T he near metre-tall pepper mill is waved over my cocktail coupe with a flourish, a sprinkle of black dusting the pink foam. But don’t be fooled by the cute colour of the drink: this is a Tomatini — a tomato martini, herald of a new trend. Savoury sippers are in, with vegetables filling cocktail glasses across the capital and beyond.
Fitting, then, that November 12 will mark the first Tomatini Day — a dedicated celebration at La Petite Maison (which has restaurants in London, Miami, Dubai, Hong Kong, Mykonos and beyond) — to mark the evolution of the cocktail’s next chapter. Jimmy Barrat “was longing for home in the south of France” when he created the Tomatini — a blend of fresh tomatoes, Ketel One vodka, lemon and white balsamic — at the restaurant’s Dubai outpost in 2010. The aim was to invoke “that amazing sensory experience of indulging in a beautifully ripe coeur de boeuf tomato with a sprinkling of salt, a drizzle of olive oil and a freshly baked baguette”.
Delicious, certainly, but not exactly the flavour combinations called to mind on hearing the word “cocktail”..
