CLICK HERE: Hayden Wood Full Biography
His friends call him Woody. Fans know him as the guy who defies gravity and common sense when it comes to cocktails. The rest of us can get acquainted when native Australian Hayden Wood comes to Cleveland for The Fabulous Food Show. A highly skilled and inventive bar chef, he turns drink mixing into entertainment with award winning flair bartending stunts. The globe trotting author of The Liquid Kitchen Series will be juggling bottles on our Culinary Celebration Theater stage.
We caught up with him in Sydney for a quick advance Q & A about his unique set of skills.
Fabulous Food Show: You toss bottles, stack glasses and pour from multiple shakers simultaneously. Did it take a lot of practice? Any spills along the way?
Hayden Wood: In the mid-'90s I used to do between five and seven hours of training a day for months on end. When you do different performances every week it becomes like riding a bike.
I've had my fair share of injuries and stitches trying new moves. I've split my head open with a cocktail can, cut my cheek open twice on the same day and knocked myself unconscious, again, twice on the same day. The worst was when I was training in a park with a cheap bottle – it broke and the shards sliced open a vein in my right forearm. My blood pressure dropped so low that my fingers shrank, my engagement ring fell off and I never saw it again.
When pain is teaching you the lesson, you tend to learn it quicker than when someone says "stop doing that." When you lose your engagement ring in the process, you learn even quicker still! All those moves got relocated to the "too hard basket" and I haven't tried them since.
FFS: Some people become doctors, accountants or bankers. Others drive trucks, farm, or fix cars. What led you into your current line of work as a performing barman, master of the mixed drink, and media star?
HW: Funnily enough, I should be a farmer! I was brought up on a cattle farm. As a result of being left alone with a liquor cabinet I have ended up to where I am today. As a youth I used to throw illegal parties in a big shed on our property.
FFS: Can amateurs try flairing at home? Any tips? Is there one impressive - but relatively easy to master - move and can you explain how to do it?
HW: It’s probably best to not try it at home. At the end of the day, anyone can throw a bottle… only a few people can catch them! You really need passion and dedication to practice flairing. Like hip hop for example: you can learn a few moves at home in one lesson, but would you really want anyone to see you!
FFS: Any memorable on stage or in-front-of-a-crowd disasters you're willing to share?
HW: I was on tour in Rome, guest-bartending at venues around the world. It was one of those nights when the crowd's jumping, the music's going off, you're standing on a fiery bar top making a humungous 10 glass stack cocktail sculpture, and everyone's calling your name and you feel like a rock star… And then Bono walked in.
Everyone, including me, turned to look - and that was enough for my cocktail masterpiece to start swaying dangerously. It might have been Bono's vibe, a moment of distraction, or just a stray draft, but this wasn't supposed to be happening! Needless to say, it didn’t end well.
FFS: What are the steps to making a good drink?
HW: You’re just going to have to come down and check me out at the food show to find that out!
Hayden Wood, aka "Woody" will appear at the Fabulous Food Show in Cleveland, Ohio on the Culinary Celebration Stage Friday, November 13, Saturday, November 14 and Sunday, November 15, 2008.