Bartender Julie Nullens to represent Belgium for second time in row at World Cocktail Championships

Julie Nullens, who is expecting her second child in a few weeks, now has something else to celebrate this summer.

She will be defending Belgium for the second time in a row during the IBA (International Bartenders Association) World Cocktail Championship in Rome from 28 November to 2 December.

During the contest, 64 bartenders representing the association’s member countries, will be competing for the title of IBA World Champion.

Nullens was selected at the 60th Union of Belgium’s Bartenders national cocktails competition at The Dominican hotel in Brussels on 12 June.

The best bartenders in the country competed for the title of Champion of Belgium 2023. Nullens, of Le bar à Ju at Sprimont (Liège province), was judged to be Belgium’s Best Bartender for the year.

The first runner-up was Edwin Fernando Bravo Vega of The Dominican, Brussels, while the second runner-up was Daniel Papageorgiou, of La Fourmilière in Brussels.

The 2023 national competition was completely redesigned and upgraded with new testing stages to assess the bartenders’ knowledge and technical skills.

These included a written test in English about general bar knowledge; a blind olfactory test with five bar products to discover; the preparation of their signature cocktail creation – five identical glasses in maximum seven minutes; an oral presentation of their cocktail in English; and a speed test to make three international cocktails using three different methods (shaker, mixing glass, straight in the glass).

The competition was also open to students of Belgian hotel schools as well as EFPME centres.

Meanwhile, Belgium’s Best Bar Student of 2023 has been named as Claude Remacle of EFPME in Brussels. Runners-up were Larry Godefroid, also of EFPME, and Nolan Leduc, of the Institut Notre Dame in Fleurus.

The contestants were judged by two different juries: the technical jury and the tasting jury.