Mojitos Offer A Taste Of Sophistication
- i'm shawn thomas. i'm in cannes, andthis is local flight, a show where i travel to someof the best bars in the world to meet amazing mixologistsand challenge them to make innovative cocktailsusing unique local ingredients. in this episode of local flight, we're picking roses andlearning about hand blown glass for an elegant summer martini. once a small fishingvillage, cannes is now
a glamorous seasidetown considered to be one of the socialhubs of europe. in may, the city beginsits summer transformation with the cannes film festival. a destination forthe rich and famous, this city is accustomedto putting on a show that won't disappoint. the hotel majestic is thegrand dame of the croisette. located just acrossfrom the film festival's
main theater and redcarpet, the hotel has hosted many of the most famousstars in history. i'm meeting up withemanuele balestra, head barman at themajestic, and a mixologist who has created menusfrom paris to marrakesh. manu is a masterat creating complex yet classic cocktailswith a modern twist. from our perch at themajestic's beach bar, manu suggested i startwith a beet root gin fizz.
- [emanuele] enjoy. - thank you, i will. cheers, salut. that is really, really tasty. the cool thing is itbrings out the sugar and the botanicals ofthe gin at the same time. the earthiness of the beetactually has a dual effect. so besides enjoyingthis delicious drink, i am here in cannesfor a reason,
and it's to findlocal ingredients. i'm hoping that youknow this area enough to show me something unique, where we can drawsome inspiration from the local flavors here and hopefully build a drink that really captures what that is. - yes, yes. tomorrow we are gonnago to work, but first,
we gonna have some funbecause cannes is fun as well, so leave the shoesand come with me. - that way? - yeah. - alright, i'm leaving my shoes. voila! - welcome onboard! - sly dog you, a yacht! this is my first day in cannes.
i don't know how it can getbetter than this first day. - [voiceover] when on theriviera, you really must yacht. there couldn't be anywherebetter to take a sunset cruise. - let's get somerefreshing drinks. - my god, you even setup a bar on this yacht. - i have something good. - i'm gonna makeyou something first. - i like this sound. - yeah?
- when the liquidpour in the glass. - un, deux, for you. - thank you shawn. - thank you for takingme to this boat. you're the man. - [emanuele] salut. - salut. - [voiceover] manu's firststop on our ingredient hunt is patisserie intuitions,run by jerome de oliveira
and his wife aurore. despite jerome's youngage, he's won the world cup of patisserie twice andpeople use words like nirvana and high art whendescribing his creations. - here we are shawn.- [shawn} dessert heaven. oh my god. - [emanuele] look at that.- [shawn] oh my god. muffins, macarons. - [emanuele] oldfrench patisserie.
- yes. oh bonjour. - hi, can i help you?- [emanuele] salut. hey, how are you? - how are you, happy to see you. - hi, nice to meet you.- [shawn] i'm shawn. - it's your first time here? - it's my firsttime in cannes, yes. - [aurore] nice.
- yeah and thisbeautiful pastry shop. - thank you. actually if you are lookingfor something very special, we have a cake that we onlymake right now because it's made of roses so the chefcreated something special. maybe i can show youthat if you want. - yes, please.- [aurore] let's have a look. - that sounds perfect, yes. - [aurore] okay.
- [emanuele] oh voila. - [aurore] this is it. - oh my god, that is beautiful. - [aurore] it's amacaron biscuits. inside you have cream with roses and wild strawberriesso it's very light. - perfect. - this is all really good. thank you, that's all.
- that's it, two pieces please. - let's cut it then.- [emanuele] two big pieces. - [shawn] yeah.- two big pieces. okay, great. i'll come back. - okay, thank you. ah, merci beaucoup. - bon appetit! - bon appetit sir.
wow, it's fragrant. it tastes like rose. - [emanuele] exactly. - sweet, sweet rose. - i come here often becauseevery time i came here, i have somethingnew dessert to try. sometimes i can have agood libation as well. it's really good. very crispy, the macarons.
- extremely. how can we take somethingas delicious as this and incorporate it in a drink? - i think the rose canbe a great ingredient. - rose? - they're actually right season. - it's rose season currently? - exactly. - you know a place where wecould go and get some roses?
- [emanuele] yes.- my man. if you can find someroses and make a drink that tastes like this. - let's try it. - you think so? - alright. that cake was amazing,mwah, let's go. - [voiceover] au pays d'audreyis an 18th century flower farm where owners audreyand thierry bortolini
grow the extremelyfragrant rose demi, a rose that blooms onlyduring the month of may. - [thierry] many! - bonjour thierry, how are you? - [emanuele] we gonnapeak at the roses. - [shawn] great. is there a way to tell whenthe rose is ready to be picked? - when actually you seethe heart on the rose. - [shawn] the little yellow?
- [emanuele] theyellow right here. - and they open in the morning? - when the sun is wake up. - they open with the sun. - [shawn] awesome, very poetic. - you put two finger onthe bottom and press it, then you pluck it. - [shawn] two fingers on thebottom, one thumb on the heart. - here we go.
- oh my god, smell that. - oh. - it's incredible.- [emanuele] yes. this kind of rose istypical of this area. - cool. - this rose, actually,we gonna just pick it up to make cocktails. - well let's continue to pick. - pluck.
