On Monday night, the fourth Regional Final for The Perfect Blend competition was held in Adelaide at Electra house – revealing the winners from the Apprentice and Professional category.
12 finalists (four in the Apprentice Category and eight in the Professional Category) took to the stage in front of a live audience of over 75 industry folk.
This Regional final saw the greatest number of finalists competing for the very first time – although you wouldn’t have known by the strength and confidence of each performance.
The Perfect Blend also welcomed back to the competition five competitors from last year’s finals, with Nick Corletto from Maybe Mae (who made it to the grand final last year) winning his category.
And Jin Maekawa, first time competitor wining the Apprentice category from Bar Torino.
Nick and Jin will now progress to the Grand Final to be held in Bali in May and will compete against the other lucky finalists from each Regional Final.
The finalists competed for that trip of a lifetime for two bartenders to head to the home of bourbon, Kentucky USA visiting the Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark distilleries and then heading across to the Big Apple to the Brooklyn Bar Convent in New York.
We have two Regional Events left — be sure to RSVP to your upcoming regional final at www.the-blend.com.au.
- QLD – Lefty’s Music Hall – April 1st
- NSW – Oxford Art Factory – 9th April
Want to see all the finalists’ cocktail recipes? Head to www.worldbartenderday.com.
Bourbon, banter and bloody good times ahead!