In the first of Want to impress guest flair blogs, I have the honour of introducing Gianluigi Bosco the IBA World Champion 2009. Check out his winning routine it is sick!

He really knows his stuff, is a top dude and has kindly agreed to share his words of wisdom with you.

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Hello everybody, let me introduce myself first…

I kick started my career seven years ago in Italy, when I attended a couple of cocktails training sessions and decided to work behind a bar.

I moved from there to Gran Canaria for a couple of years, then lived in Paris for three and since January in London. I did this so as to get as much experience as possible and learn as much as I could about our fantastic job. During this time I was introduced to flair and decided to incorporate it into my skills.

I know flair has a bad reputation. I agree with the criticism about our discipline. Too many flair bartenders are missing the point nowadays. Flair has to be a complement to a bartender, if it is just about showcasing our skills to look cool it becomes pointless. But if it’s done properly I believe it is something that really adds something to the service.

It doesn’t need to be complex, nothing like we see in competition. Throw a tin behind the back, a nice pour, a trick with the napkin, this kind of flair doesn’t slow down the service and shows the guest our confidence, a must have for any bartender.

The key in my opinion is to take it seriously. If you decide to incorporate flair into your job you have to realise that it needs practice and passion. Make sure you master it before decide to use it. It’s the same principle as learning cocktails. You don’t go behind a bar trying to do a Martini and serving a poor drink to your guests. You shouldn’t then throw a tin behind your back without being sure you can catch it.

So, to those who are thinking about get started in flair keep this on mind: it’s something that completes our job, if you are really good at flair but you’re not able to make a proper drink, nobody is going to take you seriously.

After clearing that point, I now wanted to talk about an another aspect of flair bartending, competitions

For those who don’t know how a flair competition works, competitors generally have to make two drinks in a specified amount of time (between 3 and 8 minutes it depends on the contest), creating a choreographed show including music. Points are given for originality, difficulty, showmanship and execution, with deductions for spillages and drops.

Nowadays the level has became incredibly high, and there hundreds of competitions all over the world. I’ve been part of this scene for the last three years and just love it!

It takes hours of practice, an average of three hours a day in my case, but it can give you a lot of satisfaction. I think it’s fantastic to go to many different countries, be recognised, and see people that you never met before wanting a picture with you!

There are countries where people even want autographs! How cool is that? I’m just a bartender after all! And even better, every competitor is friendly, we are competitive of course, but we always cheers for each other and ready to celebrate afterwards no matter what happens.

Considering that there is good money involved, you would expect to see loads of jealousy and people acting in sneaky ways, but that just doesn’t happen.

I definately recommend to everybody to watch a flair competition, it’s entertaining and is a different way to spend a night.

So, I hope I have given you a better insight about flair, if you’re planning to learn how to do it, make sure you choose a professional flair bartender with a good knowledge on cocktails. Do not start you’re career with flair training, learn how to bartend first.

Good luck!

Gianluigi

Feel free to contact me for any enquiries at gigibosco@gmx.net