What do you get when you mix Jasmine liquor, passion fruit, grapefruit juice, anise, and mint? A winner!
The Marie Brizard Belvédère Group hosted 43 bartenders from 27 countries at the 27th International Bartender Seminar (IBS).
The French liqueur brand and Belvédère’s vodka Sobieski took centre stage at the event in Bordeaux as bartenders – all national winners - competed in a cocktail competition over a two-day period.
After three rounds of competition Amit Gilad of Tel Aviv bar Otto 76, Israel, won through, taking the crown of IBS champion and a prize of €3,000.
He said: “It has been a pleasure and a privilege to be here. I am going to make sure that every penny [of the prize] is spent on enjoying myself.”
With professional seminars in liqueurs, cocktail garnishing, and molecular mixology all scheduled over the three days, and a prize pool of €6,000, organisers estimated that the event cost €100,000 and was “the second biggest cocktail competition in France”.
A two-pronged judging panel were charged with finding the bartender that exhibited the most “energy, knowledge and experience”, marking on technical proficiency, and the appearance, aroma and taste of the cocktails.
Round one saw bartenders each deliver a cocktail using ingredients of their choice, within a time limit of six minutes.
The twenty highest-scoring competitors were then recalled for the semi-final, where the blind-tasting panel – that included Drinks International’s Hamish Smith - were given a second opportunity to test the bartenders’ signature cocktail and to whittle the field to eight.
Supplied with the gamut of Belvedere Group spirits, a selection of fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices, syrups, bitters, juices and jams, final round competitors were tasked with creating a new cocktail that contained one Marie Brizard liqueur, within ten minutes.
Brand ambassador for Marie Brizard, Nicolas Destors described the overall standard of the competition as “very high”, and that many of the bartenders’ cocktail recipes would be listed on the website and used in future exhibitions and promotions.
http://www.drinksint.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/1830
The Israeli finals for the international competition took place in 25/10/2010, at Mandy's, Hayarkon Park, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Sponsored by Shaked and Sobieski.
The Israeli finalist, Amit Gilad, reached the 1st place in the international Marie Brizard competition!
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Israelis don’t take New Year’s Eve quite as seriously as people in, let’s say, New York City. However, when it comes to a great cocktail, it turns out that no one – in the world – makes them better than Israeli Amit Gilad, of “Otto 76″, a popular bar in Tel Aviv.
Amit Gilad beat out 42 competitors at the international Marie Brizard Cocktail Competition that recently took place in Bordeaux, France. For his efforts, he took home a grand prize of €3,000 (about US $4,000) as well as international bragging rights among bartenders.
Gilad was awarded the grand prize for his concoction of Jasmine liqueur, passion fruit, grapefruit juice, anis, and mint.
Ynet describes Gilad, a 17-year veteran of the bartending world, as a member of the “older generation of Israeli bartenders who treat the profession with high regard, just like their middle-aged counterparts in neighborhood pubs in London and New York.”
The Marie Brizard Cocktail Competition is a two-day competition featuring bartenders from 27 different countries. Gilad’s winning cocktail was chosen by the judges in a blind taste test based on technical proficiency, as well as appearance, aroma, and of course, taste.
