The Asahi Under 30 Rising Stars Cocktail Competition Winner

Name:

Lee Hyde

Bar:

Vanilla Rooms

Method/Ingredients:

Asahi beer (500ml)
Madeira (150ml)

2 eggs
Cream (150ml)
Sugar syrup (100ml) and a Japanese mixture of spices known as Shichimi Togarashi
50ml Nikka All Malt Japanese Whisky.
15ml home-smoked plum and hoisin syrup
3 dashes Hydes lime
Rose and ginger bitters
1 tangerine zest

The mixture, once ready, will be strained into the drinking vessel, straight up, and finished with a small amount of citrus zest.

About Lee:

My name is Lee Hyde and I was born in Bridgend, South Wales. I lived there until I was 18 and then left to go to the University of Leeds to study Maths. I'd worked in a few pubs in Bridgend and got a part-time job in O’Neills in Leeds while I was studying.

I dropped out of my Maths course after 6 months and began working fulltime at O’Neills with a plan to start a Geology course the following term.

Changing jobs I went to work in a cocktail bar - Mononi, and loved it. Although the Geology course was going well I came to the conclusion that my future lay in the bar industry. I couldn't ever see myself doing anything else, so dropped out of University, again, and committed myself to becoming the best bartender ever!

About a year later I decided to go live in South Africa and work in bars out there, at this time I was mostly concerned with the flair side of things and got pretty good.

When I returned a year later, I tried to get a job in London, but finances were hard after my stay abroad and I ended up moving back home to Bridgend and working in pubs again, only this time I was learning the management side of things.

After 18 months of this and I was bored and wanted to get back into cocktail bars. I decided to start with Cardiff as it was close and worked in Fat Cat Cafe Bar. I'd only been working in Cardiff for two weeks when I met Carris and we hit it off, we've been together now for 2 years.

Carris studies in Cardiff and she is the reason I haven't left to pursue things in London. After working at Fat Cat for 8 months, I had the opportunity to go and work at Park House Club, a private members club that I had fallen in love with, and the opportunity to work with Andy Fisher - a legend in the bartending world! Learnt so much off Fishy, wouldn't be the bartender I am today without him. He eventually left Park House and I took over as Bar Manager.

This was Oct 2008 and I'm still here now. It is an amazing bar in a beautiful grade 1 listed building. We have over 320 spirits on the back bar and an even more impressive wine list, somewhere around 500 wines.

I'm hoping to leave Cardiff with Carris when she finishes her course next year and move to London. Unfortunately it is hard to be recognised or taken seriously in this business unless you are in London.

Until then, I'll keep doing what I love and keep trying to build my reputation and make a name for myself.