Interview with Jose Manuel Antelo

We interviewed Jose Manuel Antelo, founder of Barman Academy, an innovative bartender training school in Madrid

  • The job of the "barman" is becoming more and more competitive and the clientele is always more demanding.  How do you think the "bartenders of the future" can be distinguished in the market?

Nowadays, the best way to stand out is professionalizm, studying new techniques while perfecting the classic methods.  One must be a complete professional with all the skills necessary to bring their creations to life.

 

  • What do you teach young people in your Barman Academy in addition to basic techniques? What are the elements that are a part of high-level training?

In our new school we merge all the aspects necessary to create a great multidisciplinary professional, from neuromorphology as in this case the study of client behavior to the use of voice in achieving  empathy with the client.
Social networks, personal branding, differential tasting and product creation through the use of culinary techniques.

In my opinion, the most important ingredients are humility, training and above all a love for the profession which must be taken seriously, while maintaining a forward looking plan for the future with real goals and timelines. In other words, we cannot have a bartender leave after 6 months and expect them to become the professional we expect in our bars.

 

  • Why did you choose Thrill International as the technical partner of your bartender school?

It is a new, high quality product with a surprise effect for the customer.  In additon,  this equipment is clearly superior to other we have found in the market providing a new way of adding value which has more than justified the installation.

 

 


 

Jose Manuel Antelo

I have been working in the world of spirits for more than 8 years, I started with the management and direction of the rrss, the most important competition in the world in bartending, the WorldClass of the Diageo group where we created and taught 90% of bartenders in Spain in social networks.  Later, given the need to have a professional community of bartenders, we decided to form social networks which today reaches more than 500k followers on facebook, more than 171k on Instagram and a yearly total exceeding more than 80 million people worldwide.

My background is in social media marketing and online reputation building, but this has led us to an industry where we are able to developing the qualities necessary of a profesional from day one.

In the last year we have decided to create a new international training school that would give the hotelier a professional who is available to work in the positions they are needed… today.

It makes no sense to train a bartender with 6 months of study and no experience to enter the workforce without the knowledge expected from a good bartender.  This creates frustration and above all a bad work experiences that leads to unnecessary resignation or dismissal.

This is why we are working together with the Paco Roncero and Cha gastronomy school.  Training modules adapted to the real life reality of bars worldwide.  On-site, blended and online courses that are best suited to the candadate, with a large variety of content that will ensure a successful start as a  confident profesional.

In this center we will have the THRILL equipment avaiable so that from the very beginning the students know the tools we recommend and the reason for each one.

This new school year holds many great surprises which will surely delight the whole industry sector, one that this year has suffered from the severe pandemic and continues to linger.