'India is making huge leaps and strides towards top-tier creative cocktails'

Dushan Zaric, founder of Employees Only, New York.

Dushan Zaric, founder of the New York City speakeasy Employees Only - No. 47 on the World's 50 Best Bars list, will be in India on October 9-10, to offer masterclasses in making cocktails at Pune's Elephant & Co. Kalyani Nagar. In an interview ahead of his sessions, he talked about global cocktail culture today, where India fits into it and his favourite Indian ingredients to add to cocktails. Excerpts:

What's your read on the global cocktail culture today?

Currently, the top 50 bars in the world are all trying to outcompete each other in extreme creativity. When you look at those bars... you see that there is a huge involvement of the food labs in different technologies. Besides that, they also try to be very dramatic in their cocktail menus, so they create their menus based on five elements of nature. There is a lack of talented and excited young men and women who want to enter the industry globally. I think we are facing a huge staff shortage, and this is a global phenomenon.

Where does India fit into the broader global cocktail landscape?

I have to say that I am not 100 percent familiar with everything in India, but what I do know about India is that it is making huge leaps and strides towards top-tier creative cocktails. I am so excited to visit, not just for the hands-on techniques and creative bartenders, but also to see how they manage to bring energy to bars and restaurants and what they actually look like when they are open for regular business.

Why did you select India as the destination for your masterclass?

Well, I have to say that Vijeta Singh and Cocktails of Tomorrow have played a significant role in inviting me and bringing me over. I have been to India before, but not in the capacity of my profession. I have travelled, spent time doing yoga, and I always feel very welcomed and very much at home in India.

When I was invited to Pune, I was very excited. I have never been there, so I hope that people will come there to see me, and I get to see a lot of people to exchange experiences and information. I believe a good bar is like a planet; it has gravity; it doesn't matter where it is because it is all about the human and emotional experience that we are providing, and why our guests return is the crucial question.

Do you intend to take back any Indian ingredients (spices) to use at your international outlets?

We actually use all kinds of stuff in our cocktails that originally came from India. For example, on our first opening menu, Employees Only New York, in 2004, we used a blend of chai tea to infuse, like black tea, with all the spices - ginger, cardamom, clove, cinnamon, star anise - and to infuse that into sweet vermouth and chai spices with tea, and then I used that in our variation in our cocktail, which is called Matahari. We are very familiar with Indian spices, and we use coriander, turmeric, and all kinds of good things that go into our drinks.

Maybe I will find something really inspiring that I have never encountered before, and I will surely bring it back to work with it.

Dushan Zaric

Have you worked with Indian spirits?

I have tasted Amrut (whisky), which I was very impressed by, and now it has won a lot of awards. On all my travels to India, I have tasted some of the local whiskies and wines, but I have not really worked with Indian spirits.