By Laura Rancie.
Owner and Chef at Besuto Omakase and Bar in Sydney, here is the history of Chef Joel Best's career thus far:
Apprentice Chef, Pier restaurant.
Sous Chef, Fish Face restaurant
Equity Trader
Director at Bondi’s Best
Owner, Besuto Omakase and Bar
Whisky Legend.
In that historical order.
This week I sat down with Joel - Chef, Restaurant Owner and you guessed it, whisky connoisseur. Having
just come off his big birthday weekend, we discussed his curious mind and love of whisky, over laksa and dumplings.
What is actually your true love? Is it cheffing or whisky?
I just enjoy good food and good products. I think if you’re going to put
something in your mouth, it better be a party. I’m a Sommelier, whisky geek,
Chef. I just like learning and I love the Japanese culture.
Tell us about Japan:
It's amazing! Oh, you have to go! It’s about respect, culture, just the
simple things. Kindness even. I think I found my curiosity and early
love for Japan though, when I was at Fish Face with Stephen Hodges, in
Darlinghurst. Just working with him there.
Where did you go from Fish Face?
Into finance actually, for a bit - I went into stockbroking for four years. I’m
a financial advisor but corporate life is not for me. I did make some good
money though so that’s when I was able to open Bondi’s Best (2011). I was able to do
my take on a fish and chip shop, using the things I got taught as an apprentice, like how to process your fish, how to sauce it, scale, gut and store it right.
Because I had started stockbroking at the beginning of the financial
crisis, over the course of that time I had seen fine dining restaurants start
to close, so I had an idea to serve the same fish but serve it in a relaxed
environment. That led me to Bondi's Best.
How does whisky come into play? When did you start thinking, ‘hmm I love that culture so much I want to do something bigger with it’?
I knew I liked sourcing things that are hard to get. I like the whisky limited bottles and the cask-only bottles. I suppose it was an accident. I didn’t need to collect 200 bottles in the beginning.
Woah. 200 bottles? In how long of a period?
Three or four years, they were being wasted at the Omakase, just sitting on the shelf.
There’s a garden but no bar, so you’d come early and be sent to the bar next door. Guests would finish dinner at 7.30 pm but we would send them to the bar next door because we had to prepare for the next sitting. So, there wasn’t much time for people to enjoy it or for us to be able to educate and explain what they were drinking. The opportunity then came up to take the space and we were already sending lots of guests to the bar next door every day, every week.
Bar Besuto has been quietly open now for near to a month; no website just yet. It’s the kind of cool, dark, exclusive bar you only wish you’d stumble across on a trip to Japan. Full of Japanese-only bottles, that aren’t even available in Australia. The entire ethos around the new bar is about educating the guest.
Where a lot of whiskies across Australia get passed off as Japanese, or blended Japanese that isn’t even distilled in Japan, Joel aims to never acquire a bottle that isn’t 100% Japanese in his bar.
What is the difference with Japanese whisky that makes it great?
Irish, Scottish etc...they’re all made the same. Most of them use the same malt, grain and barley from around the world to produce the whisky. In Japan, the biggest difference will be the water content whether it’s hard or soft water. That’s the biggest factor. Then you ask a Japanese person, a Japanese whisky distiller and they will answer, ‘it’s just heart’.
When we talk about whisky, we often hear the word smooth. Can you tell me more about that?
The water content has something to do with it as well as the distilling process and the different styles of pots used. Some will be steam heated, some will be fire heated, some will be electric heated. Steam is the easiest one to regulate the temperature. With fire, it’s a little bit harder because you must monitor it, every second while it's distilling.
Then it comes down to the
barrel. Barrels are expensive these days and some are recasting. That will
give it more of a punch, more spice flavour. Lot of Japanese, if they can
source it, will get a Mizunara cask which will make it sweeter on the palette. But
there are multiple ways from once its distilled to cask, age and barrel it.
Can you explain the culture of prestige that comes
with the whisky cask?
Whisky is an interesting one because they can take a sample after two years and then every year after that until they think it’s ready to go; 98% of whisky will never make it to cask only. They’re not good enough.
Only 2% of barrels will only make it to the level where it's cask only and the other will get
blended. Many people think: "I’d love to get my own cask”, but if you buy a
cask, you’re taking a massive risk. It
may only get to 60%-70% of where you want it. So that 2% is a pretty special
thing.
I was lucky enough to visit Chichibu Distillery in March this year with a
friend, where we got a private tour with Takeshi Kage from Bar Kaga in Ginza.
My friend had a cask that was two years old so were able to taste it at that two-year
mark. I was very grateful to be able to be there. He took
three bottles out and gave me one as a gift. It is a special thing and it’s a big investment too.
Joel is right. Take for example the Hakushu 25, a blended 25-year-old bottle that although tasty, sells for $15,000 to $25,000 a bottle. Bar Besuto has Hakushu 25 and more premium whiskies too. The ones that people would never normally get an opportunity to try are the ones Joel tries to source from his strong relationships with various sources across Japan.
While some people will come in knowing what they want, most will go in with an open mind and want to experience the smaller 15mL pour instead of a standard 30mL; this way they get to experience two very rare whiskies.
Joel explains: "Some of these bottles are 60%-65% alcohol. They’re not diluted and they pack a punch. I’d rather people taste more variety, so they can feel like they’re in Japan and want to return for more tastings of something they can’t get anywhere else."
Out of his 220 + bottles of whisky,
he just obtained nine that have never even been seen in Australia
before. Kanosuke, the Crane series
2021-2022, Cask 20466 Rechar x Bourbon exclusive bottle for D.K and a few
others. Some of the bottles at Bar Besuto, would otherwise only go to bars in Japan but once Bar Besuto has it, they’re opened and drunk within a month or
two, they will never be seen again. Never be tasted in Australia, unless
you are there for one of those rare whiskies, you will never sample any of those.
"The fact that Japanese whisky goes up in price about 20% year upon year, is
the other reason we serve 15mL. Because I want 46 people to try these rare,
never before seen whiskies rather than 23."
Besuto Omakase and Bar is open Tuesday to Saturday, till midnight.
