Home
Bastien Ciocca
Co-Owner & Co-Founder
Hope & Sesame Group

Bastien, born in Switzerland to a family of restaurateurs and spirit maker, is a graduate of Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne. As a former vice president of the Swiss barkeeper association and F&B manager at Shangri-la Hotels, his experience expands over 3 continents, thus giving Bastien a worldly perspective of the F&B industry. Upon leaving his position at Shangri-la, He opened the first "speakeasy" cocktail bar in Guangzhou—Hope & Sesame with his university schoolmate Andrew Ho and wife, Marcia Xiao. 

Hope & Sesame has been named twice "Bar of the year—China" among many other awards by DRiNK Magazine and has been for the past 3 years on the prestigious Asia's 50 Best Bars list as well as top 51-100 on the World 50 Best Bars. Within the last 3 years, he worked with Andrew and his team on multiple consulting projects across China with groups such as Four Seasons (Guangzhou) and Mandarin Oriental (Beijing & Shenzhen) Stiller by Taian Table and Ralph Lauren. He also hosted bartending shifts & brand events to over 40 cities across the globe. In 2019, the team launched Charlie's, a new project in a multi-level historic building in Guangzhou, housing an Italian cafe/bar a modern tasting menu focusing on seasonal Chinese produce, in 2020 they opened Bar SanYou a modern Baijiu Cocktail bar and Hope & Sesame Shenzhen, and in 2022, they just opened their 5th venue, Bar SanYou located in Futian, Shenzhen.