of ice and stir. Smoke the glass with coffee parchment, p...
Mar 13, 2018•17 min•Season 2Ep. 69
Plunked down in the UK from Hong Kong at the age of 17, wanting a little pocket money, our guest found work in a pub. Thank goodness, Starbucks was a little too slow to call him up or we wouldn’t be here today with Timothy Ching, the Global Champion of Beefeater‘s international MIXLDN competition 2017. The Cocktail of the week is “Please Sir, I want some more“ recipe : 40ml Beefeater 24 10ml Kamm & Sons 10ml Chamomile tea Syrup 10ml Homemade Lemon & Grapefruit Shrub 3 Dashes Tea Pot Bitt...
Feb 27, 2018•20 min•Season 2Ep. 68
It doesn’t always follow that spending summers in the Caribbean means you’re going to leave your job to launch a new rum.Though It did for our guest George Frost, whose passion for Anguilla is in every sip of his rum, The Duppy Share. He’s with us today to share how as the youngest brother of three his first love was hospitality... Our cocktail of the week is the The Duppy Share’s Ginger Daiquiri: 35ml The Duppy Share 25ml Kings Ginger 15ml Lemon juice 10ml Sugar syrup (1:1) Shake with ice and s...
Feb 13, 2018•37 min•Season 2Ep. 67
Younes Bahir, the head bartender at the luxurious Hotel Pashmina in Val Thorens, Europe’s highest ski resort in the Trois Vallée, France, may only be here for a season but his cocktail creations will live on. His cocktail of the week is the lemony Le Petit Marseillais. The recipe is as follows: 40ml Tanqueray No 10 40ml Lemon Juice 40ml Verbena syrup Infuse Verbena Leaves with boiling water and then add equal measure of sugar to make the syrup. Put all the ingredients in a shaker and shake with ...
Feb 06, 2018•17 min•Season 2Ep. 66
Stroo Olofsson, and his wife Julia, created Blade Hair to be a different salon experience and they got that right. Where else can you get an Old-Fashioned while having a cut and color? Our Cocktail of the Week is The Name Of The Rose. 50ml of Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon 25ml Luxardo Maraschino three dashes of Abbott's Bitters (Angostura will do in a pinch) an oversized ice cube made from fresh brewed rose bud tea a dried rose bud garnish Pour ingredients directly into an Old Fashioned tumbl...
Jan 30, 2018•23 min•Season 2Ep. 65
Everything on Hammant Patel Villa’s menu has a tale, whether it emerges from his multicultural upbringing in the heart of this very neighborhood or Chinese history or his years working in business. These stories make each and every cocktail as rich in flavor as it is in individuality. From every sip emerges a multitude of images - how romantic is that! Our Cocktail of the Week is the Courtesan: Blossoms Sour Cherry Syrup, Briottet Creme de Cerise, Vintage Velvet Vodka Prosecco Argeo Ruggeri Mix ...
Jan 23, 2018•43 min•Season 2Ep. 64
Two weeks of January being dry and cold were enough for me, so now we are heading south to Mexico via London for some very au currant Mezcal with our guest today, would-be philosopher turned distiller Ben Schroder. Our Cocktail of the Week is the Mezcal Left Hand: 50ml Pensador Mezcal 25ml Vermouth 25ml Campari 2 dashes chocolate bitters Combine all of the following in a mixing glass with ice. Stir it all to chill, then strain into chilled martini glass. Always remember the wise words of Oscar W...
Jan 16, 2018•28 min•Season 2Ep. 63
Why would you want to substitute your Old-Fashioned for some fruity concoction in the middle of January, That was before our guest today, Ben Branson, followed a random google search to a book written in the 17th century called The Art of Distillation. The next day, Seedlip was born, but I’ll let him tell you the story. Our Cocktail of the Week is Ben’s Espresso MartiNO: 50 ml Seedlip Spice 94 50 ml Sandows Cold Brew Concentrate 15ml Sugar Syrup 3 Coffee Beans Put everything except the coffee be...
