Toni Cortés Recatalá
Bartender / Businessman
Toni Cortés, bartender and owner of Candil Bar&Drinks. Board member of ABCV as Vice-Chairman. National cocktail champion and world champion in Art Deco.
Passionate about cocktails and the spirits world. He works as a teacher for the C.D.T. (Tourism Centre of the Valencian Community) and CEFIRE. (Training, Innovation and Educational Resources Centre of the Valencian Community).
Profile
My name is Toni Cortés Recatalá. I live in Benicarló (Castellón) and I am currently the owner of Candil Bar & Drinks.
I started studying at the CIPFP Costa de Azahar (hotel school) in Castellón. After working in different types of venues for 13 years, I set out with the dream of owning my own bar, which has been running for 6 years now.
I decided to get to know the world of bartending professionally 3 years ago as I needed to have enough knowledge to be able to offer a better service to my clients. From there, I began to study the world of gins, which awakened in me the desire to learn more and become a professional in the world of distillates.
Through courses, training, masters, and in a self-taught way, I try to be in continuous evolution. The learning mix, creating cocktails, seeing people’s when they taste them, creating new experiences, and other reasons, are the ingredients that help me to keep my passion for this world alive and to become a bartender one day.
I am currently vice-president of ABCV (Asociación de Barmans Comunidad Valenciana).
"Our premise is to use quality distillates and spirits, being aware that the base of the cocktails we design must be up to the task of capturing our essence in them".
All these experiences have helped me to carry out a new discipline through teaching, to be able to spread everything I know to all those people who want to evolve on a personal level as professionals or future professionals in the sector. Reaching this stage in my life and being able to share my experiences is another reason for me to want to continue to grow and contribute new things to this fantastic industry that is growing exponentially.
For me, cocktail making is the opportunity to express yourself through distillates, liqueurs, syrups, homemade elaborations, mixers, etc. in order to impress and create an opinion in our clients.
I am also a member of the 7 Jiggers, a group of friends united by the world of cocktails under the hashtag #castellonseagita. We are a very compact group. A tandem of different perspectives and knowledge that cause constant and evolutionary growth. The union, sharing experiences, and the desire to evolve, the necessary ingredients to learn and grow.
For all this to happen, it is vital to work with quality raw materials and, for all this, it is very comforting to have a distillery such as Teichenné, SA, for all the quantity of products it has but, above all, for the quality of these products, since it means that the horizons for the creation of new proposals are much wider.
In my case, I especially like to work with Level Gin Reserve and L’Arbre Gin because they are products of the finest standard, not only for the quality of the base alcohol but also for the results and complexity of aromas and flavours that I obtain when I design signature cocktails. But, cocktails have more than just an alcoholic base, we need to give structure and life to our creations, so using any product from the Teichenné liqueurs or the Ultra Premium Liqueurs range (with added colouring) is a sure-fire winner for our menus or events.
As I said before, and with so many references in our hands, the liquid results are infinite.
In short… there is still a lot to learn, but also to enjoy!