BEVERAGE
Where bartender meets chef
To learn more about how bartenders and chefs are now collaborating where cocktails are concerned, HN spoke to Mike
Kassabian, who recently set a country first by winning both Diageo’s ‘Best Bartender in Lebanon’ and Diageo’s World Class ‘Cocktails at Home’ category challenge.
You’ve now won some of the industry’s most reputed awards, so what comes next?
To answer that, I have to return to the moment when I successfully reached the semi-finals of Diageo Reserve World Class competition. That was when I began to take a special interest in food-pairing. After winning Lebanon’s best bartender competition and while competing in Mexico, I realized that the kitchen was where I wanted to be.
What does bartending have in common with being a chef?
Funny you should ask that, as I will be leaving for Norway tomorrow for a threemonth internship at Maaemo, which has 3 Michelin Stars, and is one of the world’s most awarded restaurants! Despite being accepted at NOMA, I opted for the former because they have a different approach to F&B. While there, I hope to learn a diverse range of techniques, which I will then employ to expand my culinary and bartending skills.
Are your plans related to the current trend for culinary cocktails?
This trend is simply a reflection of what has been brewing behind the scenes for a very long time. We have reached an inflection point, which will see bartenders and chefs working alongside each other. There are incredible parallels between the bartender and the chef. Think of it this way: for chefs, fire is key, while for bartenders, it’s ice. Chefs use salt and bartenders use sugar. Chefs and bartenders are inching closer to one another since they are realizing that they have much to learn from each other’s craft. Furthermore, the seminars reserved for international bartenders and the bartending profession are now also being attended by chefs. In addition, bartenders are bringing chefs to attend events. This allows these two professionals working under the same roof a platform for a more fluid exchange, which is proving to be highly beneficial to both, at a time when the bar and kitchen are slowly merging/fusing.
Can you give us any examples of this trend in practice?
Unknown to most, there has been a frequent crossover related to the techniques and tools used by both bartender and chef. This becomes especially true when you consider the increasing collaborations between some of the most reputed chefs working alongside a host of amazing bartenders. It is such interactions that are adding incredible value for diners and elevating the eating-out experience to an unprecedented level through the introduction of new flavors in liquid form. Building on that movement, chefs are more frequently experimenting with liquids and have taken the time to learn amount machines uniquely-designed to that end. One popular machine is the rotary evaporator that can allow for the distillation and extraction of flavors. So, you can imagine the types of results achieved when both bartenders and chefs share their take of what is possible and then work side-by-side to create something completely original. Furthermore, the knowledge of liquors and spirits combined with modern techniques and machines results in superior experiences that previously had been unheard of.
So where do you think this is all leading?
There are globally reputed chefs today at the head of their craft who have borrowed techniques from bartenders, proving that to evolve in this profession, one needs to master both. This is gradually becoming an inescapable reality. As for the chef and bartender of the future, I see both coming closer together. Bear in mind that some years ago, chefs used to have wine with food-pairing menus, which have today evolved into cocktail-pairing menus. This is especially important today, given that sauces constitute a base in food and bartenders have a profound understanding of liquids. Applied on the same platform, their skills can produce far more powerful results, maybe even a new profession!