Australia’s Orlando Marzo, from Melbourne’s Lûmé restaurant, has been named the world’s best bartender at the World Class Global Bartender of the Year 2018 competition.
Marzo beat more than 10,000 bartenders from around the world in a competition that lasted six months, culminating in a four-day final held in Berlin, where 56 bartenders competed for the crown.
“All the finalists brought their A game, but Orlando really was on another level,” says Lauren Mote, Diageo Global Cocktailian and World Class judge. “The Zacapa aperitif he made for the ‘Before and After’ challenge was one of the best I’ve ever tasted and the way he held his nerve in the ‘Cocktail Clash’ finale — for me, that’s the mark of a truly World Class bartender.”
The 2018 event marked the 10th anniversary of World Class, with Marzo standing out in an exceptional pool of talent.
Armed with Diageo’s Reserve brands, he took sustainable bartending to the next level in the Ketel One ‘Better Drinking’ challenge, and put an innovate twist on the classic Johnnie Walker Black Label Highball in the ‘Flavours of a Nation’. He then went head-to-head with his fellow competitors in the ‘Cocktail Clash’ Grand Finale.
Marzo, who joined Australia’s flourishing bar industry at Eau de Vie Melbourne in 2013, will now travel the world as a Diageo representative and will become 10th member of the World Class Hall of Fame.