Julia Child's Favorite Cocktail Hit 'Reverse' On The Classic Martini
To say that Julia Child is an icon in the food world is an understatement. She's the American who fell in love with French food — the "original foodie" (via The Buffalo News) who taught us to love butter and cream, to try something new, and to not be afraid of the kitchen. She authored widely popular cookbooks, books, and magazine articles, starred in decades of cooking shows, and won countless awards. And through it all, she never stopped evangelizing her love of food and drink.
Most well-known for "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," a pivotal cookbook published in the '60s that opened America's eyes to the world of French food, she went on to teach the everyday American home cook how to make intricate, decadent French cuisine in their own kitchens through her cooking show "The French Chef." She put the "personality" in "TV personality" by being her fun, quirky, vivacious self on screen. Many times, with a drink in hand. And much like her pioneering career, her favorite cocktail turned some things upside down.
The Upside-Down Martini
For Julia, drinking was an important part of cooking and enjoying food. Whether she was sipping a glass of wine while whipping up a beef bourguignon or just talking about it on TV or in one of her books, she wasn't shy about her love of drink. After all, she's the one who famously said things like, "The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken," and "I enjoy cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food..." (via Tasting Table).
While she particularly loved wine, Child's favorite cocktail was a martini — in reverse. According to Thrillist, she loved to sip on an Upside-Down Martini (also known as the Reverse Martini), which consisted of Noilly Prat vermouth and gin. Of course, it's no surprise that such a francophile would prefer her martini with French vermouth, and it's no surprise that, in typical Julia Child fashion, even her cocktails made French ingredients the star. Where a classic martini recipe calls for 5 parts gin to 1 part vermouth, Julia's go-to martini reversed the ratio, calling for a 5 parts vermouth to 1 part gin.
Why Julia Child's favorite cocktail is a nod to France
With the herby, floral vermouth as the hero and the gin as merely an afterthought, this wet martini actually honors the way the French would normally drink vermouth. While we tend to use vermouth as a subtle accent to our martinis and cocktails or as a splash of cooking wine in our sauces and stews here in America, it's mostly enjoyed on its own as an aperitif in Europe.
Child's preferred brand of vermouth, Noilly Prat, recommends drinking their Original Dry Vermouth straight and enjoying it with seafood, ideally something raw like oysters. Noilly Prat is the original French vermouth that was created in Lyon in 1813 — and while it was initially concocted for medicinal purposes, it became a popular aperitif that the French enjoy sipping on before a meal (per French Waterways). Just like Julia liked to do... with a splash of gin.