By Rebecca Harris
The winner of the 2010 Diageo World Class competition was announced at a VIP event in Sydney on Tuesday night (June 8).
An extremely impressive list of finalists, including last year’s winner Adi Ruiz, spent two days competing in intensive rounds designed to test their knowledge and skills in bartending.
The ten Australian finalists, comprised of Ruiz, Pierre Fajloun, Ryan Lewis, Jason Williams, Adam Brewer, Petr Dvoracek, Jan Liska, Reece Griffiths, Elle Wormald and Lee Potter Cavanagh, were selected from four heats, including a knowledge-based round and a dark spirits heat.
In the end, it was Sling Lounge’s Brewer who took out the top place, with Ruiz coming second, Williams third and Wormald in fourth place.
Judge and director of Behind Bars Industry Services, Sven Almenning, described Brewer’s performance throughout the competition as “solid”.
“Just like Adi was last year, he performed really well in all the rounds and that’s what we want – a great bartender across all areas.”
Almenning added that the standard of entries this year was extremely impressive.
“I think there were so many amazing entries, it is a shame we could not have more than ten finalists,” he said. “There were lots of drinks that stood out, it would have been great if we could have taken the top five in each heat.”
Brewer will now represent Australia at the world final in Greece next month (July).