JJ Goodman

John James Goodman (30 March 1984), known as JJ Goodman is a British bartender. Together with his partner James Hopkins he won BBC2's The Restaurant with Raymond Blanc in December 2009.

Career

Goodman was born in Selly Oak, Birmingham, he moved to Worcester as a child where he started collecting glasses at a local nightclub aged 15. When he turned 18 he started bar-tending at an underground bar in Worcester whilst studying. He started training at flair bartending.

After working across the UK and Australia, Goodman moved to London in 2004 to work directly for Leigh Miller (two time ex world flair champion for TGI Friday's) at Covent Garden based Be At One. Since he has continued to work and developed bars such as The Livingroom, The Roadhouse, Navajo Joes, Teatro and Peoples Republic all of which have awards during and after his tenure. His competition standing also doing well, competing in the UK finals for Snow Leopard Vodka, Bombay Sapphire Gin, and Grey Goose Vodka in mixology as well as the IFL (International Flair League) in 2006 and 2007 in Poland.

Prizes

At age 24 he opened his first bar 'The London Cocktail Club', which has become well known through the television series "The Restaurant" as well as various competition wins in mixology. Travelling to New Zealand in 2008 winning the 42 Below Cocktail World Cup, as well as winning London Club Awards bartender of the year in the same year.

In 2009 Goodman won the Patron UK challenge and his young team, Andy Milz and Lee Ottery won the Beefeater 24 best cocktail, Jose Cuervo Platino best cocktail as well as 42 Below vodka UK final 2010.

Goodman and Hopkins were the surprise winners of The Restaurant, and the decision caused considerable controversy, mainly due to the pairs' inability to cook.^[1]^[2] 2010 sees JJ training at Raymond Blanc's two Michelin starred Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, where together they are devising the launch of Goodman and Hopkins' first restaurant concept.

JJ Goodman

Career

Prizes

References

External links