If there is anyone who would know how to open a bottle of Champagne like a boss, it would be Good Eats and Iron Chef America personality Alton Brown.
In a May 7 YouTube video, Brown explains a method of popping open a bottle of bubbly that has not been seen since the days of Napoleon: ditching the corkscrew and instead using a saber. Yes, Brown enthusiastically endorses “sabering” a bottle of Champagne.
“But since we live in the age of the litigator, I have to go ahead and tell you right now that under no condition do I advocate you attempting to undertake this desperately dangerous display of panache,” Brown cautions. “Besides, you’re not cool enough anyway and you’ll just come off looking like a dope with a fistful of glass, standing in a bubbly puddle.”
“Any sword will do the trick. Feel free to use your scimitar or your katana … but not, of course, your Hattori Hanzo. That should be reserved for other things.”
Brown has yet to demonstrate using a saber to open other items, such as cans of soda or loaves of bread, but we sure would love to watch him try.
Screengrab via Alton Brown/YouTube