The Cottonmouth Club Presents: Bars, Bar Culture, Cocktails & Spirits

Bartender Masterclass: The Three Phases of Mastery

April 13, 2020 Michael Neff Season 100 Episode 1
The Cottonmouth Club Presents: Bars, Bar Culture, Cocktails & Spirits
Bartender Masterclass: The Three Phases of Mastery
Show Notes Chapter Markers

Training for Mastery takes years of work and dedication, and after a certain point there is no road map in any industry that helps the novice graduate to the journeyman, and the journeyman transform into the master. 

In our first Bartending Masterclass, host & Master Bartender Michael J. Neff, discusses the different phases of mastery. Walking a path is more difficult if you don’t know what that path is, so he has broken down the idea of mastery into three phases: The Head, The Hands, and The Heart.

Mr. Neff has been a professional bartender for over 25 years, and has trained hundreds of bartenders around the world. He distills that experience into a discussion on the nature of training and the broad concept of how to truly master the art and craft of tending bar.

This is the first of four Masterclasses on Mastery. Next up: Mastery of The Head

Palate Cleansers are brief interludes of Neff and his staff in their actual training sessions, which might sound a lot like a bunch of folks hanging out in a bar. But it is a small window into that long process of making humans into bartenders. Topics this episode include:

- “Deliverance” vs. “Smokey & The Bandit”
- Forest fires in California
- The most famous bear of all time
- Ron Jeremy vs. Sonic the Hedgehog


Weird-tempo Banjo Tune: Waterbound


Support the show
Mastery: The Concept
Mastery: The Head
Palate Cleanser I: Deliverance vs. Smokey & The Bandit
Mastery: The Hands
Palate Cleanser II: Smokey, Kermit, Fozzy
Mastery: The Heart
Cocktails: Master vs. Novice
Mastery & Choices
Palate Cleanser III: Ron Jeremy vs. Sonic the Hedgehog