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Your favorite celebrity chef's favorite celebrity chef adored this sophisticated throwback. A reverse martini simply means one part gin and five parts dry vermouth, with a bright twist of lemon rind to give the drink vibrance. Julia Child loved to indulge in a pre-dinner cocktail, and would say that "the best thing about a reverse martini is you can have two of them." With an endorsement like that, how could we refuse?

Enjoying vermouth to this degree is maybe the product of a bygone era. Still, why not try out a reverse martini? Our advice might be to put a little more ice in the shaker if you find vermouth to taste a bit too harsh.

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It's on the record that Anthony Bourdain's favorite cocktail was a negroni. Keep in mind, this is the man who traveled the whole world and drank everywhere he went. He once took a shot of cobra heart and blood on the Food Network — how much closer to "seen it all" can you get? It is with this knowledge, then, that we choose to listen when he proclaims one drink above the rest as the best cocktail. 

As far as options for a drink of choice, you could do a lot worse than a negroni. This mixture of Campari, gin, and dry vermouth shows up a lot on this list. While a negroni might be a similar bright red hue to cobra's blood, we have to imagine the taste is very, very different.

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Alton Brown's favorite cocktail, the Boulavardier, is hard to say. Maybe practice in front of a mirror a few times before you order one. It's also essentially a negroni, but one that swaps out gin and adds bourbon. Talk about a drink that's not for beginner sippers.

Having established himself as something of the culinary world's Bill Nye the Science Guy with his show "Good Eats," we have to assume this cocktail is something special. The Boulavardier first rose to popularity in the United States in the 1920s. The craft cocktail revival of the 2010s, though, has seen the drink come back into vogue.

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Rachael Ray loves gin enough to have her own line of the spirit, Staple Gin. It makes sense, then, that her favorite cocktail is a martini. Any good bartender will tell you that a martini comes with a world of customizable possibilities, but the drink is usually garnished with either a lemon twist or an olive. Which does Ray go for? Well, the chef and host enjoys an interesting twist on the classic cocktail. First, she likes the citrus to come from orange instead of lemon. Second, she also likes to add Castelvetrano olives to bring both sweet and savory to the mix.

As an aside, if you're hosting a cocktail party, Castelvetrano is a crowd-pleasing variety of olive to serve. It's a good choice in case you have guests with some trepidation about the briny poppables. They're a good, firm olive with a mild flavor. 

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A twist on the negroni that literally translates to "mistake" in Italian, Bobby Flay's favorite drink is a sbagliato, which swaps Prosecco for gin. With all of the cooking competition shows Bobby Flay is on, we have to imagine a good cocktail is relieving indulgence. The man is in a lot of high-pressure situations, with cameras rolling. Someone make him a sbagliato when the bright lights go off, for goodness sake.

The "mistake" moniker might be a slight misnomer. At the very least, there's more to the story than simple error. Maurizio Stocchetto, proprietor of Bar Basso in Milan and son of the inventor of the sbagliato, says that his father always liked the bottles on the bar in certain places. After experimenting with cocktails where sparkling wine was substituted for harder liquors, the elder Stocchetto staged a "mistake" for a customer ordering a Negroni, wherein he grabbed a bottle of Prosecco from the gin slot. The customer tried the drink, it was a hit, and the rest is history.

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With a resumé that includes writing cookbooks, hosting TV shows, modeling, business ventures, and philanthropic endeavors, we have to assume Padma Lakshmi knows her way around a cocktail party. So what's her order? Well, Lakshmi calls sugary cocktails a "headache in a glass," so flavored daiquiris are out. She opts for a dirty martini when she imbibes.

Lakshmi's upgrade on the old standby is garnishing with olives — while also adding in a little of the vinegar from pickled jalapeños instead of olive brine. This switch keeps the briny taste present, but adds a little spicy kick. Go ahead and try this move yourself, it sounds delicious. Maybe keep some antacids on hand, though, until you know how your esophagus handles jalapeño gin. 

