martini

• gin
• dry vermouth
• good quality olives

Fill martini glass with ice and water, set aside. In shaker, combine gin with a little vermouth to taste and shake well (don't believe the hype- you can't bruise gin) for 30 seconds. Dump ice water out of glass, strain drink into glass and garnish with olives.

The dish: Having spent a fair enough of time on both sides of the bar I've learned a few things about mixing drinks. It seems these days that any drink you strain into a martini glass deserves the fabled title, even if gin, vermouth or olives are nowhere near it. This of course is wrong and if a bartender immediately asks "gin or vodka" after you say "martini", my advice is to turn and run as the gentleman clearly doesn't know a cape cod from a vodka cranberry. There is only one martini and this is it. Make it with vodka and it's a vodkatini, with Scotch it's a rob roy, with bourbon a Manhattan. Even if you make it with gin and vermouth but then throw an onion in it, it becomes a gibson. This was made with Bombay Sapphire White, but any good quality gin will work.