The Grand Prix / Giuseppe Santamaria

When you ask Giuseppe what makes a good bartender, he sums it up in two lines: "I think that a good bartender is someone with all the passion, a deep knowledge of its work, and who always has an open mind."

Meet Grand Prix finalist Giuseppe Santamaria. Originally from Italia, he represented Spain for the country's first participation to the competition this year. Located in Barcelona, he works at Valuart and won 3rd place at the Grand Prix.

Career
"I graduated in Catering in my old Italian town Catering School. I always had a passion for Bartending, and this was the main reason why I moved to London, where my real bartending career started. I discovered a whole new world, a new drinking culture. I was no longer a waiter but a bartender. I first started back in 1999 and kept on moving forward learning from some of the London's very best bartenders and mixologysts.

Experience at the Grand Prix
"For me, it was important to be one of the four finalists, as it is a reward for the quality of my job, in a very high competitive environment, with other prominent professionals. It is a recognition of my creativity and style. I can see that what I like, reaches people’s hearts. I like people to enjoy what I do, because I do it for them, for the clients.  The level of the other competitors was very high, so I think that the jury must have had a really hard work. So, I feel proud that my cocktail could stand out and catch their attention. It was a great boost to my self-confidence. It made me think that I had to keep working hard and not to stop looking for new techniques and challenges, and being creative in my job."

The Competition
"The most difficult part was the back station preparation. The organization of the event was more than excellent, but the lack of some bar back tools in Cuba made it more difficult to prepare everything. Like with the ice, for example. They were small pieces and they melted quickly. There was no running water, after a certain time.  The hot weather affected to some of the ingredients. If you broke a glass or something, there wasn’t much around to find a last-minute solution."

Survival Kit:
I brought my vintage glass for the “Black Star” cocktail and all my daily working set, including a wine decanter, that I used to prepare the “Havana Noble” cocktail.  

Anecdotes from behing the scene
"During the plane journey, my vintage glass got broken and I had to look for another one to substitute it. I had to made a little search and I finally managed to find something similar to what I needed, to use in the competition. Also, during the Final, I filled the glass with crushed ice, but when I throw the ice away, I realized that the ice had made the glass dirty. The ice must have had something in it, so I had to wash the glass again."

From Giuseppe Santamaria

Valuart is a multi-functional venue with a cocktail bar on the ground floor, and a restaurant at the basement, that magically converts into a cutting edge club at night.


V&A (Valor y Arte) opened its doors on February 2009 in one of the most exclusive districts, headquarters of the “beautiful people”. Ultra-stylish décor put V&A in carrer Tuset into a league of its own. As you walk in you find yourself like in an enchanting purple and platinum silver theatre of avant-garde lines, with a baroque flair. In the centre of the room, there is a black island bar where you can watch the bartender to prepare your selected drink, adding always a personal touch.  V&A is one the most popular cocktail clubs in the city and you are very likely to find yourself having a drink next to a TV celebrity or a famous Barça football player, but most significant than this, it is a point of reference for the international community of bartenders and catering professionals from Barcelona and other Spanish cities, that come to visit us to share experiences. We have created a menu that offers a wide variety of cocktails to satisfy our clients’ taste and that is being constantly reviewed to reflect the latest tendencies.  

I think that I  am quite good at these three aspects of bartending: preparing the drink, hosting the guests and knowledge of the techniques, but, probably my major asset is hosting people, welcoming guests and making them feel happy and comfortable. I like the show of preparing the drink, adding a personal little touch, so clients can enjoy it even before they drink it. I like to find the right balance for each drink.

The drinks that I like the most to prepare are the Sours, in general, because they can be enjoyed by both women and men, because you can prepare them with your own choice of base distilled or liquor (whisky, gin, rum, etc.) and because they are a mix of the three main flavors: sweet, sour and bitter.



This is the cocktail I created at the competition, with the ingredients given in a secret bag, at the Final.

“EL CANTINERO”
Ingredients 
40 ml. Havana Club 3 Añejo 3 años 
20 ml. Lillet Liquor 10 ml. Falernum Liquor 
12,5 ml. Sugar gomme 
3 fresh wedges of Lime 
2 fresh Pineapple wedges 
3 drops of Orange bitter

Method 
Smash the lime and pineapple with the sugar gomme in a mixing glass. Pour all the other ingredients in the glass and shake vigorously. Double strain in chilled it cocktail glass and garnish with the lime zest.

Comments 
This recipe was created for the 2010 Havana Club Grand Prix and it is a version of the classical Cuban cocktail “Chaparra”, with some fresh fruit notes and a spicy touch.