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As chef and owner of Napa Valley fine dining mecca, The French Laundry, Thomas Keller is a living legend. So what does a chef with three Michelin stars drink? Well, not a lot, as he told Food Republic. When he does imbibe, though, he goes big: Either a Macallan or Pappy Van Winkle with a splash of water. Whiskey drinkers usually utter those two names with a whistle of reverence, and know very well how adding a little water can bring out the flavors of a fine whiskey. It makes perfect sense that a chef of Keller's caliber would opt for the best. 

When The French Laundry began serving spirits, the revered chef wanted to make a menu informed by Scottish heritage. In a move that may surprise some, the restaurant does not serve mixed drinks. Instead, diners' meals are paired with spirits from The French Laundry's impressive collection of fine and rare whiskies. 

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Maneet Chauhan has opened restaurants in multiple cities, has competed or judged on multiple Food Network shows, and has founded an avant garde hospitality group. That's a busy schedule, and we have to imagine a good Bollywood smash takes the edge right off. The chef calls this creation one of her favorites — it features vodka, cranberry, spiced honey, a dash of orange bitters, lemon juice, and basil.

A good cocktail should have ingredients that balance each other out. The taste should be complex, without one element being too overpowering. The Bollywood smash has spiced honey to balance the tart cranberry, and lemon to temper the spice in the honey. All of those mixers take the potency of the vodka and bitters, making for a nicely proportioned drink. It's the basil that takes the thing over the top, though, rounding everything out with bright, vibrant notes. 

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What else could be on Giada De Laurentiis' bar menu, besides something that comes from the boot? An amaro soda is an Italian specialty and one of De Laurentiis' go-to drinks. It's not particularly stiff, either, featuring one part liqueur to three parts ginger ale. Garnish with a good wedge of lime, of course, and you've got a very sippable summer potion. 

The chef and host recommends consuming this cocktail as a digestif. If you're unfamiliar with amaro, it's a bitter herb liqueur traditionally consumed after meals. The blend of after-dinner liqueur and soothing ginger ale makes this a great drink to enjoy after a generous helping of pasta. 

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Anne Burrell is known for her inimitable sense of style and no-nonsense judgments on competition shows like "Cutthroat Kitchen" and "Worst Cooks In America." Her drink of choice has a name befitting her electric personality, too — a concoction called the Chef Anne sparkler. Fortunately for any bartender serving the demanding chef, this drink is pretty hard to screw up: It's Prosecco on the rocks with a splash of Aperol.

This might remind you of a classic Aperol spritz, but they're not quite the same. An Aperol spritz mellows things out with soda water, and is best consumed on a terrace somewhere. The Chef Anne sparkler doesn't have time for any ingredient that doesn't have booze, but that doesn't mean drinking one will knock you out. Aperol is a relatively low-ABV liquor, clocking in at 11% ABV. 

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Sunny Anderson is a Food Network personality with a personality to match her name. Her drink of choice, though, is not some sugary beach libation. The former catering company founder and host says a vodka martini is among her favorites. A visit from Martha Stewart was what turned Anderson on to Imperia vodka. 

Her perfect version of the classic cocktail is one with plenty of funk. She adds four blue cheese-stuffed olives and an ounce and a half of olive brine — notably more than our own blue cheese dirty martini recipe uses. Serve this cocktail with a charcuterie board. 

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Having a cocktail at the end of a long restaurant shift should be an agreeable experience. Maybe that's why the inimitable Marcus Samuelsson named this concoction the way he did. Samuelsson likes an invention of his called a yes, chef. The refreshing drink features vodka, pineapple juice, lemon juice, honey syrup, ginger beer, and mint. Sounds pretty agreeable to us. 

Custom syrups might sound like the kind of thing that's out of reach for the home cook, but that's not the case. Honey syrup is made simply by warming honey and water over medium heat. Make sure not to boil anything — you just want the two ingredients incorporated. Let it cool completely, and enjoy. Honey syrup is great for cocktails because honey by itself is too thick to mix well, but a syrup? Now you're talking. 

