This is Pierre-Hugues Marois.
Pierre-Hugues is 33 years old and is from Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare, a small town in the Lanaudière region of Quebec.
Pierre-Hugues has always been drawn to the world of arts. When he was little, he wanted to be an artist, whether it be in fine arts or music. He studied arts and graphic design, and worked as a graphic designer before he switched careers and got into the cocktail world.
His first job in the hospitality industry was at La Distillerie, almost 10 years ago. At that time, he was still taking gigs as a graphic designer but he progressively realized that he really enjoyed serving cocktails. He liked the social, creative and even culinary aspect of making drinks and from there on, worked his way up to become a bartender.
About a year ago, while he was still managing the famous The Coldroom in Old Montreal, he was approached to become the new St-Germain brand ambassador for Quebec and he jumped on the opportunity. Taking this new role has led him to express his creativity in new ways. He particularly enjoys the educational aspect of his job and when combined with his high level of creativity, Pierre-Hugues thinks outside the box and comes up with events such as workshops on perfume making, urban gardening, and so on. He likes to go far beyond the usual tasting and talking about his product, which he also does with brio of course.
Pierre-Hugues is very humble and will never brag about himself, so there is much more to what he told us during the interview that could be said about him. He is an extremely knowledgeable and resourceful person in the community and has been mentioned by many people we have met for our project as a source of inspiration and a mentor. He basically has a kitchen lab at home and is specialized, amongst other things, in carbonizing pretty much every type and size of cocktail you can think to prebatch. He is always available to share his knowledge, has a very strong positive attitude and is genuinely helpful.
You can find him behind the bar at the Four Seasons Montreal bar and behind a lot of events for the community that he organizes with St-Germain and the Bacardi Canada team.