All mixed up

MANILA, Philippines - Like A Virgin was blasting from four gargantuan amplifiers sitting comfortably onstage. A boy in distracting cycling shorts was juggling five bottles of liquor, and the audience would shriek whenever he’d do stunts with his elbows and do a little bit of a booty shake to Madonna’s hit in between mixing drinks. Watching were boys and girls wearing suits, armed with walkie-talkies in one hand, and a Tanduay bottle on the other. The host even playfully wore an apron that looked like he was only wearing a pair of skimpy black briefs and a dark bow tie, leaving very little to the imagination.  

Welcome to the Fourth Flair Cup, an inter-school flair bartending competition for Hotel and Restaurant Management students across the country, held at the World Trade Center last June 18, 2011. Twenty-three participants from different schools juggled cocktail shakers, mixed drinks, and flipped plenty of bottles while lip-synching to R&B hits.

“The Flair Cup (was created) to promote flair bartending as a skill for students. They mix drinks with pizzaz and entertainment by throwing Karate Kid-style stunts and martial arts. We wanted it to become a sport,” says Gerry Elle, the faculty chairman of the Young Hoteliers Exposition of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB). Darwin de Guzman from Immaculate Conception International College won as the Grand Champion.

Flair Cup is held as part of the Manila Foods and Beverages Exposition (MAFBEX), where free tasting is more rampant than actual buying, and stainless kitchen equipment, wheatgrass and sausages were abundantly showcased from June 13-19. It was a whole new world. School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management students would gasp and scream whenever a contestant would pull off magic tricks, do body contortions, and swiftly throw bottles up in the air.   “Fire dancing was my hobby. (For the tricks) I combined both my flair bartending and fire-dancing skills,” Francis Angelo Nolasco from Southwestern University, stated.

“It was challenging. I really worked hard to keep up with the strength of the boys,” Tracy Mabal who won the first place, and one of the only three girl competitors, shared. The criteria for judging was: 70 percent showmanship, 30 percent taste. Flair bartenders and chefs served as the judges.

Matthew “The Kryptonite” Burgos, an award-winning flair tender from DLS-CSB, also served as one of the judges. He was also a part of the intermission where he showed off his flair bartending skills and toned arms by taking off his shirt (there was a black wife beater underneath) after accidentally (hopefully) spilling a bottle of blue Currant all over his white shirt. “(The contestants) were boys and girls but now, it’s a new breed, and I am happy,” Burgos commented.