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Alex Guarnaschelli calls the salty greyhound her favorite brunch cocktail. She's a former executive chef and has competed on multiple Food Network shows, so you know her brunch drink has to be a little more out of left field than a mere bloody mary or mimosa. 

A salty greyhound is exactly the kind of cocktail you can pair with an eggs benedict. It's vodka with muddled grapefruit and cucumber, simple syrup, and lime juice. That mixture gets poured over ice, then everything's topped with a kick of salt and pepper to really wake you up. Hey, maybe it even helps shake off a hangover.

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One of the premier advocates for Mexican food, fittingly, substitutes mezcal for gin in his negroni. The end color might be the same, but the taste is quite different. This variation lends the already bitter drink a good deal of smokiness. It might be a pleasant combination, but definitely not one for the inexperienced cocktail sipper. 

Rick Bayless has built a career on teaching the beauty of Mexican food to daytime TV-watching home cooks in the United States. It's only fitting that his spin on the classic negroni also brings this primarily Oaxacan spirit to the limelight. 

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As a woman whose career is built on having good taste, it makes sense that Martha Stewart's favorite cocktail would be the caipirinha. Stewart told Thrillist in 2017 that the Brazilian drink was her "favorite cocktail of all time." If you haven't had the pleasure of a caipirinha yet, it's a subtly flavored refreshment that rewards a developed palate. 

A slightly sweet, slightly sour concoction, caipirinhas are made with cachaça. That's a Brazilian spirit not unlike rum, but with sharper, fruity notes. To complete the drink, all you need is lime wedges, sugar, and ice. The end result is understated, yet elegant and refined. 

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Now, a quick disclaimer right away: We couldn't find a source that said this was James Beard's favorite cocktail, per se. However, the James Beard Foundation does have a bloody mary recipe with the "James Beard stamp of approval." He was a man who liked to keep things simple, particularly with cocktail recipes. 

In keeping with Beard's ethos, this is a relatively stripped-down version of the breakfast drink. No bacon cheeseburger slider garnish for this variation. Beyond the usual vodka and tomato juice, there's only Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice. A good reminder that sometimes, the basics are all you need. 

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Michael Symon is best known for barbecue and burger restaurants, and it's hard to run one of those without a good drinks menu. The host and restauranteur enjoys a Moscow mule — but with a key substitution. Forget vodka, Symon adds rum and a garnish of fresh mint for an unimpeachably great summer cocktail. 

So many classic cocktails have versatile mixers that yearn for experimentation. Ginger beer, the non-alcoholic anchor to a Moscow mule, pairs beautifully with any number of spirits. Try bourbon for a Kentucky mule, or tequila for a Mexican mule. Just be sure to keep things ice cold, and you'll have a cocktail for any occasion. 

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The foul-mouthed TV host's favorite drink, fittingly, is very fun to imagine him ordering. Gordon Ramsey is known as a firebrand in the kitchen, loudly playing into the stereotype of chefs as domineering, demanding, and in possession of plenty of strong opinions. Ramsey's favorite drink, wake up, you donkey, contains a blend of loud ingredients: Tequila, cider, honey, and smoked elderflower. Garnish all of that with a lime and, well, we still can't guarantee you won't get cussed out by Ramsey. 

One fun aspect of the wake up, you donkey is its bright green hue. It's the type of drink that certainly sticks out in a dark bar — perhaps as a wake-up call? Ordering one of these on your next night out is definitely a conversation starter. 

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Alain Ducasse is best known as the first chef to have restaurants with three Michelin stars in three different cities. That's a show-stopping resumé. It's the kind of resumé that makes you wonder if you're from the same planet, let alone eating the same food. So what does he like to drink? Well, one of his favorites is a twist on the negroni, of course. 

A negroni is a classic cocktail, but a renowned chef like Alain Ducasse surely must have his own tricks for mixing one, right? Of course he does. Ducasse's secret is to switch out vermouth with Italian white wine. This drink is one of the chef's favorites, and has been a standby at his restaurants.