By Sacha Delfosse
Diageo’s Alchemy Program has added two new award-inning bartenders to its NSW team of trainers.
New to the team is Sebastien Derbomez, who has been bar manager at Sydney’s Hemmesphere since 2008, having previously worked at numerous established venues in France, the UK and Brisbane.
Since arriving in Australia Derbomez has been an active member of the local bar community, gaining recognition and accolades from industry peers and bodies including being a finalist in the 2009 ALIA Bar Manager Award.
He has also secured places in the finals for several of the country’s finest bartender competitions including the 2011 MIXXIT Magnificent 7 competition and the 2008 42 Below Cocktail World Cup.
In addition he also won the Maker’s Mark ‘Leave Your Mark’ competition and was also named the 2009 Ultrapour Professional.
“Since I arrived in Australia I have always been impressed by what the Alchemy program offers bartenders and recently I thought it was time to jump in and offer my services,” Derbomez says.
“I have already done several training sessions in the past few weeks and it’s great because you get to go out and meet all the bartenders from different venues and at different levels. People are really happy and keen to meet and learn from you because many don’t have the chance to get trained properly so they are really receptive to the training in general.”
The other addition to the NSW Alchemy team is former Crown & Sceptre head bartender Christian Blair who has relocated from Adelaide to Sydney to take up a position at Eau-de-Vie.
Blair has been a South Australian Alchemy trainer for more than a year with over 30 training sessions under his belt. Once he has settled into his new city and role at Eau-de-Vie he will be continuing to train for Alchemy in NSW.