Bruno Gattino's journey into bartending started unexpectedly when he moved to London with plans to learn English before attending university in Spain. A chance job as a barback at the German Gymnasium near King’s Cross sparked his passion for the bar scene. Despite returning to Spain briefly, his love for bartending drew him back to London, where he dedicated himself to learning the craft. With limited formal training but a deep commitment to self-education through books and masterclasses, Bruno quickly advanced from barback to senior bartender, gaining invaluable experience in the London bar scene.

London Spirits Competition chats with Bruno Gattino, a London-based Bartender on Bartending.

What training or education did you receive to become a professional bartender?

Honestly, for professional courses, I only have the basic WSET Level 1. However, I have read numerous books and attended many masterclasses from different brands and spirits. Everything I learned about classic cocktails comes from Salvatore Calabrese's "Classic Cocktails" book. When I was a barback, it was my favourite book to study. Later on, I transitioned to the "Savoy Cocktail Book." 

From there, I moved on to other classic books for the bar industry, such as "Liquid Intelligence" by Dave Arnold, "The Noma Guide To Fermentation" by René Redzepi & David Zilber, and "The Flavour Thesaurus" by Niki Segnit, to name a few. Luckily, with the internet, you can find everything you need with just a few clicks! I have to say that in this job, learning never ends. It is a constant journey of improvement and discovering new techniques, which is what amazes me the most!

What are the essential skills every bartender should possess?

At the end of the day no matter how good are you at crafting the best cocktails or introducing the latest techniques in my opinion a bartender needs to be a bartender, meaning that we must be great hosts and treat everyone the same and with the best hospitality regardless of who you have in front.  VIP or not giving your guests the best experience is what counts the most!  That and having a great palate/creativity to balance your drinks! You do not have a Rotovapor or a 30K lab? No worries nothing beats creativity and a well-balanced drink.

What do you look for when you plan to buy new products for your business? 

It has to be good. Plain and simple. Lately, I feel like everyone wants to get a piece of the bar industry cake bombarding us with ads and with a big brand behind having a product not so great. 

What I'm looking for is a product with great quality and price, obviously great quality most of the time comes with a bigger price, but not always.  Working with great products makes your job so much easier and tastier! Spending time looking for the best quality products for your business is key, you will deliver better quality drinks and your guests will notice it. Luckily in the London Spirit Competition, we do most of the job for the business to find great quality products among the crowded products. But trust your palate and try things! 

Bruno Gattino, Judging at the London Spirits Competition

How do you stay updated with the latest trends and techniques in mixology?

I have to say a harsh truth here for the industry but our Mixology techniques are years away from the Kitchen! I always like to go to innovative restaurants and try their latest techniques. Learning from the chefs is always a must if you want to improve in this world, you will be surprised by how many techniques in one way or another we can implement in our drinks. I have done a new menu for my place and I used the Noma guide to fermentation from the restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, and I have learnt many new techniques from them. Also nowadays with the rise of bartenders sharing knowledge in social media makes it easier than ever to learn trends and techniques!   

Can you describe your process for creating a new cocktail? What inspires your creations?

The way I do things is by brainstorming flavours that I think might combine. I use my iPhone notes or in the bar, we have a stainless steel working top where with a sharpie I write all the flavour combinations and have a better understanding of the magnitude of the idea. Once that step is done, I proceed to see the best way to introduce that flavour into the drink. This can be in the form of a distillate, syrup, verjus, pickle, cordial, fermentation and the list goes on. Working with the flavours and different techniques to see in what way I could implement it to have the best taste. This is the longest part of the creation in my opinion, or at least, the one I spent the most time on. Once all the different preps are done is time to blend them and balance the drink. The drink itself can be made in different ways or finalised with different techniques such as milk washing or carbonating it etc.

Trying, tasting and failing is part of the process. I have never created a cocktail in one go!  

It is indeed a long process but for me is my favourite part of the job, if I could choose I would love to be enclosed in a lab just creating new recipes. Also, at least to me, creativity flows randomly, I might be watching a movie or something completely unrelated to the job and a random idea just hits me, having my phone notes full of random ideas and future creations, is just a fun thing honestly. 

Cocktail Name: Espresso Claro!

- 45ml Elit Vodka

- 25ml claro homemade liquor

- 30ml claro coffee

- 5 saline solution drops

- Reverse Spherification as a garnish

With this cocktail, he wanted to do a blend of one of the most popular martinis and one of the most famous vodka-based cocktails, the Espresso Martini. See the video here on his Instagram.

Can you discuss any innovative techniques or ingredients you’re currently experimenting with?

