Case study: Hakkasan sake course

Parinaaz Navdar goes behind the scenes at Hakkasan Dubai to learn about the restaurant group’s new sake training programme

Upscale Chinese restaurant chain, Hakkasan, has introduced a sake training course for its sommeliers in partnership with UK-based Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET). The three-day training course offers an in-depth guide to sake, including the characteristics of the beverage, methods of brewing, types of sake and their features, serving sake, and methods of tasting sake.

Already implemented at the flagship Hakkasan in London, the course, held in Dubai from September 3-5, was the first international training session for the Level III Sake programme.

“It’s the first sake course that WSET has developed. It’s Level III, which is an advanced level. It’s the toughest English language sake exam you can take. We are an approved programmer provider [for the WSET], which means we run their courses, and we are licensed to run their exam, which we’ve only ever done for our own staff,” explains Christine Parkinson, group head of wine at Hakkasan, who was in Dubai to run the course with WSET director of strategic planning Antony Moss.

PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT

Hakkasan has a long history of working with the WSET. When the team discovered the Trust was developing a sake course, Parkinson explains the group worked closely with the WSET, and arranged it so that once the course launched, Hakkasan would be the first company outside the WSET to run it.

Parkinson says Dubai was chosen as the next location for the course because of the brand’s presence in the Middle East. Currently, there are three Hakkasan outlets in the region — one each in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha, so it made sense to host a combined training session in Dubai.

“We realised that there was an opportunity to do it here because we have three restaurants in the Middle East and they all sell sake, and we aimed for our senior people to have the WSET Level III and the Trust agreed,” she explains.

The first course was held four months ago at Hakkasan London, before the WSET had opened it up as a public course. Parkinson, who is also a certified educator, had to train with WSET on the new course and pass an exam herself, before moving on to implementing the programme at Hakkasan locations around the world.

“In general with the WSET, I’ve been a certified educator for several years. But because this is a new course, I first had to sit the course myself. I attended the pilot course.

“What the WSET does is, with a new course, they run the course two or three times in a pilot stage with some of the people who already have the knowledge, and others who would need the knowledge. When I went for the course, we had agreed that we would then run the course for Hakkasan, which I jointly ran with the WSET team so it was a matter of completing the course before being a trainer,” explains Parkinson.

While the course runs for three days, those taking the programme are expected to complete a few online courses set by the WSET, in addition to having some prior knowledge of the beverage.

“You have to do quite a lot of study beforehand. You’re expected to have quite a good knowledge to start with and the WSET makes online material available, online tests to take for self-study and to prepare. But it’s not something that you could come to without some prior knowledge,” Parkinson states.

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IMPLEMENTATION

The course runs over three days — two-and-a-half of which are dedicated to theoretical and practical study, and then an exam is held on the final afternoon.

On the first day, students learned about production and label terms, how to read sake labelling, factors influencing types and varieties of sake, and were introduced to sake tasting.

On day two, the team learned about other varieties of sake, including yeast, shubo, and moromi, as well as sake pressing and finishing options and storage.

The team was also introduced to speciality sake categories and conducted a practice tasting. On the final day, the participants were educated on the global sake industry, the perception of the beverage outside Japan, and how to talk about and sell sake.

“The course is broken down into sessions. And it’s very logical — it looks at what sake is made from and how it’s made and looking at how the brewer’s decision affects the final style and character of the sake. So by the end of the course, people can really identify the different styles and can understand how they were made that way — what makes them taste like that. And obviously [it has] given people a good awareness of sake labelling and regulations and storage and all of the aspects around that — so it’s quite in-depth,” says Parkinson.

The first Level III Sake programme in the Middle East was attended by 12 people, nine of whom were from the three Hakkasan outlets in the region. Hakkasan also invited representatives from African & Eastern and MMI to participate in the course and learn more about the types of sake the restaurants are looking to serve. Over the course of three days, the team tasted more than 40 sakes, which were all assembled in Japan by the WSET and then shipped over.

IN PRACTICE

Among the Hakkasan staff attending the course was Olivier Gasselin, head sommelier Middle East and Shanghai, who is also a certified programme instructor, and who will continue to train the rest of the team in the region.

“The programme will be rolled out across the region and I will continue to train the remaining sommeliers and bar managers on the course. It is also important for the floor staff to have some knowledge about what they are serving guests, so this course will be an important part of our training programme,” Gasselin says.

Parkinson adds: “I think the key to that is being able to explain [sake] to people because it’s not a very widely known and understood drink. It’s a delicious drink and we know when we serve sake to guests, they tend to find it delicious. It’s something people do want to try, but they don’t know what to order.”

And with the growing demand for sake the team has observed, Hakkasan might even consider allowing a select number of guests to attend the course, or develop a less in-depth course for the general public, based on the demand.