Applications are now open for the World’s 50 Best Bars Roku Scholarship, giving the scholarship recipient the opportunity to train at three world-class bars.
The 2024 winner will be announced at the The World’s 50 Best Bars 2024 ceremony on 22 October in Madrid, Spain, and will go on to train at Sydney’s Maybe Sammy, number 15 on the World’s 50 Best Bars 2023 list, and Tokyo’s High Five and Virtù, ranked 45 and 20 respectively on the Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2023 list.
Emma Sleight, Head of Content for The World’s 50 Best Bars and Hotels, said that the scholarship was founded to support the next generation of bartending talent.
“At 50 Best, we have a passion and dedication to sourcing and showcasing exceptional talent around the world. We launched the scholarship in 2022 as part of our drive to prioritise development opportunities and experiences for aspiring bartenders across the globe and, from the outset, we wanted to ensure we were celebrating those who are already looking to the future,” she said.
Applications are open for bartenders over 21 with less than five years of experience in the industry. In the first round, applicants are asked to film a short introductory video explaining what the theme of Future Positive means for them as a bartender.
Shortlisted candidates that make it to the second round will be asked to design a Future Positive-inspired cocktail, which will be judged by a panel of international judges, including Philip Bischoff from BKK Social Club (No.13 in The World’s 50 Best Bars 2023), North America’s 50 Best Bars Roku Industry Icon Award 2024 winner Claudia Cabrera of Kaito del Valle, and James Bowker, Global Advocacy Manager for House of Suntory. The panel will choose five finalists who will reach the third interview stage, which will determine the final scholarship winner.
Stefano Catino, Director at Maybe Group, outlined what he hopes the scholarship recipient will learn from their time at Maybe Sammy.
“At Maybe Sammy, we are passionate about training new bartenders through a comprehensive and rewarding process. Everyone aspiring to work behind our bar must start in a barback position, ensuring they learn the fundamentals from the ground up.
“We hope the recipient will learn a lot about teamwork, the love of hospitality, and how to be a leader for themselves and others. We emphasise taking the job seriously but not taking oneself too seriously, as our primary role is to make people happy and help them disconnect from their reality. My team and I are excited and feel very grateful for this process. We believe that as much as the candidate will learn from us, we will also learn from this experience, making us all better in the process,” he said.
2022 scholarship recipient Drew Fleming, co-owner at Kiki Lounge on the Isle of Man, said that the scholarship exposed him to the global bartending industry in a way that he would not have been able to achieve at home.
“Before the scholarship, I had only ever worked on the Isle of Man, which is a tiny island between the UK and Ireland, so the opportunity to fully immerse myself in two exceptional bars in two of the biggest cocktail capitals in the world was a complete inspiration. Operationally, The Connaught and Katana Kitten are very different venues but they share that deep passion for hospitality that characterises the very best bars in the world.
“Personally, it cemented my own passion for this industry, but it also made me realise that the Isle of Man is my home. It was really important to me to bring everything I had learnt back to the island to play my own small part in educating and inspiring our own hospitality community and show them what an incredible and rewarding career bartending can offer without having to move away,” he said.
Round one applications are open until 12pm BST, 21 June, and can be submitted through the World’s 50 Best Bars website.
