The malt didn’t know what was coming its way when Shishir Rane took to juggling spirits with infusions of quirk. As brand experience manager of Impresario Entertainment and Hospitality, he has tweaked cocktails for Social (a cafe-bar that recently opened in the city). With an earlier stint with Playboy that is set to open in Hyderabad (at Novotel Convention Centre) and Goa still fresh on his mind, he is enthused.
“The head of F and B got me to design cocktails at Playboy which will be in a posh club-cafe avatar. They have had a few difficulties with licenses, though but will open soon. I designed posh cocktails, martinis, aperitifs, liqueur, whisky and cigar-based ones,” he recalls.
The 29-year-old hospitality graduate already has a long list of “been there, done thats.” From working with Sanjeev Kapoor as a food stylist and recipe writer in Khana Khazana to studying post-graduate in London, and working at the Royal family’s Royal Garden Hotel, to designing cocktails for the controversial Playboy, Shishir has been busy.
A small cameo in Cheeni Kum (in the first scene) with Amitabh Bachchan is something he cherishes. “Mr Bachchan also signed a chef’s cap for me. I am in the first scene. Balki, the director had said, ‘Why don’t you do the shot?’ And since I had done a few ads before, I thought why not? It was best experience so far,” he says.
At the royal family’s hotel near Kensington Palace, he was head bartender, “I moved into beverage there and have served people like the British Prime Minister David Cameron, I even served a few Chelsea Football Club players like Ashley Cole. Since it was also the place where the Indian cricket team stayed when playing at Lords, I got to interact with players like Yuvraj Singh, as the team would come to the Park Terrace bar. I remember once Imran Khan was visiting and there was a communication problem, with one of the Filipino workers, and I went into help.”
The young gun who’s always looking to create and brainstorm also worked with Dr Vijay Mallya, on his first class charter behind the bar. “It was fun but it also came with huge responsibility,” he adds. He has also directed a flairing promo on youtube, Flairmania Promo 2 for the Guinness World Record flip bartending.
Straddled with this knowledge Blue Frog gave Shishir a chance to work at the cocktail menu and this was also where he had met and interacted with MD Riyaaz Amlani of Impresario, “Riyaaz called me one day and said, ‘I give you 10 days to do 10 different crazy things for a café bar,’ and the rest is history,” adds Shishir.
From an Acharoshka, which has a lime pickle infusion… to a ChaiTeAni, his concept for Social, where a bartender sports a Gandhi topi, cutting chai glasses and serves chai shots, the spirited world is his oyster.
“Referencing from the Internet, books and styling keep me busy and I learn something everyday. India is five years behind in food styling and Riyaaz gave me a great chance to innovate,” the Mumbaikar explains. Any tips? He says, “Everything is important, from dilution of the ice, temperature, base spirit quality, infusions, and adding your own interpretation.” Cheers to that!
