Raj Shukla is a bartender in Fort Wayne. He's worked at several bars across the city, including Copper Spoon, Mercado and 07 Pub. In 2021, Shukla was named one of the top 5 bartenders in the country.

Now, he's making his television debut on the new Netflix series 'Drink Masters.' The show takes 12 of the best bartenders and mixologists in North America and makes them compete for a $100,000 cash prize and the title of The Ultimate Drink Master.

The entire 10-episode run is available for streaming on Netflix now. Shukla stopped by the WBOI offices to chat about the show and shake up a non-alcoholic cocktail, which you can find a recipe for below.

So, tell me about your bartending journey. How did you get started making cocktails?

RAJ SHUKLA: Well, it started back when I was just a wee lad. Growing up, my dad who moved to this country from Nairobi, Kenya, he was the first generation of his family to move to the US. I was the first generation born here in the United States. He moved over here to become a pilot and an aeronautical engineer. And throughout college, you know, obviously working in restaurants, hotels, hospitality, in general, it's kind of what he did. So after I came along, grew up, we kind of had a lot of that material kind of in the house, you know, wine, bibles, and wine connoisseur magazines, and things like that. And then after he got out of the flying, being a pilot, he kind of went into hospitality full time. And that was kind of where it took off. You know, I always remember talking to him about, you know, the restaurants he worked at in Nashville where I grew up. And just talking about things, you know, food service, hospitality, beverages, wine, cigars, all that kind of fun stuff.

So I really had a big interest in it. I remember being young, he would take me to work with him. And I would be there, you know, polishing some silverware, maybe helping out or you know, folding linens in cool shapes and things that a little kid could do right and not mess up too terribly bad. And I really enjoyed that.

So then fast forwarding, I finally am old enough to get into the labor market and job market myself. You know, being in school one of the easiest ins to get, you know, a job making some money is, you know, usually hospitality. So started serving, waiting tables, being a server had a real knack for it. And I'd always remember seeing that, you know, that guy or that girl behind the bar, you know, shaking up drinks, and smiling and everyone's laughing, having a good time. And I was like, 'Man, I kind of want to do that. Like, that's where I want to be.' And then you know, down the road, I eventually found myself behind the stick as we usually say. It's just a fun, great atmosphere, job to be in. And then, you know, as it turned out, I started taking a really big deep dive into you know, all things spirits and cocktails and kind of nerded out on it and just kept perfecting my craft and my skills. And here we are.

So you've worked at several bars in the Fort Wayne area? Do you want to tell me a little bit about the different bars that you've worked at? And what you've kind of learned as you've worked over the years?

RS: Absolutely, yeah. So you know, before I really jumped back behind the bar full time, I was general manager for a casual dining chain here in town, did that for almost a decade, had a great career where I learned a whole lot about just the restaurant business in general. Everything from the back of house operations, numbers, p&l work, all that good stuff. And I did that at a young age, you know?

And then after about 10 years of doing that, and being in management, I was like, it's time to take a step back and really get back to doing what I love to do, making drinks, entertaining folks, having fun behind the bar, right? So after that, I started working at a little place downtown called Copper Spoon. At that time, it was called Wine Down. They later rebranded into Copper Spoon, and I was there for five years working behind the bar. Loved it. Had a great team of folks that I worked with, that were hands down some of the best, you know, hospitality professionals you can definitely work with here in northeast Indiana. Definitely learned a lot more about my craft and got to really spend a lot of time behind the bar honing that craft, which, you know, turned out to be, you know, a passionate of mine that loved to do so.

After that, I went on a secret mission to a faraway land and then came back and took some time off just some time away to kind of gather my thoughts and take a little mental break. And then I started working part time at Mercado over on The Landing downtown. So, worked there with some friends of mine that you know, work with me at Copper Spoon as well. So it was like, you know, getting the gang back together again.

You mentioned the fun behind the bar. And there's also a lot of artistry in making cocktails. Do you want to speak to that a little bit about what makes this for this particular art so fun and captivating?

RS: For sure, yeah. So you know, on any busy night, Friday, Saturday and your behind the bar, there's typically you know, a few different key positions back there, when you're working with a team of people. You might have you know, your rail person or your point person, as we call them sometimes, where their job is to, you know, take care of the guests. They're the entertainment, they're the ones you know, taking care of everyone. And then you might be the service well person where you're pretty much you're the quarterback, you're the person in the back, just you know, on the well making all the drinks for the bar rail and for the entire restaurant. And that's where your head is mostly down most of the night but you still gotta be hospitable engaged, guests around you and whatnot. But I think when you have the right team around you and, you know, with their different personalities, I think that's when the fun can really happen.

