03/03/2021
Roullet Bartender Challenge 2020. Results
The competition for bartenders Roullet Bartender Challenge 2020, organized by LADOGA, the Roullet cognac house and the WHERETOEAT National Restaurant Award, has ended. The finalists met at the Moscow BRODO bar & kitchen on February 24 for the last competition. And on February 25, at the ceremony of the WHERETOEAT award, the winner of the Roullet Bartender Challenge 2020 was announced. The winner is Artyom Talalay, the bartender from Sochi's London Bar. He made a Roullet Highball cocktail based on Roullet VS cognac, Campari liqueur, raspberry soda, fresh raspberry syrup, balsamic cream, a mix of tartaric and citric acids. The cocktail was served with a pear stewed in raspberry wine, stuffed with heather smoke cream cheese.
Among the Moscow bartenders won Andrey Kobyakov from the gastronomic atelier Sartoria Lamberti, in St. Petersburg won Anton Shirobokov from the bar One And Half Room, in Yekaterinburg won Ivan Chusov from the Kitchen restaurant, and in Kazan the winner was Yana Aidarova from the Mr. Willard bar.
All finalists received gifts from the Roullet cognac house, and the winner, Artyom Talalay, got a special prize - 20-year-old Roullet cognac in a unique egg-shaped box styled as the works of Karl Faberge. The gift box is made of an alloy of metal, covered with enamel in different colors and decorated with colored crystals. The composition is completed by a graceful and elegant eagle, designed by one of the most famous Florentine masters, who has been working in Vatican for more than thirty years. Bottle and glasses are made of Venetian glass. Artyom was also given a trip to France with a visit to the Roullet cognac house, where he will have the opportunity to gain new ideas and inspiration for creating his cocktails.
The aim of the competition was to return cognac to the frontline of cocktail and gastronomic culture in Russia and to eliminate the stereotype that cognac is nothing more than a digestive. For several months, the participants of the challenge proved that cognac was unfairly forgotten on the far shelf of the bar and, due to its rich organoleptic properties, deserves much more attention.
According to the terms of the competition, each participant had to prepare a cocktail based on Roullet VS cognac and choose the perfect gastronomic pair for it. And also to challenge two other bartenders, involving them in the competition.
Dozens of applications were submitted for the competition. The Roullet Bartender Challenge brought together bartenders from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Sochi and Kazan. Many of the contestants' cocktails, created on the basis of Roullet VS cognac, have become the embodiment of bartender's art, reflecting the history and philosophy of the drink.
The authoritative jury of the competition included representatives of the Roullet cognac house, the WHERETOEAT award organizing committee, journalists from specialized media, bloggers. The experts faced a difficult task - to choose the best among the representatives of five cities. The jury evaluated the aroma and taste of each cocktail, serving, conceptuality, combination of the drink and the gastronomic pair.
