Bartending training to help revive profession |11 November 2020
Participants in a souvenir photograph with Mr Deak and Mr Joubert (Photo: Anel Robert)
A series of training sessions are being organised in a bid to give a new lease of life to the bartending profession.
The training has been put together by the Providence Warehouse Company (OWC) in partnership with the Seychelles Hotel and Tourism Association (SHTA), the Seychelles Tourism Academy (STA) and the Seychelles Employee Transition Scheme (Sets).
The series of training sessions for beginners and those at advanced levels are being conducted by connoisseur and world class trainer, Oliver Deak of Oliver Bartending Services based in the United Kingdom.
Originated from Hungary, the flair bartender, bar consultant and World Series Champion has fourteen years’ experience as a bartender and has worked in many places across Europe.
He arrived in Seychelles on October 24, 2020 and was quarantined for fourteen days prior to conducting his first two beginner and advanced level training classes for two groups of participants on Monday morning at the Sea Front Restaurant.
It was the principal of STA, Flavien Joubert, who launched the training which is also expected to be held at Les Lauriers, Anse Volbert, Praslin from November 19-28, 2020.
The training on Mahé will end on November 18, 2020.
This will be followed by a cocktail competition after which the participants on the programme will receive an international certificate by Oliver Bartending Services, SHTA, STA and SETS.
Mr Joubert said that effort is needed to bring back the bartending profession to the level it was back in the 1980s. He claimed, in those days, all bartenders were locals and to a level where in 1987, Seychelles took third position behind United States and Japan in first position, in an international competition in Singapore following the participation of three of our local bartenders.
He thanked the participants for coming forward to learn about the bartending profession, which is lacking in our hospitality industry with regard to locals.
According to Mr Deak, the participants on the beginner programme will learn how to work behind the bar, how to open and close a bar, making of drinks, serving, creativity, communicating with clients and hygiene, among other basic bartending skills. Those participating in the advance classes will learn more about the creation of special cocktails along with the accompanying fine dining cooking, among others. The classes will include a two and a half hour theory during the day followed by practical sessions. The beginner’s training was held in the morning while the advance training was in the afternoon.
Louise Testa from SHTA said that the training is in response to reviving the profession among the locals which is practically dead at the moment.
She noted that not many Seychellois are practicing bartending and with the health restrictions with regard to the Covid-19 pandemic, where more of the expats on the job here are not able to return to the country, this was an opportune moment for the locals, especially those without a job, to learn the profession so that they get to replace the expats.
Nenesse Jose, a participant with no bartending knowledge, said that as he likes mixing drinks, he wanted to learn more about the profession for his own experience and maybe one day he will join the profession if he is out of a job.
Patrick Joubert