When you get, I think really good at a set of skills and at a craft that you enjoy that, you're passionate about. More often than not, when I'm behind a bar, I'm really not thinking about anything at all. I'm just there. I'm there in the zone, kind of like that mental state of calm. But even though it can be frantic, I mean, anyone that knows about working in a restaurant or a bar on a busy Friday, Saturday night, it can get hectic and stressful, you're running around, getting a lot of steps in, for sure. But when you're, you know, positioned back behind the bar, and you have eyes on pretty much the whole area, and you have a job to do, you're here to make amazing drinks. And the more you perfect your craft, and perfect your skill set and your Rolodex, lexicon of cocktails that you can build and make, you know, speed will come with time, accuracy always has to be there, obviously.

But when you get to that point where it's just, you're in that zone, that's when you get to actually have fun when you're doing your job, right, because now instead of bartending with your head down, you can actually bartender with your head up, and you can look in engage and talk to guests. And when you see your old friend come in, you can say hi to him and his wife. You know, when one of your old professors in college comes in, ask for a cocktail, you're like, 'Yep, I got you, you don't have to say what you need, I already know what you're drinking.' That kind of stuff. And that's what really it makes the job joyful, you know? When you can just, you know, you're just yourself, you're just acting, you're not really reacting to what's going on, even though you really are reacting, but it's just kind of like a second nature thing. When you get back there. And you've got your mise en place dialed in and everything you need is right there within arm's reach. You can just go in there, step in, strap on your apron, and get to work and have fun.

I believe this is not the first time that your name has sort of come up in the news in the past two years. Was it last year or the year before, I remember you winning a specific award as a bartender, correct?

RS: That's correct. Yeah. So I've won a couple of local cocktail competitions here in the downtown Fort Wayne area, which were awesome. Nationally speaking, in 2021, I participated again, in the world class competition, which is sponsored by Diageo and the United States Bartenders' Guild. In 2021, I competed against thousands of entrants that, you know, entered into the competition, and then narrowed down to top 100, top 50, top 10. And then the five national finalists kind of duke it out for the title, right? So in 2021, I happened to be one of the national finalist, I made the top five list, I got to compete via zoom live kind of competition during the pandemic, but it was still a really cool, fun experience. And then yeah, I placed in the top five in the nation. And the only bartender from a small, big city, really, you know, the other contestants that made that list were from bigger cities and metros like LA, New York, Miami, Atlanta area, and then here in little Fort Wayne, Indiana. So, it's really cool.

Let's get into the meat of the issue. Do you want to tell me about how you got involved with 'Drink Masters' and what the show was about?

RS: I'd love to. So, you know, shortly after the national finals for World Class, I was approached by some of the casting production folks from the show. They reached out to me, and they told me that, 'hey, there's this, you know, idea for this show. We can't talk about too much of the details, but it's like a drink show. And we think you'd be an awesome fit for it.' And they said, 'Hey, what do you think?' And I was like, 'Yeah, I'm game let's try it out. You know, I mean, what we got to lose?' So, they're like, 'Great, well, you know, we're not really to that point of yet of doing, you know, anything production-wise. So we're kind of in like, the early stages, we'll be in touch.' So some time went by and things started happening. And I got an email saying, 'Hey, we'd love to have an interview with you and kind of talk more about this situation.' And I was like, it 'Sounds great.' So after some interview process, some auditioning, some drink making. Some other legal things have to happen when you get into this kind of thing. You know, they said, 'Hey, we'd love to have you on the show as one of our contestants for drink masters.'

So, for those that don't know, it's this really awesome, first of its kind program, it's going to be releasing on Netflix, October 28. Ten episodes 40 minutes long. And it is a competition series that takes 12 of North America's best bartenders, mixologists and puts them, you know, into the gauntlet of, you know, challenges that they're then judged on by three judges. Two of which are, you know, some really bigger names in the cocktail world in industry, and one being a stand up comic who is the host of the show, Tone Bell. So it's really a fun experience. If you're a fan of shows like Chopped or Iron Chef and things of that nature, this will be right up your alley. It's really going to be a fun, exciting, energetic, emotional kind of a show, I think. Where you get some of the country's and the nation's best, you know, making some of the best looking drinks I've ever seen, you know, on the clock and seeing what they can do in, you know, a certain amount of time.

