Cover Morris Chang always harboured dreams of becoming a tour guide, but at Penicillin, he found the curative for his wanderlust at the bottom of every glass (Photo: Courtesy of Penicillin)
Morris Chang always harboured dreams of becoming a tour guide, but at Penicillin, he found the curative for his wanderlust at the bottom of every glass (Photo: Courtesy of Penicillin)
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The Tatler Dining Bar Awards 2023’s Rising Star once dreamt of becoming a tour guide. The role of a bartender, he says, is similar
Morris Chang is meticulously shaving corners off orange peel he’s just sliced into perfect plaster-sized garnishes. His wire-frame glasses are mere centimetres off the chopping board; his teammate, John, is folding napkins across the grate. Such are the tasks Penicillin’s 27-year-old head mixologist finds himself doing an hour before service on what’s bound to be a busy Saturday evening.
And he’d have it no other way.
In the six to seven years since Chang’s foray into bartending began, what started as a part-time summer-before-college nightclub gig has brewed into something rather momentous.
“I didn’t like it, actually,” he says, of his bar-backing days at the club. Back then, he wasn’t much of a drinker, and didn’t really like the taste of alcohol. Once, he even threw out an entire bottle of Campari after a customary taste test because he thought it tasted off, like medicine. And while Chang eventually went on to graduate with an English Literature degree, his education, the one that counted, started behind the bar at Ounce, one of Taipei’s first speakeasy cocktail bars. “We had all these bartenders from New York City come in every, say, half a year to change up the menu,” he says. “These bartenders would tell me about their nights in New York, surrounded by people from so many different places: Italian; French; American, of course. And they’d talk about spirits from their hometowns, tell me stories behind them. That’s what sparked all of this for me.”
Ever since, Chang, who’d always harboured dreams of becoming a tour guide, has found the curative for his wanderlust at the bottom of every glass. He speaks of Jim Meehan’s Mezcal Mule being like a flight to Oaxaca by way of New York; his negroni twist on Penicillin’s current menu, Our Final Warning, is rendered in homage to Korea’s restorative fruit punch hwachae; and, of course, it’s this stirring, spirited passion that’s brought him to Hong Kong.
Above Vice Versa (Photo: Courtesy of Penicillin)
Above Chang's winning cocktail (Photo: Courtesy of Penicillin)
Vice Versa (Photo: Courtesy of Penicillin)
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“Do you know jazz?” Chang pivots. He’s remembering a smoky, rummy serve he once fashioned in homage to legendary jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. History is as much a reference point for the mixologist as geography, as is food and the flavours he loves: Taiwanese mountain pepper from his kitchen at home; ingredients he’s foraged from recipes he’s found online; Hong Kong’s pineapple buns, which he didn’t know don’t contain pineapple, that he turned into foam for his award-winning take on a Miami Vice for rum brand Flor de Caña’s Sustainable Cocktail Challenge.
Inspiration can come from anywhere, so long as the basics are rock solid. And that’s the advice Chang holds closest to heart. “Spend time on the fundamentals, whether it’s studying the classics or getting comfortable with the hospitality aspect of the job.” A self-professed introvert, he admits he’s still working on the latter.
“You’re forced to be an extrovert, like you’re a different version of you behind the bar. You’re cooking, you’re hosting, you’re giving a rundown of a cocktail’s history, you’re trying to make people laugh…”
So, kind of like a tour guide?
“It’s very similar.”
As for what’s next for Tatler Dining Bar Awards’ newest Rising Star, “Well, every bartender hopes to open their own bar one day,” he muses. He’s not quite ready for that, but he thinks he’d like his own back home in Taiwan. “Maybe one day. I guess I need to work harder now, right?” he says, laughing. And he’s back to piling up slivers of citrus rind in plastic boxes, ready for service.