Jan 09, 2018•34 min•Season 2Ep. 62
I met today’s guest two years ago at a Mocktail Tasting Competition he was judging. I think at that time I was the only person in London who hadn’t heard of the famed Thomas Soden. From that day forward, Tom’s become what I call my spiritual guru, always available to advise me and answer my questions every step of the way. He’s had almost every job in the industry but it’s his enthusiasm for what he does and his giving spirit that have made him one of the best Bar Consultants in the world and hi...
Dec 19, 2017•47 min•Season 2Ep. 61
Brighton Gin may have started off as a small producer, but after winning UK's Best Gin at the People's Drink awards they will soon be taking the world by storm. Today we head down south to Brighton. A city that needed its own gin and our guest today, Kathy Caton, was just the woman for the job. The Mulled Gin as our cocktail of the week. One whole orange sliced 350ml Brighton Gin 700ml apple juice 100ml red vermouth 25ml cherry brandy The juice of 2 limes 2 cinnamon sticks Add all the ingredient...
Dec 12, 2017•28 min•Season 2Ep. 60
G’Vine Gin calls itself traditionally unconventional and that could also describe our guest today, Jamie Campbell, Brand Ambassador for G’Vine Gin. It wasn’t just his half French/ half English upbringing that made Jamie Campbell almost predestined to work with G’Vine, one of few gins made from grapes The Martinez is our Cocktail of the Week. 50ml G'Vine Gin 15ml La Quintinye Vermouth Royal Rouge 5ml Maraschino Liqueur 1 Dash Regan's Orange Bitters Add all ingredients to a mixing glass and stir d...
Dec 05, 2017•42 min•Season 2Ep. 59
Today our guest Danilo Tersigni will teach us what goes into a true Italian Negroni. He holds two positions: the Opening General Manager of Mr Fogg's in London as well as The Founder and Director of VII Hills gin with Filippo Previero, who I interviewed here last season. Of course our Cocktail of the Week has to be a Negroni, this time with all Italian ingredients. Danilo calls it the Negroni Bianco . Pour all of the following ingredients into one glass: 30ml VII Hills gin 30ml Italian Dry Vermo...
Nov 28, 2017•28 min•Season 2Ep. 58
He has seen Londoners transform from beer guzzlers to wine sippers at The Stafford Hotel. Even the wines we choose have changed from Old World to New. From the Stafford’s 320-year-old wine cellar, Gino Nardella is with us today to mull over his past 30 years and what the future of wine holds. Where you can hear me drinking next: Next time on Lush Life Podcast, we have another Italian who also couldn’t wait to trave, Danilo Tersigni, General Manager at Mr Fogg’s and founder of VII HIlls Gin. It m...
Nov 21, 2017•18 min•Season 2Ep. 57
Our guest today had a moment of doubt. After watching too many episodes of Location, Location, Location, he thought he would switch from making Rum Flips to doing Room Flips. Thank goodness for us, it only took a matter of months before Sam Carter saw the errors of his ways and settled back behind the bar. We would never have had the Laverstoke or all the other fantastic cocktails he has mixed as Senior Ambassador of Bombay Sapphire at Laverstoke Mill, the brand’s award-winning distillery. His c...
Nov 07, 2017•37 min•Season 2Ep. 56
Looking down a microscope 24/7, you could get thirsty. Our guest today did, leading him to experiment more on martinis, then moss, stepping away from a life of botany into one filled with B52s, Bacardi, and bitters. Today, we sit down with Gregory J Buda, Director of Education & Training Manager of the Dead Rabbit, at Dickie’s Bar in London where he has been acting as Bar Consultant since their launch last year. Always remember the wise words of Oscar Wilde, “All things in moderation, includ...
Oct 17, 2017•27 min•Season 2Ep. 55
Every episode of Lush Life Podcast is dear to me and I love meeting so many new people. It’s very rare for me to interview someone whom I have known for at least 15 years. Every Friday night, almost without fail, my family heads to the local inn for dinner. It’s a tradition when I come back home to visit. Although they have a series of dining rooms, we always sit in the bar. There is one reason for that - my guest today Lydiann Spencer-Jones. Don’t be fooled by her English-sounding name, she is ...
Oct 10, 2017•17 min•Season 2Ep. 54