So, as you said, it sort of throws you into the gauntlet with these nine other mixologist. So, what was the biggest challenge of that? And how, you know, what do you think you learned coming out of it?

RS: Absolutely. I would say one of the hardest things, besides the production of the whole thing, you got to keep in mind that I've never been on a television show, or even the radio for that matter. But the thing, you know, not knowing how you put a 40 minute show together, I had never really experienced that before. So I have to like, learn on the fly how to, you know, hurry up, stop and go and then stop and go was a challenge in itself. But I would say another big challenge was definitely being, you know, unaware of your surroundings in a way. You get there, and you're in a prep space that you're not familiar with, you have a kitchen that you're not familiar with, you know, you need a certain tool, or you need a certain ingredient, you need something. And it's kind of hard to find sometimes, right? They had a great, beautiful setup for our prep space and our kitchen, in the pantry, we can grab all of our items. But when you're on the clock, and you're rushing to go get this done, it gets a little frantic. And I think that's kind of what makes the show fun and exciting, because you see a lot of us are running around and you know, scouring shelves high and low for, you know, pots and pans and strainers and measuring cups and all these things. So, I definitely learned a lot about you know, time management and how to really, you know, take an idea and a theme for a challenge that you might have and, you know, getting as far as you can with it and making it taste and look as good as you can in that timeframe.

If people were looking for you now, what up to now following the show? Where can people find you around Fort Wayne?

RS: Absolutely. So right now, I am doing a lot more private events, more private bartending for some clients and some friends. Holidays are coming up. So, I've had a lot of people reach out to me asking if I could do some holiday parties, things of that nature around Thanksgiving and Christmas time. So definitely doing that. I'm currently not behind the bar at any brick and mortar bar establishment at the moment.

Right now, I'm working full time as a woodworker, honestly. So, I build custom furniture out of wood, which is really soothing and fun for me during the daytime. And then I'm helping out at my family's business. Their family grocery store called Kirana, out in southwest Fort Wayne. I'm doing that part time, just helping out, helping us get off the ground and do some great things at our Indian grocery store.

But, you know, my true calling has always been being behind the bar, right? People know me when they see me at, you know, a local watering hole, or you know, at the grocery store, whatever that they know me as Raj, their bartender right? So I mean, that makes me feel really special, really happy to know that I've been able to give great service and hospitality to so many people here in Fort Wayne and in the city. And I definitely want continue doing that in the future.

You know, one of my biggest goals after this is, hopefully take some of the Drink Masters crew, some of my good friends that I've forged an amazing relationship with some of these contestants and folks that were on the show with me, we really want to try to take this kind of on tour a little bit. We've been talking about recently, you know, getting a group of us together hitting a couple cities across the US doing some seminars, maybe, and really just getting our names out there, you know? It's special to be a part of something this huge on this huge of a scale, right? Because the show is unlike any other show out there. It's kind of the first of its kind in the style that it's going to be made in. And from what I've seen in some of the post production, the shots and the drinks, and all these things you're going to see really reminds me of Chef's Table, if you've ever seen that on Netflix. Just the quality of, you know, everything looks super, super good. And they did a great job making us look good making our drinks look fantastic. So I really want to make sure that you know, once you watch the show, and you know everyone's excited about it right now, I hope that you know, that hype doesn't die out over the next, you know, week or two like you know, some shows might. But we definitely want to, you know, go around and talk to everyday people and not just our industry peers that are bartenders as well. But folks that you know might not know much about drinks that, you know, might potentially be one of our bar guests one day and sit down at our bar and ask for a drink or ask for that drink they saw on the show which we'd be, you know, obviously honored and happy to to make that for them, so. But yeah, we've tried to plan on doing that here in the next few months going forward doing some tours and doing some, possibly some, you know, more industry style events and seminars across the country as well.

But for me, I've always wanted to, you know, have my own bar one day. And you know, I live here in Fort Wayne, I've been here since 2002. You know, I own a house in the 07, which I love. Oakdale smooth. And yeah, just you know, for me, I want to be able to have my own bar one day, here in the Fort Wayne area, you know, I've got two really awesome concepts I think will be great for this city and this town and they're places that I would want to go to, and I definitely wanna take care of all Fort Wayne-ians, across the city and what their flavors and profiles might be. But for me, I want to spot that I can call home that I can go to and, you know, strap on my vest, strap on my apron and get behind there and make some drinks and take care of you. You know, my friends, my neighbors, everybody.

Shake with ice, strain, garnish with lemon oil and peel.