Cocktail Queen

Claire Smith’s career changed when she won a cocktail competition. Now she’s the face of Belvedere vodka, says Patrick Schmitt, and she does like to bake a nice cake

AFTER only a few minutes chatting to Claire Smith, Belvedere vodka’s sales development executive, it becomes apparent she has something in common with a cutthroat courtroom inquisitor like the late George Carman QC – and no, it’s not the wig. It turns out that Smith, somewhat surprisingly considering her current post, studied law.

However, while Carman was "called to the bar", Smith, was, er, enticed by a bar, one called Revolution in Nottingham, where she worked during much of her time at university.  "In the first two weeks of law I realised it wasn’t the best profession for me," she admits, smiling, and one can only sympathise.

This is not to suggest, although her parents might, that Smith’s years at Nottingham were wasted.  In fact, her work at Revolution was not merely financing the standard student lifestyle, but priming her for a career in the drinks industry.

Thus, on leaving university in 2000, she was able to go straight into bartending, drawing up firstly the cocktail list for the Glasshouse in Nottingham and then for a new bar called Synergy. Smith was not simply pulling pints, but using a new-found skill at creating drinks, designing menus and sourcing staff.

In other words, barmaid, Smith was not.  Nevertheless, this wide-eyed and intelligent lawyer-manqué didn’t view this type of work as a career – there was no evidence of a "real hierarchy" in the industry and she wasn’t keen to keep the "antisocial" hours demanded of a cocktail maker.

Restless, but still enthused by the world of drinks, she started entering competitions.  And then she got her break.

Battle of the giants

Smith had entered the unusually named Marblehead Battle of the Giants cocktail competition.  She was, as she recalls, the only woman in the contest, and facing some stern opposition, as well as tough judges, including Ben Reed.

Nevertheless, and you’ve probably guessed this already, Smith won – that is in the "Outside London" category – catapulting her into the limelight. In the end, it was the competition organisers, Marblehead, who snapped her up, offering her a position as brand ambassador for their Wybrowka and Zybrowka brands.

This meant she could use her creative skill when it came to mixing spirits but work during daylight hours.  In other words, her lifestyle changed overnight.  Her time at Marblehead came to an end when the company moved to Scotland, but Smith undeterred found herself a job in London, where she had been brought up, helping Henry Besant set up the Rockwell roof garden on Trafalgar Square.

She then moved with Besant, and Dick Bradsell, to Lonsdale House, helping them organise the bar there.  But, just before the move, Moët-Hennessy (owners of Belvedere) had approached Smith to see if she could offer some vodka training.

She liked the idea, and while at Lonsdale went back to Moët in search of something more concrete because, as she says, "I wanted to take a more corporate route.  "Running a bar is very demanding," Smith explains.

"You have little life outside work and I wanted to go into a brand ambassadorial role.  It would mean I could create drinks but be in bed at a reasonable time."  By this stage Smith had spent three months at Lonsdale House recruiting staff, creating cocktails and designing menus, and was most probably exhausted.

Luckily, Moët was happy to take her on, and luckier still, to represent Belvedere, because if there’s one spirit Smith likes, it’s vodka, especially when it’s Polish.  As she says, "Vodka’s my thing, I’m fascinated by the whole category."

But, the other fortuitous outcome of the cocktail competition was that she met her current boyfriend Matt Pomeroy.  This has been a particularly successful union as Pomeroy works at Baltic, a Polish restaurant in Waterloo with a well-stocked vodka bar.

And this was where I met Smith, where we sipped on chilli and raspberry Martinis before tasting Belvedere neat, just to prove it could cut through the oily caviar we were picking at.  It’s so versatile and so complex," Smith says of vodka generally, "and there is so much heritage and history attached to all the brands." 

Although Smith doesn’t deny that some bartenders are tiring of certain vodkas, she is quick to point out that, "Vodka has been the leading white spirit for the last 80 years and it will be a long time before others make a dent into what we’ve done with it."

She also notes that the Martini is a drink "enjoying massive growth and consumers are increasingly demanding vodka Martinis".  As for the renewed excitement surrounding gin, well, for Smith, this will take time to come into effect.

After all, the consumer is still discovering new brands of vodka even if bartenders are bored with them.  Also, as Smith adds, "Gin is more demanding to work with – matching juniper in cocktails can be quite restrictive – and some consumers don’t enjoy the taste."

