Currently embarking on a 10-day tour of Asia in collaboration with The Singleton, Michalčík adds: “It’s super-inspiring, because it’s connected to travelling, and now I have a chance to speak to people in different countries and to absorb their cultures, learn about their techniques, their ingredients. I’m happy that I can inspire people, but I also like to be inspired by different people.”
Outside the bar
Aside from the bar world and competing, Michalčík appreciates time in nature, continuing with sports and taking cold baths as a form of meditation. “I’m trying to not lose myself in this and I truly believe balance is very important in our lives.
“Sport helps me to kind of switch off my head from everything and just be myself, which is sometimes very much needed. For example, in the creative process, when I was preparing myself for the competition, I spent a couple of hours on a cocktail and I wasn’t 100% happy with it. Then a er doing a different activity, I came back and it’s like entering the same room but from a different door.”
With his current work as director of mixology at Pier 42, Michalčík explains: “We focus on cocktails with storytelling, which is adding value into the drinks, because everyone loves stories and they can create emotions. In a bar you will often not remember what was in a cocktail, you may just remember it was tasty, but you will probably remember how it made you feel.”
Pier 42 explores the connection between its location, Norway, and its New York namesake, and Michalčík’s cocktail menu creation involves putting together “all the information about the exact inspirations and then working out popular flavours or tastes, and which ones I would love to have in the cocktail menu. I then think about the stories behind them, how to connect them together, and how to express them in a visual style.”