- [shawn] what do you thinkthere, is that a good amount? - yeah, this is plenty there. beautiful bounty. - [voiceover] in additionto caring for a rose farm, audrey creates a numberof sweets from a selection of flowers she growson the property. her candied rosepetals are a favorite and she was kind enoughto make a batch for us. - oh wow, these are thecandied rose petals here?
- oui. - [shawn] look at thecolor on this, oh wow. - they just finished it. they look great. wow, it smells and tastes justlike the actual rose petal, but it just brightens itup because of the sugar that she adds. it's great, delicious. alright why don'twe take these roses.
- let's work and eat. - yes, merci beaucoup, thankyou so much for showing us. yes, my pleasure. thank you, au revoir. - [voiceover] for ourlast stop, we're heading to la verrerie de biot tolearn the art of glass blowing, a french tradition datingback thousands of years. but in biot, everything beganin 1956, the year in which la verrerie created theirfamous bubble glass.
- i design actual special glass. do you think itwould be possible if a glass somethinglike a balloon? - this is for yourcocktail, is that right? - [emanuele] exactly.- okay. - [voiceover] manu alreadyhad a plan in mind, so we're going to get afirsthand look at how it's done and create a specialglass of our own. - yes, do you see the bubble?
- this piece of wood,it make the glass a little bit more longer. - [shawn] ah ha.- to get the model sizing. - it's like a form. - exactly.- [shawn] yup. whose first, me? alright, here goes. - and stop. come on, give me a hand.
- wow, look at that. it looks just like the drawing. - [emanuele] is exact. - thank you very much. - [voiceover] withour beautiful roses and handcraftedglassware in hand, manu thought it appropriatewe make this cocktail in the gardens ofthe majestic hotel. - we have all we neededto make a good cocktail.
- yeah, look at this glass. - hm, let's start here. - can i give you a hand? - yeah, please, here we go. thank you. very important to take allthe petals without the heart of the flowers. if not, the water become yellow. i think this is enough.
i'm going to takethe petal rose, put inside some mineralhot water, and then it-- - [shawn] like a rose tea? you want to smell it? - please. - it's very powerful. - wow, smells justlike a rose itself. - to make the icecube more pretty, i gonna incorporate alittle bit of melisse
and a little bit of petal rose. - [shawn] melisse? - melisse, yes, is a specialherb that we have actually in the garden. now we close the moldand we're gonna put down into the water. - so these ones aregonna fill up completely. - and then freeze as they are. - [emanuele} exactly.- [shawn] alright.
- everything's setup, so now we waiting. so, please if youwant to follow me, we're gonna show you ourgarden is just behind the bar. - just around the corner? please. - here we are. this actually isour secret gardens. - you have a secret gardenwithin feet from your bar? - [emanuele] exactly.- [shawn] wow.
- this one is one ofmy favorite herbs. pineapple sage, you can reallysmell the good flavor there. - it smells like pineapple. this one is stevia. with that we make thecocktail without sugar. - [shawn] no kidding.- [emanuele] yep. it's explosive, huh? it's sweet andbitter, like life. - and here we are.
this is the herb thatwe use on the cocktails. is melisse. - melisse, let me see here. oh i know this, thisis actually lemon balm. - exactly, is tastea little bit of lemon and i like to use itbecause of the lemon taste but without theacidity of the lemon. - [shawn] no, no,it's just very clean. - is a geranium rose, ibring that from marrakesh.
- i imagine with the sunhere too, this plant thrives. - exactly, theygrowing up very well. - see how it tastes. wow, it's very perfumey,it's almost like lavender in that regard. - very strong, exactly. - [shawn] quite agarden my friend. i didn't know youhad a green thumb. - i am glad you enjoyed it.
so let's shake up the ice. - how we looking? woah. - those look beautiful. - [emanuele] yes? - [shawn] they almostlook like jewels. - we use this shaker. it's called a parisienne. it's a shaker witha bigger capacity.
i'm going to put insidesome nice grey goose. there we are. fresh melisse. perfect, now. the ice is dissolveon the drinks. - so it slightly melts? - yes, perfect. we're gonna put on theglasses, here we are. - wow, you can see a slightyellow color from the melisse.
that looks so nice. it smells incredible. - thank you so much. i don't think i've ever drankout of a glass like this, especially notone i helped make. mm, that's great. that's a clean,classic martini style and then at the very backyou get the notes of lemon, you get the notes of rose,so it's really subtle,
really nice. - nice, perfect. - we have to come up witha name for this cocktail. something that captures whatwe've done here in cannes. - we did have agood time together. we share a very nice-- - fun, work, all of it. this mean that life isbeautiful so la vie belle. but the rose is acomplimentary of this cocktail.
- ah yes. - so one of the, you callthis cocktail la vie en rose. - la vie en rose, perfect. i think it's poetic, i thinkit captures what we did here, and what a sophisticatedcocktail given its simplicity. so cheers to you my friend. mm, i'd love to takethis glass home with me. - yes, for sure. - is that okay?- [emanuele] yes.
- it's such a great memory. - [emanuele] cool.- nice to meet you. - i'm very glad too thatyou enjoyed the time. - i had a great time. - nice to meet you. - thank you for watchingand join me next week in dubrovnik where our drinkjust needs a pinch of salt.
