It’s time for the UK bar scene to up its game and get back into the creative groove it has always been known for, says Iain McPherson.
I get it. When times are tough for bar operators, survival instincts kick in. And in this mode, creativity can be the last thing on our minds. But at some point along the way, as the landscape shifts and financial worries start to ease, we need to remind ourselves to switch settings. Back to what got us here in the first place. Getting by is not what made the UK bar market the envy of the world, it was innovation. We cannot lose sight of what we are about.
Over the past 20 years the UK set the benchmark for what you needed to do to be at the top. We had the bars everyone wanted to visit, the driven bartenders with the fresh thinking who travelled the world and the techniques that everyone was talking about. The example was set, the identity of the UK market was clear – and emerging bar markets around the world aspired to our ever-evolving innovation and constant creation of trends.
That was then but is it now? The gap has narrowed in recent years and the world’s top talent has many more destinations to gravitate to than New York and London. I remember when I started bartending people used to joke that Paris doesn’t even have a cocktail scene. Look at it now, a real heavyweight globally. Then there are the likes of Singapore and Mexico City doing great things over the last decade or so too. I could name a dozen more cities which are pushing hard to make their mark.
It doesn’t need to be the case that the underdog bar scene is hungrier to succeed than the established. If the UK wants to continue to be a leading light, if it wants to continue to attract top talent and brand dollar, it needs to up its game before it’s outshone. The underdog can become the big dog in a blink of the eye.
This is not about ego or status. I’ve seen first hand what aiming high can bring your company or your bar. It’s about the mental stimulation and positivity that innovation and pushing boundaries brings to your team. It will also excite your customer.
How to innovate
Not everything that’s new is innovation – it has to make sense to you and your bar. If you’re a classical bar, this might not apply – I can’t imagine Dukes hotel buying a centrifuge anytime soon. But for those progressive bars out there, let’s get those learning hats back on and start pushing each other to learn new things, share knowledge and break boundaries together.
So, how do you go about innovating? The Japanese principle Shuhari is something I’ve always followed. ‘Shu’ represents the learning of what exists already, ‘ha’ is where you have the understanding to see what’s missing and find new approaches. The ‘ri’ is where you detach and transcend, you become your own pathfinder. In a nutshell, it’s a walk before you can run scenario, but I promise you, it makes you run a hell of a lot faster in the long term.
We created ‘switching’, nearly seven years ago and since then we made freezing our area to focus all our R&D into, and over time it has become our expertise. That’s because freezing (and ice creams) is where my passion is. So, think about what aspect of bartending you really love and hone it. If you love something you will always be better at it. Try out trends that exists (Shu) and you will probably find an area of flavour creation that you really enjoy – something perhaps you can even further. Always pursue your curiosity.
There has been much debate about what actually equates to a new technique, but even if it’s a small evolution, with a significant outcome, it’s valuable. For example, if you try to explain the difference between boiling and simmering, it’s actually very small since the water is boiling at 100°C for both, yet we treat them as two separate flavour techniques because we know the outcome will be different. Switching is an evolution of freeze concentration, taking that process one step further.
In my area of curiosity – freezing – I’ve come to realise that we have only scratched the surface of what we can achieve. It’s true that my experimentation has come at a cost – freeze dryers and ultra-low freezers aren’t cheap – but whatever your area of investigation, start with the equipment you have in a bar and build from there.
Internationally, I love looking at what’s happening in innovative bars such as Line in Athens, which is taking fermentation and fruit wines to the next level. Or in Stockholm, the likes of Röda Huset utilising local Swedish farm produce and showing the complexity of flavours they can get out of just the one ingredient.
I would love to see more of that in the UK – and not just the adaptation of ideas and practices rooted in culinary circles. The bar industry needs to come up with its own techniques, and there’s no better place to create them than here.