Mixing it up

Q&A|LEONLEE

What will you be drinking when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve?

I usually open a bottle of vintage Champagne with my staff to celebrate.

Is James Bond right about how to make the perfect martini－shaken, not stirred?

As far as a right way, there are only better ways.

Your latest venture, Yue Fu, is a high-end jazz club. What inspired that?

I've reawakened to the reality that musicians need more places to play, better pay and places that take them seriously. Being well over 30, I'm not so eager to go to clubs and get drunk. I take culture and art seriously, take food and drink seriously.

What was your biggest failure while making a drink?

If you can imagine flavors working together and have some knowledge of the provenance of the ingredients, it isn't that hard. For example: Rum and cigars go together－geographically, nature has deemed it so. So it's not an uninformed guessing game.

After a decade in China, what's next for you?

I'm interested in writing－I've always written a lot. I'd like to go to Taiwan for a while and finish a book that collects the experiences of being an expat entrepreneur while I still remember them. And I'd like to do a book of recipes we've developed at Apothecary.