Stanley Tucci set a thirsty, housebound internet ablaze earlier this week when he posted a video of himself making a Negroni for his wife. This is a nightly tradition in the Tucci household, so The Late Late Show With James Corden featured him last night for another class in bartending while hot. Corden asks over video chat, “Did you have any idea when you put that video up onto the internet you were intentionally making something quite so seductive and sexy?†Tucci claims he didn’t, which we find impossible to believe. He’s a man with the easy confidence of someone who knows his own strength. When Corden points out that Tucci looks so put-together and well dressed, even in quarantine, Tucci quips, “I always feel like one should look good, particularly after five o’clock,†calling to mind Jack Donaghy’s famous lesson about wearing a tux: “It’s after six. What am I, a farmer?†James Corden confesses that he has never had a martini before, a fact so shocking it made me spit out my breakfast martini.
So here is the secret to a martini à la Tucci: stirred, rather than shaken. Infuse your ice with vermouth, and then strain the vermouth out. Two big shots of vodka from a “nondescript decanter†(no accidental product placement here) stirred in. Strain the mixture into your glass, then with a lemon rind, in Tucci’s words, “take it, just rub it around the edge,†which someone must make a sound bite of immediately. Tucci’s wife filmed the whole sensual segment, and she deserves a cinematography Emmy for her efforts. It’s the sexiest martini lesson caught on film since Blake Lively threw a glass in A Simple Favor.