Just as there is a story behind the creation of every cocktail,
there is a tale to be told about Guillaume Graffeille and his journey in becoming the Corporate Bar Manager at Constance Hotels & Resorts.
Guillaume started his career by serving diabolos Menthe* at his uncle’s bar, in Dordogne in southwestern France when he was six years old. He has been passionate about bartending ever since, enrolling in a hospitality school before even completing his baccalaureate, then training at a specialist bartending school in Talence, near Bordeaux.
He spent the next few years gaining experience– and building an extraordinary résumé. He worked at the Concorde Lafayette and Lutetia in Paris; within Monte Carlo’s Brigade Volante – which subsequently led to work for all of la Société des Bains de Mer’s hotels, from the Hôtel de Paris to the Monte-Carlo Beach – and at the Byblos, first in Courchevel (where he was recommended by Mr. Ducasse himself) then in St Tropez.
This was followed by a stint at the Costes group in Paris and then living the American dream at the Cirque in New York. In his quest for excellence, Guillaume has seen and done it all. His years behind the bar taught him all the tricks of the trade, from different techniques to subtly coaxing delicate flavours out of ingredients. Because above all, bartending requires an exact measure of passion, experience and skill.
In 2009, fate led him to Constance Hotels & Resorts. He joined the group as the Bar Manager at Constance Belle Mare Plage, then quickly rose up the ranks.
In 2014, he launched the Constance Rum Limited Edition – Constance’s signature rum, of which only a single barrel containing 400 bottles was produced. He was also swiftly promoted as the Group Bar Manager... and now he has carte blanche to design drinks menus and events for the group’s seven properties.
Guillaume’s success at Constance Hotels & Resorts has been characterised by teamwork. He is proud to have trained his staff and encourages them to assert themselves professionally. Guillaume also capitalises on the expertise that exists in Mauritius and gives his associates the same amount of freedom and responsibility that he enjoys within the group. As a result, a number of his colleagues – including Jonathan Nazira and Pascal Curpanen, both bartenders at Constance Belle Mare Plage – have gained national and even regional recognition for their talent as mixologists. A bright future awaits them...
In an industry where it is all been done before, the key is to also be able to add your own twist to internationally recognisable cocktails – as Guillaume has done many times at Constance Hotels & Resorts.
Here is the Gin tonic which was created for the 5th edition of MCB Tour Championship - Golf competition in Mauritius.
Recently, he added vanilla and passion fruit accents to Aperol Spritz, thus creating a decisively local version of the classic.
*peppermint soda