Welcome to ChristianDelpech.com
Born in Buenos Aires on February 25, 1977, Christian Delpech never dreamed of becoming one of the world's most famous and most successful flair bartenders. In fact, as a teenager, he was more interested in going into advertising and marketing. But in 1995, while working at a friend's bar in Buenos Aires, he saw the movie Cocktail, in which Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown play a pair of bartenders who become the toast of New York City by flipping bottles and jokes (coincidentally, Cruise's character also had an interest in marketing).
The movie inspired Christian far more than his other career options, but with flair bartending essentially nonexistent in Argentina at the time, he was forced to watch it over and over, learning his moves from the film.
"I started practicing the same moves, the same routines as they show in the movie. But it's pretty short, you know? The moves they show. So I started to create my own stuff," he says.
With only two or three other flair bartenders in Buenos Aires, it was the only choice. That and visiting the other practitioners to watch their moves. At the same time, he began to practice magic. It was a skill that would later stand him in good stead.
"Magic helped me," Christian says today. "The smoothness, the sleight of hand, making things look so easy."
Committed to flair bartending, Christian realized that to pursue his career and perfect his art, he'd have to move. So, in 1998 and with $400 in his pockets, he moved to Spain. "I didn't have anything. I started from scratch, zero," he remembers. "But I always believed in flair and that you could take it and make a profession out of it and entertain people."
He first lived in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, and then made the move to Ibiza, Europe's party capital where he start doing "close-up" magic working table to table at bars and restaurants. But even there, with nightclubs open 24 hours a day, he had trouble finding other flair bartenders to talk with and learn from. And many of his customers didn't seem to understand the mix of visual entertainment and beverage service, with some simply wanting the guy behind the bar to stop showing off and just get them their drink.
It wasn't until Christian was on vacation in Miami that he discovered the international flair community, hearing about the Quest for the Best Bartender in the World competition from some Argentinean friends. It was 1999 and the contest was 9 years old. "I thought, Wow! So there IS a world championship! There are people competing!" The existence of the contests was important, Christian says, because it gave him a goal to focus on and achieve. It was too late for Christian to enter but it was enough for him to start researching and practicing with a renewed vigor. One year later, he was ready and entered his first professional competition: The Roadhouse World Flair in London.
He lost.
Undeterred, he traveled back to Florida, to Orlando, and entered the Quest. Finally, Christian's years of dedication paid off with a win in the amateur semi-pro division. His prize was $3,000, which he immediately turned around and used to pay for travel expenses and entry fees for other competitions, his eye always on gaining more exposure and experience.
A year later you could find Christian working at a TGI Fridays in Cancun, the restaurant chain that invented world flair championships in 1987. It was there that he received an invitation to compete in the Legends of Bartending World Bartender Championships in Las Vegas, organized by world champion flair bartender Ken Hall. Christian took some time off work and headed north.
The competition soon narrowed down to Christian and another, more experienced bartender. The other man was ahead in points for three rounds—speed, working flair and pour. But in the last flair round, Christian pulled ahead and this unknown walked away with the top title.
"I think it was the heart, the passion and the determination I always have" that helped me win, Christian says. The flow of his routine, combining style with smoothness, would become his trademark. "Thanks to magic," he adds.
Needless to say, it was an upset victory, and one Christian used to his advantage, entering the next four major contests and winning three times, including back at London's Roadhouse (grand Finals). That same year while in Las Vegas right after the event, Christian heard about Sin City's nascent flair industry: the Voodoo Lounge at the Rio Hotel & Casino and Carnaval Court, the outdoor venue between Harrah's and the Imperial Palace. He knew about these bars but now he went to visit them and he was blown away by the beauty of what is truly a "Flair Bar".
And he heard about this new Flair bar about to open in Caesars Palace called the "Shadow Bar".
Coming back to Vegas a month after and hired by the Shadow Bar, Christian had more opportunities to hone his craft and learn from his peers. He was there a year until he won his second Legends title and Carnaval Court wooed him away.
"I liked the atmosphere better (at Carnaval Court)," Christian explains. "It's a different style of bar. It's more of a party style so I had to learn to be faster. It has helped with my speed and overall performance."Besides Carnaval is consider to be the "Best Flair Bar in the World".
Today, four years later and with 17 first-place world championship and over 50 first places, Christian can still be found behind the bar at Carnaval Court.
"It's the longest job I've ever held," he says, "and I still enjoy it every day. … Doctors and lawyers come to my bar and say, 'Oh, you have a great job!'"
He works four days a week at Carnaval and spends the rest of his time with his wife and child, and taking part in special events such as judging contests, doing demonstrations, seminars, training staff around the world, trainning for competitions, not to mention working events such as private after-parties for celebrities like the Black Eyed Peas.
Christian credits his success to staying determined and focused, and practicing his craft every chance he gets. Things are somewhat easier for bartenders starting off on the flair path now, he says. "Today, a bartender can learn in two months what I learned in my first five years," he says, thanks to the spread of flair bartending around the world and the training DVDs available. But they still need to have the drive and invest the time and energy. If they do, the rewards are endless.
Thinking back on his illustrious career, Christian remembers a time staying in a hotel in Los Cabos (doing a private event) and seeing an adage on the bedside calendar: "Find a job that you love and you'll never have to work again."
