Head Bartender at Bitters & Love and ex-game programmer, chef, (failed) stand-up comedian, eternal student
“I want people to have good ethics and good morals. This is an industry where ego can actually bite you.”
To cut long story short, this guy won the 2013 Giffard Asian Cup with a crazy kitchen-technique-inspired smoked concoction that made people question his sanity. After 15 years in the industry, Naz has become a master shifu who guides aspiring bartending ninjas.
So basically, he’s a great bartender who makes great drinks. We only wish we could say the same about his jokes.
From video game programmer to chef to bartender, it was a fluke he ended up in bartending.
“After bartending for 15 years, the last 5 years of my career has been the best ones.
Back then I bartended at night, studying, and at the same time I had a day job with a video game company.
The thing is, I was more of a creative person. I can visualise something and make it. Give concepts and ideas. I can always find another way to do something, for example how the game works. That was the only reason why they wanted me around anyway. Other than that, when it comes to the real job, I suck at it.
My dream was always to be a chef. When I was kid, my Mom had a small shop in a school canteen, and I helped out as a kid. I can make Rendang, Sambal, all these stuff. It brings a certain kind of pride, knowing that you know something that even the old folks know.
Afterwards, I got a part-time job in a bar, and I told the boss I really wanted to work in the kitchen. I didn’t know the proper style of cooking, but I wanted to learn. So they gave me a full time gig in the kitchen, but at night I worked in the bar for dinner service.
But there was this once they wanted to do a cocktail competition — that was the one that kickstarted everything. It was the Giffard Asian Cup and they asked me to do a cocktail for the bar because the other 2 full-time bartenders couldn’t take part.
So I did all my drinks in the kitchen because I didn’t have time in the bar. I stole a smoking technique that we used in the kitchen, where they put meat on a wood-fire grill, throw in hay, cover it up and smoke it.
Back then smoking drinks wasn’t common. That was the first time it was ever done, and it was something unique.
After I won the competition I was sent to Paris to compete, and everyone was like, is this how Singapore does its cocktails?
I was just this blur kid who looked like he just woke up, and my official job role was ‘Commis’. I wasn’t even a bartender.
So straight away after that competition, my job title to was changed to ‘Bartender’. They said, ‘You don’t belong in the kitchen anymore. At the end of the day, if you can make money at the bar, that’s better than pretending you know what’s going on in the kitchen!’ ”
His secret dream was to be a stand-up comedian.
“People think bartenders are the heroes of the bar, the limelight of the show, but stand-up comedians are the next level. They are basically the rock stars. They can control the crowd, they can talk shit to people and get away with it. And that’s what I want to be.
So the weirdest thing I’ve ever done was stand up comedy. I did it twice and the first time was the worst. I lasted 2 minutes. I was so nervous I was shaking and had 2 tequila shots before I went up. So I got a little drunk and lost my lines.
The host was like, ‘Get him out of the stage! He sucks!’ and everyone booed me off. I felt like doing a backflip and just landing on my face. So at least people would laugh and I could make a grand exit with an ambulance and all that.”
(Maybe third time’s the charm, Naz.)
On being a teacher:
“People come and go in this industry. I want to be the one to guide them. So if they do come here [to Bitters & Love], I want to make sure they leave with knowledge and skills.
I want people to have good ethics and good morals. This is an industry where ego can actually bite you.
You can be that good. But this job is alcohol-fuelled, and it can get pretty crazy when people get drunk and start talking about themselves. How to carry yourself in this industry is very important. Nowadays bartenders are given a lot of respect and opportunities. And because of that they might lose respect for all these opportunities.”
The best bartenders are…?
- Humble
“The best bartenders are always the humble ones. The quiet ones. Humility is very generic, but it explains a lot of things in terms of how you are, how receptive towards new things, people’s feedback, or criticism and all that. When you are sincerely humble, willing to listen to negativity and work on it, that’s when you will succeed.
The thing is, you cannot give yourself so much credit, you need to let other people give you the credit. That’s going to take a while, but people will.”
2. Able to unlearn and relearn
“This is a job of making drinks and serving people. It’s a creative thing. And I think creativity is difficult to approach when you have so much rules and a fixed mindset.
Sometimes you just need to unlearn everything and re-start. I think that’s why I won the competition [Giffard Asian Cup 2013] because I wasn’t in a bar. I was in the kitchen, and I unlearnt everything in the bar. Sometimes whatever people teach you is a good foundation, but it might not be something that’s unique.
So it’s always good to have new blood, people who are amateurs or really young. Because at the end of the day they come with nothing, and open mind. Once you have a rigid foundation or education or knowledge, it’s hard to break past it.
I started as a chef, making drinks. You could be a lawyer, or a banker, or whatever. Some of the most successful bartenders in Singapore were in a completely different trade.”
3. Diverse and have many interests
“I think the problem with bartenders now is that they don’t have any other skills other than bartending. Let’s say, how do I fix something? What about music? Do I know anything about other craft? Maybe cooking, or art?
I think all those stuff will help inspire you in your job. Anybody that does anything good usually do other things as well. They try to put everything together. You can be a chef but at night you’re a musician, and that helps inspire you. Creativity doesn’t just work in one direction. You have to put yourself in those kind of situations.”
4. Annoyingly curious
“You need people to be asking questions. Because if nobody does that, then we’ll always have the same menu. The whole thing about asking questions can be very annoying. It can be tedious. But for a business to be sustainable, especially in this industry where everyone’s doing the same thing all the time, you need something new.”
You can find Naz doing what he does best and belting out Backstreet Boys tunes at Bitters & Love, Mondays to Saturdays. Some lucky girl might get his ‘pick-up lime’ with her drink.
