Mixing his way to the top

FROM A MERE waiter to one of Southeast Asia’s best bartenders, Shawn Chong’s career has been an eventful one, and proof that there is more to bartending as a career than most people realise.

At the recent Diageo Reserve World Class regional competition in Bangkok, Chong tied with Singapore’s Steve Leong for the title of Southeast Asia’s Bartender of the Year, and will be representing Malaysia in the Global Finals to be held in Cape Town, South Africa next month.

Less than a week after his big win, Chong was back at his bar, Omakase + Appreciate, whipping up two of the cocktails he made during the competition in Bangkok. Watching the fluid way he mixed and shook the cocktails, it was hard to believe that a mere six years ago, Chong was just a waiter at the Hilton KL hotel, still figuring out his career path.

“If I hadn’t become a bartender, I would probably have probably been working my way up to become a general manager in some hotel somewhere,” he muses. 

The World Class programme has played a huge part in pushing Chong into becoming a bartender. When the competition was first introduced in Malaysia back in 2009, Chong was a waiter in Hilton KL’s Senses restaurant.

“Somehow, I won the internal competition that was held to choose the participant from Hilton. And somehow, I won the actual competition as well!” he says with a wry smile.

It was only after his win that the Petaling Jaya-born 28-year-old started considering bartending as a proper career. “It was always a hobby for me, making drinks. But I never knew then that it could become a proper career!” he says. “I’d always wanted to be involved in food and beverage industry, but not specifically as a bartender.”

“The year 2010 was a tough year for me because I had to learn how to work behind a bar, and learn new skills,” he says, adding that he also entered the World Class competition that year, but didn’t do well. 

Chong left Hilton at the end of 2010 for a manager’s position at restaurant/bar Hoofed, though he wasn’t exactly a bartender there either. That year, he joined World Class again, and won for the second time, representing Malaysia in the Global Finals in New Delhi.

“I’d quit Hoofed to go to India, so when I came back, I had no job, no money, and no avenue to improve my skills on a daily basis,” he recalls.

He then took a job teaching Beverage Studies, and continued to freelance as a bartender at events, but the urge to mix drinks grew too strong. He started talking to fellow bartender Karl Too about starting their own cocktail bar, and by 2013, the two maverick bartenders opened Omakase + Appreciate. 

“That itch to mix drinks was so great that I just had to open this bar. Otherwise, how could I become a better bartender?”

“And this is where I started building my foundations, learning the classics and how to twist them, and practising my skills and techniques, which I did not get to do at my previous jobs,” he says.

Mostly though, he relished|the chance to finally get down |to the core of the business: mixing drinks. 

“It was not easy – we had to set it up on our own, and learn how to run our own bar. But there was no one controlling us, and we had the freedom to mix whatever we wanted. Whether it’s an Old-Fashioned or a simple whisky sour, every single drink I make is a chance to practise and to improve myself,” he laughs.

After two years of having his own bar, Chong decided to give the World Class Competition another shot, partly to gain an indication of his level.

“My better understanding of classic cocktails actually helped me develop better recipes, as compared with when I was just coming up with ideas and trying to piece them together. Now, it’s a lot easier for me to come up with something new, or to add a twist to a classic cocktail to turn it into a competition-style cocktail,” he says.

He has also learnt how to multi-task, how to talk to customers while mixing, how to be more efficient, and how to work fast. 

Now that Chong has cemented his position as one of Malaysia’s best bartenders, he hopes that the cocktail culture in Malaysia will continue to grow as well, and that more people will see bartending as a viable career.

“Cocktail culture in Malaysia is starting to improve. People are realising that there is a market for cocktails like the Old-Fashioned, Manhattan, or Martini,” he says, adding that his own favourites would be a gin and tonic, or Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky with water. 

For Chong, there are just no shortcuts for success in this industry. “First of all, you need to have the interest. Then, you need to pay your dues, you need to spend time honing your skills and building your foundations. If you’re looking for promotions or to move up the ladder, you’re not going to get that,” he shrugs. 

“We’re bartenders. We mix drinks.”