A few days have passed since the award ceremony. "Only now am I really beginning to understand what happened. Yesterday everything was a bit blurry. Today I can think clearly again," says Michael Müller with a reserved smile. "It feels great. Like a relief. The hard work has paid off." Müller has reached the final of the SWISS BAR AWARDS three times. In 2019, 2022 and now 2025. He won on his third attempt.
He called his cocktail creation "Third Time's the Charm". A tongue-in-cheek motto that proved to be a prophecy in hindsight. He had already decided before the final: It will be the last time, no matter how it turns out. "I'm still doing competitions, but the SWISS BAR AWARDS were probably the last time. It just takes up a lot of time." Nevertheless, the ambition remained. "I'm not someone who can't do something."
Nevertheless, Müller faces this competition with composure rather than pressure. "I've learned to enjoy it more instead of overthinking everything." Instead of stage fright, he focuses on mindfulness. "Take a deep breath to avoid hyperventilating," he says in a calm voice. A ritual that helps him to stay in control in such stressful situations. Looking back, Müller calls the fact that he didn't win on his first attempt "the best thing that could have happened". It kept him grounded. "You don't always win," he says, "but you learn every time."
From the Nile to Lake Lucerne
Born and raised in Cairo, Michael Müller came to Switzerland in 2009 at the age of 18. However, his original plan to go to hotel management school did not work out. He was too young. So he enrolled at the International Management Institute Lucerne and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Hotel & Events Management. The graduate's first jobs were in reception and fine dining. Positions that did not fulfill him. "It was too rigid. I couldn't be myself."
His path to the bar began by chance. As a service employee in the restaurant at the former Hotel Palace in Lucerne, Müller was repeatedly asked to help out at the bar. "The bar manager always said: send Mike to me!" At some point, the chef de bar left the job and Müller suddenly found himself alone behind the bar. In a 5-star bar, with American guests who expected perfect old fashioneds. "I could only make a mediocre caipirinha back then," he remembers and laughs. "I served disastrous martinis and got a lot of criticism."
Instead of giving up, his ambition was awakened. The then inexperienced Barkeeper immersed himself in the world of mixology. After work, he read books, watched videos and studied recipes. "I only had an old Schumann book, but that was my start." He soon took on responsibility for the bar. Unofficially at first, then finally officially. When the hotel closed and was taken over by the Mandarin Oriental, he moved to the Dominican Republic for a short time.
He received a phone call from there: the bar manager at Château Gütsch had dropped out. Müller came back, stepped in and stayed. Today, he has been running the bar for eight years. "I'm rather loyal," he says simply. "I've actually only had two real stops."
Hosts with a passion
His passion for hospitality runs in his family. His father was a chef and butcher, his mother worked in service. "I grew up in bars. I did my homework there and played darts. It was normal for me." Hospitality is not a buzzword for him, but the core of his profession. "I like to put a smile on my face," he says. "When guests take their first sip and their posture changes, that's the best moment."
He loves to tell stories: about spirits, origins, people. "The guests are the best, and sometimes the hardest, part of the job," he adds honestly. In five to ten years' time, he sees himself still working at the bar, "perhaps no longer 100% behind the counter". On the side, he wants to devote more time to consulting, especially in Egypt and the Middle East. His dream: a small bar on the Red Sea. "A few good cocktails, sun, diving - that would be it." Until then, he will continue to work at Château Gütsch.
