WORK ON THE BAR?

three-month internship at the latter. Although he already knew how to cook, it was at Maaemo working on the protein section that he honed his butchery skills doing everything from gutting, de-scaling, de-shelling, slicing, skinning…you get the picture.

Mike says, “The energy in a kitchen is different with a huge focus on the detail, as well as on cleaning. We deep-clean everyday.” In terms of the professionalism of the kitchen teams, he says “When working in restaurants at that level, you must be aware of noise, perfection in the detail and how you approach the guests – fun but not too much fun, humble and, again, detail in how the table looks, the angle the cutlery is set at…”. An opportunity to return to Lebanon to open his own restaurant almost beckoned were it not for that devastating explosion in Beirut that not only saw investors pull out of theproject, but even his family restaurant ended up destroyed. A currency-devaluation and an economy in tatters left the dream even further from a reality. Truly heart-breaking.

Mike Kassabian is currently working at a threestar establishment in Valence, France called Maison Pic (working under famed chef AnneSophie Pic) integrating kitchen techniques into the cocktail programme and taking guests on a journey of pairings, perfumery, distillation and fermentation with ingredients such as tea, kombucha and miso. The bar and kitchen also share any potential waste (spirit-washed butters and leftover distillations, for example) demonstrating a closed-loop ethos that mirrors Mike’s impressive career. Quoting Marco Pierre White, Mike says “Perfection is a lot of little things done right”.

Moving from one industry beacon to another, ‘Indie Bartender’ Danil Nevsky (@CocktailMan) has amassed almost 65k followers on Instagram with his stark views on bartending trends and training programmes. Here’s a little-known fact, Dan is actually an Aberdeen alumni and has never forgotten his roots, making time for anyone who gets in touch for career advice, bar takeovers or in this case, a quote for an article on bartenders who cross-over to kitchen life. Dan says, “Working in a kitchen for six months (at Tales & Spirits, Amsterdam) made me more humble. I realised the cavern of difference in knowledge between chefs and bartenders when it comes to the raw ingredients we work with. Our Head Chef could identify if a fish had been re-frozen, just by looking at it and feeling it with his fingers. He taught me knife skills and basic cutting techniques, how to clean properly and even how everyday fruit and vegetables should be handled and prepared. To this day I judge cocktail bars on their back of house organisation, equipment & basic kitchen skills. It separates the pretenders with the real pros more so than their knowledge of Liquid Intelligence.” And that, my friends, is why we need to get more bartenders in the kitchen.