THE COCKTAIL CAGE
The Cocktail Cage of Mowgli really trapped me ideologically for a while. The truth is on the streets and in the homes of India, people do not drink alcohol with their food. I’m not saying they are not drinkers, no sir. My father and his peers would happily pickle themselves with Johnnie Walker Black Label and my mother struggles to walk past Merlot, but with their food, absolutely not. This is one of the reasons that I refused to have an Indian beer on the menu. There is no such thing. We drink water with our meals, not beer. Alcoholic drinks irritate the palate that is already being assaulted by spices and chilli acids.
Cocktails are such a beautiful thing when done well. This was my dilemma. I love the alchemy of pairing interesting spices and ingredients with the towering punch of Western spirits. To me, the cocktail kitchen was one in which food ingredients took precedence. Herbs, spices, fruits and syrups were not the tail wagging the dog, but the dog, the absolute dog. This to me was justification for the development of the Mowgli Cocktail Cage. Within it, I must always be shackled to that which is at the heart of Mowgli – the clever use of good ingredients. It does, however, make us outward facing and gives our clients a different dimension in which to enjoy our spice wielding.
When I first opened Mowgli in Liverpool, a most charismatic and virtuosic cocktail king and friend, Danny Murphy, had the kindness and good grace to guide us through his cocktail runes. He taught us the dark arts of extracting haunting strains from our exotic ingredients and capturing them in fiery spirits, rather in the way that our food captures them in oils and marinades.
Danny trained us all in what clients need to see and need to taste in the most iconic of cocktails. He taught us how to have fun behind the bar and how to be brave with our spirits. His spirit has never left us and he gave our Mowgli monkey tails an extra flick of sass.