In the bartending world, Hidetsugu Ueno is known to be a legend. The owner of Bar High Five in Tokyo and master carver of the ice diamond visited Sydney during Bar Week 2018 with Monin to present ‘Bartending as an Art’ masterclass to a select audience.
Ueno-san, as many call him presented his views on Japanese bartending, techniques with ice and shared valuable insights into his highly acclaimed bar.
Origin of Japanese Bartending
Japanese Bartending started in Yokohama Hotel in 1860, the first western style hotel with Louis Eppinger who created the Bamboo cocktail and the Million Dollar cocktail, the latter being the first cocktail in Japan made with egg white, an ingredient that is not popular with the Japanese palate. The hotel burnt down in 1923 during an earthquake.
“Classics are important in Japanese bartending. For the Japanese bartender, it is very important to grab one of the very popular classics cocktail as a signature. There’s a Mr Martini, Mr Gimlet, Mr Sidecar. I got one which is the White Lady.”
Techniques with Ice
“If we don’t have ice, we are not able to work. Except one bar in London.”
1. Shake
“Usually the bartender has their own style. In my bar, we change the way we shake depending on the type of cocktail. We change the shaking style, shape of the shaker, shape of ice, size of ice and different material of shaker.”
2. Stir
“We have two to three different kinds of stir. The first time I talked about stirring was in 2008 in Paris. In Japan, bartenders put the base spirit in the freezer. It’s -20 to -25 degrees and the ice is -5 degrees so I was talking about warming up the drink by using ice. The liquid temperature goes up. People think that ice is making the drink cold but it’s the spirit in the freezer.”
3. Build
“A built drink is most interesting way of making a cocktail, because it’s simple and you just pour it into the glass. One of my interns makes old fashioned. Every day, he brings the old fashioned to me for tasting. We have a certain number of cubed sugar, bitters and bourbon whisky but every day it tastes different. It takes time to dilute with large ice but it’s very difficult to make the cocktail consistent.”
Ice Ball
“When you become a bartender, you make an ice ball every day before business hours. Young generation doesn’t have much chance to show their work to the customer. We let them make ice balls.”
Ice Diamond Carving by Hidetsugu Ueno
Bar High Five
“High Five changed location in October 2015, two blocks away. We have 12 seats on the bar and 10 +2 seats, for 5+1 table. In my place, 98% are cocktails. I have no menu. In Ginza, the local customer doesn’t care how much it costs. They care how much they enjoy.”
“If I have a menu, people usually pick from the menu. I like to make something special so I ask which base spirit you like, do you like sour drink, sweet drink, any specific flavour and we make it to combine something with a local flavour.”
“Bartenders should polish the bottles every day in bar, because new bartenders don’t handle bottles much. There are 100’s of bottles in my bar. Master bartender makes the drinks, new bartenders don’t really touch the bottles and they need to get used to it. It not just about cleaning but handling the bottles.”
Tasting Cocktails
“I always taste the cocktail before I shake or stir. Always ask how they like their drink. I taste the cocktail because my balance is not like yours. Some people like more sour or more sweet.”
“I know what’s going in the shake and stir, so I don’t taste during shake or after shake. If people don’t like it, they don’t drink faster. So I kind of know something is wrong with the drink. I come up to the customer and ask, how is the drink? Most don’t really say. I tell one more time, I can fix it. They start talking, they say they prefer more sour or sweet and I fix it. It makes me happy and it makes them happy.”
Local flavours
“I try to use local flavours because I have a lot of international guests. We’re very proud of making classic cocktails but with something more special. We try to make them fun. We use Japanese gin, Bourbon only available for the Japanese market and local flavours like cherry blossom, green tea, yuzu, bitters with flavours such as roasted tea, green tea and yuzu peel.”
Hidetsugu Ueno: Own Experience
“I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. I only worked one place when I was in my 20’s, one place in my 30’s. I opened my own bar when I turned 40.”
“In Japan, having investors or business partners doesn’t go well. High Five is 100% mine. With investors, one day when the bar is slow, they start talking how to run the bar. Japanese bartender doesn’t like to be told how to manage the bar by non-bartenders.”
Hospitality
“Hospitality business is not only the things you listen to the customer. Sometimes my young bartender brings a note of what the customers want in the drink. They want bitter, sweet, creamy, nutty – what are you going to make? This is what the customer said. OK, if they tell you to die, you die? No. Why I bring you to the customer to take order is because you are a bartender. Bartender should think that when you take order, you are managing the cocktail we serve in here. So if you do not think of anything and you just write down what they say, maybe someone from the street can take the order.”
“I’m very open-minded as old school bartender. Most of the classic bartenders don’t like molecular style. The person who’s ordering is not you, it’s the customer. If I know how to make it, I can satisfy the customer. If I don’t know how to make it, I’m open minded in styles and it’s better to know than not to know. And we all know what is important, what is the meaning of what hospitality is.”
“Drinks are only a part of our skills to make the customer happy” – Hidetsugu Ueno
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