We met Jérémy Lauilhé, Meilleur Ouvrier de France class Bartender 2023. The opportunity to discuss the world of mixology and the place of non-alcoholic drinks.
Could you introduce yourself ?
Hello, I'm Jérémy, I'm almost 36 years old, I've been a bartender for around fifteen years and above all passionate about the worlds of Mixology and Spirits.
What do you like most about bartending ?
Meetings, exchanges, creativity, discoveries and all the human values that this profession allows us to maintain and develop on a daily basis.
You won the title of meilleur ouvrier de France in the bartender category - well done ! -, what made you decide to participate to the competition ?
Thank you very much... It was a long-standing goal that I had set for myself after obtaining my MC Barman in Biarritz in 2008. At the time there was no UMOF Barman-Barmaid class exam but I said that if one day this exam was created for our class I would take it only once, the day I felt ready and armed for it.
So I prepared for this over all these years by nourishing myself with professional experiences, meetings, successes and also failures, then I launched myself.
This exam is an excellent barometer to take stock of your level, challenge yourself and question yourself.
You recommend hotels and restaurants on their menus. Have you noticed any changes in requests in recent years ?
There is a real desire on the part of hotels and especially restaurants to offer their customers a concrete range of cocktails and mocktails. The problem today is not in the will of companies but more in the human resources and skills that they can have within their teams to carry out this work. It is in this sense that I intervene with "BONBUVANT" in order to try to train the existing teams in this profession of bartender which is a profession in its own right.
You spotted OSCO quickly after its launch...what piqued your curiosity about this non-alcoholic aperitif ?
Almost everything... The packaging, the name, the ingredients and in particular the fact that OSCO uses verjuice, a product, in my opinion, eco-friendly, not used enough and which I personally use a lot in my daily life and then when I tasted it I loved its complexity and balance between aromatic, acidity and bitterness.
What do you think of the non-alcoholic spirits and aperitifs market today ?
It's a market in full expansion, on which we find very successful things and others much less so, that's the danger of the beginnings... But it's a market that must be supported and helped.
Do non-alcoholic cocktails have a big future ahead of them ?
For me this has been a certainty for many years now. In the establishments in which I have had the chance to officiate, I have always made my teams aware of the fact that mocktails must be worked like cocktails in their own right. I don't see why we should be bored when we order a mocktail and yet that's still very often the case... This is even more true today, but it was also the case a few years ago. We don't drink non-alcoholic drinks just out of obligation; we also drink them by personal choice or whim at a given moment. Our sourcing, creation, and originality work should also extend to mocktails
For you, what makes the difference between a good and a very good cocktail ?
I believe that technique alone is not enough to differentiate a good cocktail from a very good cocktail. Precisely, it's everything else that makes the difference : product sourcing, the story telling of the cocktail and its staging, but also the personality of the bartender in his attitude, his approach, his reflection, the transmission of his passion and his humility.
Today I believe that we need to set the record straight a little and in particular bring a little humility back to the profession. Our profession is a service profession in which we are there to please customers. But it stops there... We don't save lives.
An essential ingredient ?
Passion
Your signature cocktail ?
The one who will meet my customer's expectations, who will give him a smile and the immediate desire to dip his lips into it again, the one thanks to which we will be able to discuss for hours about the products that make it up and the women and men who have created these products. The one for which I hear when leaving "Thank you, I had a great time, I learned a lot of things, we feel that you are someone passionate and at the service of your customers"
But for the exercise I offer you a signature mocktail that I recently made for one of my clients.
50 ml OSCO Rouge Ardent
30 ml Black cherry and Espelette pepper cordial
20 ml Siorac verjuice
Make in a mixing glass
Serve in a frosted coupe
Garnish : wide rim of Espelette pepper and a maraschino cherry
To be enjoyed from April 27 at the bar of the Saint-Julien hotel in Biarritz.
The signature cocktail LE TEMPS DES CERISES for the Saint-Julien hotel in Biarritz.
PHOTO CREDIT : Miguel Ramos @miguelrphotography
The easy cocktail we should master ?
An OSCO & Tonic with green olives. But not diluted in a big balloon glass...
OSCO & TONIC
60 ml OSCO Original
40 ml Tonic (as neutral as possible)
2 olives on sticks
Make directly to the glass
Serve in an Old Fashioned on ice
If everything was possible, who would be the 3 people with whom you would like to have an aperitif ?
I would do it with just one person to whom I will have so many things to tell over all this time, it is my maternal grandfather Jeannot who is no longer here at my side but who since he left us, 19 years ago, is everywhere I am and with whom we would definitely drink an Armagnac.
An address to discover ?
The Saint-Julien hotel in Biarritz which has had a makeover this winter and its signature cocktails.
What are your news ? Any new projects coming up ?
Lots of projects and great things to come in the coming months.
With in particular the second date of a lovely concept La Tablée Éphémère that we imagined with Mathilde Flipo ( @cheffe_mathilde_cuisine ), a friend who is a home chef. It consists of a dinner for 10 guests who do not necessarily all know each other at the start and who sign up for a five-part food and cocktail pairing evening in an unusual location.
Then, in a few weeks, there will be the presentation of my diploma from the exam One of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France, bartender class at the Sorbonne. I'm really looking forward to this moment.
Then, during the summer, it will be at the opening of a very nice cocktail bar in Bordeaux within the Grand Hôtel Français, rue du Temple, for which I have been working as a consultant for several months already. It's a very demanding and very exciting project because we started from a room which was initially a living room and we had to imagine and create everything.
And in mid-September there will be the launch of a Barman Additional Mention at the CFA of Mont-de-Marsan in the Landes. Training on which I was asked to intervene as a trainer with young apprentices.
We are also discussing with the BNIA (Bureau National Interprofessionnel de l'Armagnac) because Armagnac (the oldest eau-de-vie in France, I remind you...) is a spirit that I particularly like, which I defend with fervor, to which I am very attached and for which I have wanted to invest myself for a very long time in the role of Ambassador to the young people of tomorrow as well as the bartenders of today.
In short, the schedule is very busy and it's an exciting job... I have a lot of fun every day.
Where can we follow you ?
On Instagram @bonbuvant or @jerem_yolo
On the website www.bonbuvant.com