Message 19508 of 39188 in General Discussion

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> I'm curious how you started with learning recipes; 

I started as a hobbiest, collecting books.
My earlier memorised lists were built from the drinks I saw as common between 
several different collections, hence I figured they were widely known, hence I 
figured they were good and popular. That actually worked OK.
Then when I started drawing up menus for my home bar, my list was "those 
things I can make". About that time I carefully perused cocktail menus of pubs 
& clubs I visited, again seeking out the common elements.

When I started working I was a bit disappointed to throw most of this out the 
window, the 12 that were on the list were the 12 we made. Although 10 of those 
12 would have been included as "should-knows". No surprises really. No 
challenges either.

Passing through training later (TGI Fridays) I was tested on recall of 350, of 
which we ended up serving mostly from a pool of 60-80 popular ones. 

Since then, through party bars and clubs my weekly repetiore is back down to a 
variation of maybe 20. Not counting shots.

Of my 20, again, 15 would be must-knows, only a handful of regional or topical 
specialities. That's because I personally drew up the last few cocktail menus 
to just do useful, standard recipes. They are small table-stands, with photos 
and ingredients listed, so there's not room for many.

FYI, IIRC, it includes : 
 Margarita, 
 Daiquiri (+Peach & Strawb) 
 Cosmopolitan, 
 Brandy Alexander, 
 Grasshopper, (tho' I may have dropped this in the last printing)
 S.O.B. , 
 LIIIT, 
 B & W Russians, 
 Pina Colada, 
 Fuzzy Navel,
 Mudslide
... Um, plus a couple more.

My list was derived to catch as wide a range of tastes as was practical in my 
environment (and staff) whilst also spreading a bit of old-school basic 
knowlege.
I took Martini and a few others (Tequila Sunrise, Rusty Nail, Bloody Mary, 
Irish Coffee etc) off the menu on the understanding that anyone who 
genuinely wanted one would know to ask. Screwdriver, Cape Codder, Cuba Libre, 
Greyhound etc Not worth listing either.

My list could be comfortably doubled, but I say anything more than that would 
be majorly dependant on location.

.dan.