Months ago I asked Simone if he would be willing to answer some of my questions, given the remarkable results he was achieving professionally. His email response came to me within half an hour and was polite and interested, despite the fact that I had disturbed him in the middle of a Spanish vacation; it was at that moment that I had confirmation of what I had suspected for some time: to be great and achieve great results all it takes is to have passion for what you do, to love your work and to transmit these feelings to those around you, whether they are clients, friends or someone who wants to follow the same path as us.
As you read the answers to the questions below, you will discover that the ingredients that make up the recipe for success are simple and authentic.
When you decided to go abroad, why did you set your sights on London and not on another city?
London has been gathering many cultures for centuries, in fact most of them, and many currents of taste and bar habits blend well in this city, given its internationality and cosmopolitan character. We are still in Europe and not on the other side of the world, in two hours by plane you can be in any other country in Europe, communication is facilitated and there are more chances to have a great visibility more than in other big cities, for the same reason: whatever happens in London is immediately known all over the world.
How important was it to meet Alex?
Meeting Alex was very important for me. I wish all bartenders who take our work to heart to meet someone like Alex in their career.
If you don't have to work at Artesian, where else would you like to fit in? Ever thought of setting up 'on your own'?
There are many plans Alex and I are putting together for the future...
What did it mean to you to be named best bartender in the world at Tales of the Cocktail 2014?
An immense satisfaction, but most of all a big responsibility to promise myself to keep improving my work in the future, always reinventing myself and pushing my creativity even further without living on my laurels; I also enjoy being able to try to hold up the Italian flag together with the many Italian colleagues abroad.
When did the collaboration with Jamie Oliver begin and what is the project of this cooperation?
After doing films together for Class Magazine and Channel4, Jamie and I established a friendship. As a result of these experiences, he contacted me again for an audition and now, in parallel with his cooperation with Bacardi, he has built one with me for the next 3 years.
You are very young and have already reached the top of the international bartending world: what has been your greatest strength in achieving these results?
I think it was instrumental in achieving this goal that whatever we did over the years with the Artesian team, we did it by aiming to convey a special experience to the venue's customers and colleagues from around the world who attended the Masterclasses. That was our goal. We wanted and had the opportunity to do things from the heart the way we wanted. Saying this does not mean that we always had the support of sponsors, but by doing activities or doing them with passion we were willing to make spontaneous investments and sacrifices on our part; awards also came but that was not the goal. It's always nice to receive an award, but the biggest one for me is to see that the bar is working well, that there is good teamwork and that new creativity is being developed by sharing with colleagues-that's the real thing for me, the one I believe in.
Let's talk a little bit about today's bartending... What do you think it means to win a competition?
A competition gives a lot of personal satisfaction if won, but to be honest the most important thing for me is to participate and see everything that colleagues do and present; a competition is a great time to show your style, the kind of work you do. I remember the first time Alex saw me work was at a competition: there were 36 of us, I ranked 35th, nevertheless I had attracted the attention of those who would later offer me to work at Artesian. There are no lost competitions, there are only competitions you haven't participated in, that's for sure. I was always more motivated when I didn't achieve good results in one competition, because I was immediately thinking about how to improve my performance in the next one.
Even bartending suffers from the allure of passing fads, but what is it in bartending that has never waned, at least since you started?
It's a job that has to be done with passion and desire, it's very subjective and personal, I've always been intrigued by fads but I've always tried to take them a bit with a grain of salt because I know they don't last very long, instead a style can last longer. Just think of architecture, certain styles have been alive for centuries, so the important thing for me is to never forget that every day you have to think about how to improve your work.
What would you recommend to a young person who is passionate about this profession and would like to grow?
It is a profession that has to be taken as seriously as any other, as long as you want to get a good result; but in the bar in particular, taking it seriously means being serious, but always with a smile! People always think that the success of a bar is due to how much money is invested, but the truth is that dozens of businesses invest up to millions and then close down after 2 years. Behind the success of a bar is hard teamwork, passion and taking every detail of what you do to heart, studying, working hard and building a profile in the bar community that truly reflects who you are, keeping yourself busy by working behind the bar and not making excuses but solutions.
What is the greatest satisfaction you've experienced in your career?
Bars and restaurants are filled with customers who like to hang out and be together, having a good time while having fun, what I really enjoy is being there, at the bar, and seeing all these things happen in front of me, that's my fun, what I live for, professionally speaking. The most important thing for me then is to live this reality of the bar, nothing more.
So, just one day after the masterclass that Simone gave in Riccione, what I feel like adding is that in addition to the competence, culture and study that he constantly pursues in his work, Simone is an excellent motivator and knows how to effortlessly capture the attention of his audience, even those like me who have found their place in front of the counter and not beyond it. This is also possible for him thanks to his countless travels around the world, in which he has captured the essence of distant, exotic, and sometimes forgotten cultures, looking for ways to encapsulate them within a glass: from the water vapor in drinks reminiscent of the clouds that blanket the South American mountaintops, to the smell of leather aged in wineskins that come from Spain covered with juniper berries and pine, to the panda-shaped coasters that sell drinks for aesthetic curiosity, to the cocktails served in the golden pineapples in which 'you can serve anything because in any case the customer will want it for how it looks,' so he explains, and it is true, since the name of this drink is 'Camouflage,' since inside the glass is everything but the pineapple flavor and so the name makes it clear that what you see is not what you taste. Spectacular.
Thank you Simone.