I'm working with many different seasonal ingredients now, but my favourites so far from the season are the Peaches. I'm doing a Pickled peach cordial for a few drinks on the new menu. Pickling is nothing new but I just love how vinegar can work in cocktails and people do not expect it. But my favourite thing at this moment is Koji, I'm just obsessed with it now. Koji is a type of mould used in Japanese cooking to ferment and break down food. It's often grown on rice, barley, or soybeans and helps make foods like soy sauce, miso, and sake. Koji adds unique flavours and umami to anything! is just amazing, At the moment I'm working with Koji in 3 different forms, Lacto fermenting Koji, Shio Koji and Roasted Koji (Koji Mole). Is a very intriguing world but the results are just mindblowing. 

What are some current trends in the UK drinks industry that you find exciting?

I think right now everyone is working with some sort of fruit or vegetable in their cocktails, everywhere I go there are bananas, cherries, mangoes, peaches, rhubarb etc. This was not so common years ago I think, cocktails used to be more spirit-forward and I think this is coming from the big influence that Tayēr Elementary has in the London scene. I'm not saying they were the first to put yuzu in a margarita, but everything has changed since then. 

How has the cocktail scene in the UK evolved over the past few years?

Is coming back to what it was. The UK, specifically London, was the best place to have a cocktail in the world with New York, this changed dramatically after COVID-19, many talents left the country for good and many great places were shut down or were not as good as before. This has changed now for good, many trainees from the best bartenders have now opened their own bars or are managing them, and you can tell! It all started very slowly with few openings here and there but now not only London but the UK has many great spots for cocktails. I can't wait for next year's 50 Best to see London on top again!

What are your thoughts on the growing popularity of non-alcoholic spirits and low-ABV cocktails?

Non-alcoholic cocktails are not a new thing anymore, they came to stay and you can't sleep on them.  This is not anymore as before where you could only ask for an alcohol-free mojito or a mix of juices shaken on the rocks. Most of the top bars are changing the game on these, and now you have cocktails with the same craftsmanship behind them as alcoholic cocktails, Different preps and techniques are being used on them and they taste very good! Is never been the best time to be a low-ABV drinker or non-alcoholic drinker.

How do you handle difficult or unruly customers?

Luckily I have not encountered many of them lately. But is indeed a pain... my best way to approach them is just trying to joke with them or ease the ambience somehow, if this is not possible you might do good on changing the server with this specific customer, a misunderstanding might happen and this person might just have a bad day. this said I have zero tolerance with disrespectful people, so kicking out guests who are harassing or being disrespectful to the staff members is a must.

How does sustainability influence your work behind the bar? Are there any eco-friendly practices you implement?

There are many ways to be sustainable behind the bar, from garnishes to eco-friendly products or behaviour. Most of our garnishes come from things that you might oversee or throw away that are completely edible and give a nice presentation to your drink. Doing fruit crisps or turning leftovers into salt for the cocktail is fun and a creative way to reduce the impact of the business on the ecology of the planet.

Any good customer story that you recall that comes to mind

Finding people from my region in London is always great! For an idea my town in Spain has the dimension of a London Borough so I find it an incredible coincidence to find someone from there at my workplace at the same time as me. So we always chat about my town and they always ask me why I changed the sunny south Spain for this rainy weather and makes me rethink my life choices hahaha!

What are the biggest challenges you face in managing a bar, and how do you overcome them?

Working with people and managing people is always different, people have good and bad days and this affects how we work. being aware of these changes is the hardest part I will say. but once you find a good team to work with is everything easier. managing a bar itself is nothing crazy if you have people willing to work and good management on your side. If all your team has the same mentality and you're able to set a good mentality in the bar, everything should run smoothly. 

Image: Bruno Gattino has developed "The Sherry Margaret"

How do you see the role of bartenders evolving in the next five years?

I'm very sad to see the use of things like Chat GPT in cocktail creation from many places and this is just sad. But at the same time, I think good creative bartenders will shine much more than bartenders who use this shortcut.  Bartenders will keep doing the same things in five years I think, luckily the industry is becoming healthier with time so hopefully this will improve in the years to come. Having a balanced lifestyle is key to having a healthy team, I'm glad to see that many places have reduced the crazy hours and more bartenders are standing against that. 

If you could only use five ingredients behind the bar, what would they be and why?

As I said before Koji is my favourite thing at the moment so I will go with Koji first as is so versatile that you could do a million things with it. Then I will probably choose a fruit to play around with from time to time, my favourite at the moment is cherry. So I will go with that.  As a third ingredient, I will say milk, sounds weird... I know, but milk-clarified cocktails are just a like for everyone! And the last two are very easy for me, Limes and Tequila!

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What advice would you give to someone looking to start a career in bartending?

Find a mentor and be hungry for learning, as stated before in this job you will never be done learning. Many other bartenders or managers will tell you that is not possible or that what you're doing is stupid, don’t listen, try and fail, you will learn from that a lot. Reflect on your work and improve from it.

Learn, study and practice, this won't make you perfect as in other jobs but will bring you closer!