Why do bundreds of cocktail menus go missing from Douglas Ankrah's 2 London bars every week? A few may be souvenirs of a great evening, but barmen from all over the workd purloin the vast majority: Douglas sees his drinks crop up in the strangest places.

Light-fingered imitators need worry no longer: Shaken & Sturred, Douglas's first book, distils all his experience from 15 years of making cocktails into one stylish, witty and approachable volume. Widely acknowledged as one of the best cocktail innovators of his – or any other – genration, Douglas has taught hundreds of barmen their trade. Who better, then, to initiate the novice into the world of cocktails?

Aimed at the home enthusiast, the book is intended for the kitchen, not coffee table, User-friendly recipes and stunning photography encourage those for whom muddling is a mystical art to make the perfect cocktail. Written a minimum of jargon and a maximum of helpful advice, Shaken & Stirred covers everything from the right sort of glasses to the perfect cube of ice, from making your own flavoured vodkas to canape recipes to complement your cocktails.

How about a powerful and exotic Lemongrass and Wild Chilli Martini? Or a fragrant, Vanilla-scented Madagascar Sour? With a little patience and practice, all 100 cocktails are attainable at home: also included is a simple range of variations on the Sea Breeze, Collins and Martini, inventive, healthy non-alcoholic cocktails and drinks from famous bars and hotels.

Shaken & Stirred is that rare thing: a stylish and comprehensive guide to a subject about which anyone who has ever propped up a bar wishes they knew more. Perhaps now Douglas Will keep a few mere of his menus.

 

Douglas Ankrah is one of the world's most respected drinks and bar consultants, as well as the proprietor of two London bars. LAB and Townhouse. He first shot to fame at London's Atlantic Bar, Training a new generation of bartenders in the art of cocktails, a trend he continued by launching the London Academy of Bartending in 1996.

The Academy spawned LAB, in Soho, 3 years later, and Townhouse followed in 2002. Both Bars have won countless awards internationally: Townhouse was recently voted one of the top ten ' most stylish things about London' by Time Out.