"Thrilled" at winning the Stoli bartending competition
Executive chef and owner of Moomba Restaurant in Maho, Nick Dellinger mixed and poured his way into the winner’s seat of the Stoli bartending competition held last Sunday at Loterie Farm in French St. Martin. He is super excited about the win: “I am totally excited and honoured to win. The other contestants were awesome and I literally won by one point. I am very happy to be the Stoli Brand Ambassador for St. Maarten.”
Dellinger’s first reaction when his name was called as winner was “shock and absolute thrill.” Besides “the amazing title” of being the new Stoli Brand Ambassador, he won a weekend trip to Miami, Florida, where he will be given some education from the Stoli team there, as well as US $500 and VIP access to some Stoli parties. The prizes “sound pretty awesome to me,” he said.
As for the drinks that landed him in the winner’s seat, Dellinger prepared a take on the classic Stoli Lemonade. “I made homemade spherical ice cubes flavoured with mint, midori, sprite and lemon. I flavoured the lemonade with Stoli Regular and Stoli Citron and added a dragon fruit puree. I also made an Adult Snow Cone where I used fresh blueberry, strawberry and pineapple puree. I use Stoli Blueberry, Stoli Regular and Malibu Rum and I garnished the whole cocktail with a miniature bottle full of Stoli Regular inverted inside the drink. I was really happy with the way they came out.”
Asked what he thinks gave him the edge, Dellinger said, “I think the effort I put into the ice cubes and the mini bottle of Stoli really set my drinks apart. Again, I only won by one point, so it was super close. The other two contestants Lauren and JR did a really good job. I was nervous waiting for them to announce who won first place.”
This was Dellinger’s first time competing in any bartending competition.
