Ben Reed is one of the most well known figures in the UK bar industry. He was Bar Manager at the Met Bar and has written a number of books and a cocktail column for the Saturday Times Magazine, and worked as a bar consultant.

Is there a core philosophy at the heart of what you do?
Our main mission is to promote and educate the world about drinks and spirits. I mean, we all started off with cocktails, but the main thing is educating the rather blinkered British drinking masses that there's more to life than beer and wine. I also think we have a duty to raise spirits up to the same level as wine in terms of reputation. I mean, wine experts are generally regarded as connoisseurs and so on, but spirits experts are treated as pissheads!

How did you get into drinks?
It started off when I went to Hong Kong. I was 18, and wanted to travel so I went out there and started working in bars. Then I went to university, worked my way through that working in bars. After that I thought, why work in a normal 9-5 job being on £11,000 a year, when I can be on £15,000 a year, drinking, getting laid? It was definitely a young person’s thing! I never really thought there'd be a future in it.

What do you think were your most important breaks?
The Met Bar and The Times column. The Met Bar used to be virtually the be all and end all of the London scene in its day - 97 and 98. It was the best-known bar in the country, and that's where I made my name. Which is cool, because having a profile means that I can raise the profile of bartending generally. I'm not a gratuitous self-publicist at all - I'm just happy to be in a position where I can be a spokesperson for the industry.

And what do you think about the industry at the moment?
What I love is the coming together of the old and the new. People like Peter Dorelli, Salvatore, Dale DeGroff, who are basically members of the older generation.

Then you've got guys like Angus Winchester, Alex Turner, myself, and we're starting to do stuff together. We did a launch for Prada in Moscow, with me and another of the younger generation working one bar, and Peter and another guy doing the Martini bar - kind of an old school bar and a new school bar. It was great!

When did you start working on your books?
Hollywood Cocktails was in 98; Cool Cocktails has done fantastically, because it was the first hardback, coffee table, mainly pictorial - not a reference book basically. That was published in 2000. There's also a spin-off from that, called the Cocktail Hour, which is more classics. And one I finished earlier this year, called The Martini Book, which is full of amazing drinks - Cheesecake Martini (with digestive biscuit in the bottom of the glass), infusions, decadent Martinis, classic Martinis, and so on.

So, are there any recent inventions that you can give us the low-down on?
A few of us came up with a drink recently, called the Lagerita! You muddle some fresh lime and brown sugar, a bit like a Caipirinha, and then add a large shot of anejo tequila and some ice. You then top this up with Negra Modelo beer, which is a dark beer from Mexico. It's a great drink, though you're off your head after one of them!