Had I not been a bartender, I would have been a monk. Either way, I would have been a spiritualist! I was introduced to bartending the day I joined the Hyatt Regency, Delhi, in 1996. The Polo Lounge was short of manpower and I was the freshman that had to be inserted somewhere useful. The hottest selling drink at the bar those days was the Caipiroschka. I still remember a bunch of regulars who, with every visit to the bar, would boost our tip box for the whole week! Laval Lim Hon, someone I consider my guru, likened bartending to an art form.

Raising the Bar

Yangdup — There are three facets to this art: The bar, the bartender and the customer. The Polo Lounge did, indeed fulfil all these criteria ~ tastefully designed, it attracted a diverse mix of hotel guests from across the world and local regulars. The resident bartender (called a Bar Captain in those days) worked his magic, swiftly fixing one artistic drink after another.

Pouring drinks for customers did not come too easily. Even more difficult was remembering the clients and their tabs. In the early days, I often forgot to charge my customers for their drinks which led to a major discrepancy of a few spirits, but I was a fast learner and moved quite quickly to the bar counter. My first cocktail was a variation of the Singapore Sling. I built this drink in a tall glass with ice, gin, fresh lime juice, sugar syrup, soda and cherry brandy. Subsequently, at another bar, I saw the bartender shake the drink with juices rather than pouring any carbonated drink. My first lesson, thus, was that a cocktail could have several versions with an unending range of flavours.

The best part of being a bartender is being the centre of the fun and action around the bar counter. The world comes to you, good, bad and ugly ~ businessmen, artists, politicians, sportspeople and entertainers. You get to know all your clients and build relationships with them. I particularly remember my three best customers ~ a Belgian shoe designer, an Indian advocate at the Supreme Court and an American who was working in India with a power company ~ all in their late forties. None of them ordered cocktails. The American always stuck to his beer and the others preferred straight drinks. They never talked shop but instead, had conversations about culture, politics and of course, women. Then there was troublesome Jerry who would gulp down six double gin and tonics but never pay for his last drink. We tried everything from not clearing his glasses to keeping count of the stirrers for each drink. Nothing would work. He would get aggressive if we gave him the correct count and turn into a complete monster. We finally got round to taming him by presenting him with a bill after every drink. He would meekly pay without protest!

The initial years behind the bar counter are about learning from all angles. From cocktail and beverage books, bottles old and new, seniors at the bar and, most importantly, the people who patronise the bar. There were a few who have taught me how to be a good mixologist. Angela was a cocktail freak who taught me how to fix the Michelada and Clamato with seasoning that she brought with her from Mexico. The Fifth Floor Smash was a cocktail taught to me by a crew member of the British Airways who wanted to relive her bartending days at university.

In the summer of 1999, I left the Hyatt to enter the world of freelance bartending. I already had several offers from regulars to manage the bar at their private events. I knew that it was important to get the bar right at functions. The customer too, by then, had understood this and was willing to spend a fair amount of money on a good bar. What I would earn from mobile bartending would be at least four times what the hotel was paying me. It was time to go.

At the same time, India was changing. The party scene was evolving, weddings were getting bigger and event managers and other professionals were managing these grand affairs. Commercially, it seemed right to enter this ‘wedding’ arena even though it is a completely different ball game with several challenges. Every element of the bar needs to be managed personally ~ the variety of booze, its quality and quantity, the size of the bar and logistics. Since guests are not required to pay for their drinks at private events, orders come in bulk. The biggest challenge for the bartender is to control spillage and spoilage apart from fixing drinks for an average of over 500 guests at most times. We work closely with designers, planners and event managers. It is a stressful job especially when, as a bar expert, one is at times forced to manage the customer as much as a bunch of bartenders at various bars.

What are parties in India like? We Indians tend to go completely overboard if we have money. From luxury brands to limited edition and handcrafted spirits, wines and champagnes, to the lavish spread of food, we know how to splurge on parties. You need to be rather generous to serve large quantities of fine food and wine to large gatherings over a number of days. Indian hosts also want their parties to be talked about, which accounts for such vast expenses that they are willing to incur on a birthday, anniversary or wedding. The alcohol inventory for these parties at times exceeds the store requisition of alcohol of top hotels with successful food and beverage operations. No other place in the world can rival India in hosting large, opulent private events. I’ve managed a gathering of approximately 3000 people with seven operational bars and about a 100 bartenders and ensured an unending flow of alcohol. That is the scale of parties in India. But such opulence is largely a north Indian phenomenon. In the south, the scale is large but the expenditure on alcohol and the investment in the bar is marginal.

I’ve often wondered how I can manage busy bars in such grandiose events. How do I suppress the urge to tell a customer that he may be ordering a weird cocktail? I’ve fixed, for instance, single malt with orange juice for a customer on one occasion. I am constantly amazed at the popularity of whisky served half with soda and half with water. It seems to make no sense. There are countless bizarre requests, but I simply do my job. When most bartenders would perhaps get overwhelmed with the pressures at the bar in India, I’ve over time, learned to keep my cool. I have also learned from the Indian guests I’ve served. The recipe for the Desi Bloody Mary (see page 118) is a tribute to my customers who inspired me to improvise the traditional recipe with coriander, rock salt and chaat masala to prepare a fabulous afternoon cocktail. This also works very well with Indian wedding events.

India’s love affair with cocktails is just about beginning. The richness of variety in tastes in the country offers a good future for the cocktail revolution. It is exciting to witness this revolution, as this is all about being creative, using one’s imagination and dipping into the vast culture and tradition of Indian spices, flavours and essences to fix original, artistic drinks. The next time you pick up the cocktail shaker, think of how you can innovate and make your drink extra special.