The Handbook Meets…Thomasina Miers
From living in Mexico City to returning to London and opening 15 restaurants, 3 bars and 2 street kitchens, Thomasina Miers is at the head of the Mexican cuisine scene. We catch up with the founder of Wahaca to discuss dream cocktail parties, sustainability and inspiration.
Who would you invite to your dream cocktail party? Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Freud, Richard Curtis, Michael Hutchence for starters…
What are your three favourite ingredients to shake a cocktail with? Lime, mezcal and whisky – not necessarily all together!
If you had to choose one dish to eat from the Wahaca menu which one would it be and why? Our pork pibil is our classic and utterly delicious, all slow-cooked melting pork but we have a new Crab Cocktail coming on to the menu which I am really excited about too – it’s really good.
What is your biggest cooking success and failure to date? I guess you would say winning Masterchef was up there in terms of doing OK. I am immensely proud of Wahaca too and I am loving writing recipes for my new column in the Saturday Guardian. Failures – there are so many! Where to begin? To get good and improve at cooking you need to fail so many times!
Tell us something we might not know about Wahaca… It wins awards every year for how sustainably we build our restaurants. We also have one of London’s most wonderful tequila and mezcal collections in our bars in Soho, Charlotte Street and Canary Wharf – the bars are rather hidden gems, people often hadn’t realised we have them but they have a great feel and we love encouraging people to discover good quality tequila.
What is your favourite London restaurant? I love London for its amazing offering of restaurants – it seems food is endlessly getting better and better. For old favourites The River Café and Bocca di Lupo are up there. For new ones I loved Kitty Fisher’s, and Stevie Parle’s new Craft in Greenwich is pretty awe-inspiring too.
Do you have any ultimate cooking ambitions? To keep pushing the boundaries in what I personally cook and to inspire others to get in the kitchen.
What made you choose to open a Mexican restaurant? A year of living in Mexico City where I opened a cocktail bar.
You have said celebrity chef Clarissa Dickson Wright helped you to follow your passion for food. Do you think you would still have followed this path if you hadn’t met her?
I don’t think it would have been as easy, I don’t know what I would have done – she totally shaped my early years. I miss her greatly – she was a true original.
Love tequila, tacos and table football? Of course you do! Check out Thomasina’s Mexico City inspired cocktails for yourself at Wahaca’s bars in Soho, Charlotte Street and Canary Wharf, all available for party bookings and private hire.
(The Image Supplied above is copyright Karolina Webb)