On the other hand, beyond vodka, it’s spirits not traditionally mixed, like Cognac and  Bourbon, that intrigue her. 

Natural talent

One senses much of Smith’s success is due, apart from an easy and charming manner, to a strong creative streak.  She even admits she had little idea of how to make a cocktail when at Synergy, and is entirely "self-taught".

In fact, in her opinion, "The best way to learn is to put yourself through the horror of a cocktail competition."  Of which Smith has done many.  Currently, her flair, harnessed by Moët, is being put to good use.

Using Belvedere, she has been compiling "Couture Cocktails" which she designs for particular launches, like the opening of John Galliano’s new Dior store, or Vivienne Westwood’s Retrospective Exhibition at the V&A.

Smith also helps with the development of point-of-sale and marketing tools for Belvedere as well as providing all the education and training for the brand in UK bars.  She has "a real feel for trends" when it comes to drinks in this country because she’s "so close to the on-trade," which is probably one of the reasons Moët took her in-house.

In particular, at the moment, Smith is working on pairing dishes with cocktails and Moët is even holding a dinner at the company’s offices where cocktails will be served with food, and as food.

Guests will include a mixture of chefs, bartenders and press. Smith suggests the event "is more of a forum for discussion", especially as "some chefs don’t like bartenders coming near the kitchens".

She also believes that restaurants could raise their revenues by serving cocktails as puddings, because while a pudding tends to cost in the region of £5 to £8, a cocktail usually costs £8 to £15.

As for advice on bartending, it seems the skills that earn you prizes are rather different from those that gain you top posts in practice.  "You see, cocktail competition bartending is all about presentation and also creating balance under pressure," Smith explains, "but as a career, it needs passion and less focus on the presentation."

And, rather luckily for Smith, "making ingredients balance in a cocktail is instinctive" – many of her best creations she actually "dreamt about".  For instance, her Pineapple and  Cardamom Martini, listed at Lonsdale, she "created in the back of a taxi".

"I was thinking, what would go with pineapple and suddenly I thought cardomom, it’s really aromatic and spicy and it needed something soft and sweet.  Of course it could not have worked, and certainly trial and error is very much a part of cocktail creating."

But interestingly, the temperament needed of a great bartender is quite different from that of a top-notch chef.  The latter wouldn’t cope with "all the broken glass and annoying customers", Smith explains.

A man’s world

But why aren’t there more female bartenders? Well, according to Smith, "Bartending is not an attractive profession for women, it is demanding on time and you wouldn’t want to get into it if you were interested in starting a family."

On the other hand, "Those that have are very good."  And being female in a male dominated profession does attract attention.  "Sometimes I have to prove what I know," comments Smith.

"At a bar in Edinburgh, for example, I was tested; they asked me to talk about every single vodka." But for most, she admits, her sex is "a happy surprise".  Smith is well informed and more than able to argue her point – one might say she is persuasive, but not pushy.

And when it comes to Belvedere, she insists her job is to educate barmen in the differences between vodkas, not just the qualities of her brand.  As she says, "Taste is subjective."  But if there’s one thing Smith does point out when it comes to vodka, it’s that, "You can’t mask the burn – vodka should feel warm in the chest, not the stomach."

So, whatever the character of vodka you prefer, the quality can always be checked by assessing this truly characteristic "burn" and its intensity.  Relaxing after having proved the last point with a little product demonstration we both take part in, Smith says her ultimate aim, like many in the bar business, is to have a place of her own.

But, rather touchingly, she doesn’t want a noisy, trendy bar, but a tearoom, although possibly one which serves cocktails after 8pm.  "I’ve always wanted to have a tearoom," she says, "I bake all the time and I get lots of my ideas from baking because of the way the ingredients, the fruits, different flavours, complement each other. I do love to bake a good cake."

Perhaps there’s a promising future in combining the two – after all Guiness cake and brandy butter could no doubt be joined by something moorish like a Belvedere Battenburg. However, one gets the impression Smith really just wants a quiet life.  And that’s what’s endearing about her.

To all intents and purposes Smith appears entirely unaffected by the bright lights of fashion, style bars, and mixing with all that’s Moët – a rare feat considering the temptations that theoretically she immerses herself in every day.

One senses her urge is to create, whether it’s cakes or cocktails, and not to flaunt her skills with a shaker, Tom Cruise style.