Wahaca at 18: An interview with Thomasina Miers

When Thomasina Miers, fresh from her MasterChef win, and her business partner Mark Selby founded Wahaca in 2007, Mexican food in the UK was still shorthand for chimichangas, tequila shots, and sombreros. Eighteen years on, Wahaca – now 14-strong, and still founder-led – is celebrating its milestone birthday in a thriving Mexican restaurant scene that it helped define. To mark Wahaca joining the CODE app with 30% off for CODE members, we caught up with Tommi over sea bass achiote with pecan salsa macha and cactus tacos at Wahaca’s new look location in Paddington, to talk sustainability, Tex Mex, tortas, and why Santiago Lastra reckons he couldn’t have opened Kol without Wahaca.

A lot has happened since you launched Wahaca in 2007. How has that journey felt to you?

“Exciting. I’m on a bit of a high, having spent six months in Mexico last year and with my new book out, Mexican Table. Our menu is amazing at the moment. I feel like our food has never been so delicious. What’s fun with Wahaca is we’ve been around for a long time and there’s a respect [from other operators] for us; they know how much we try with our sourcing. There isn’t always a positive association around restaurant chains but there are groups of restaurants now like Caravan, Dishoom, Hoppers, where the food is really important and it’s sourced with care. We’ve got about 30 or 40 people who have been with us for ten years or long now; that type of staff retention means you’re having a lot of fun at work.”

What ambitions do you still have for Wahaca?

“I think our food is particularly on an amazing journey at the moment. A year ago, we launched our regen beef, so we now take half carcasses of cows in and break them all down and slow cook them – unbelievably delicious. We’ve got our new birria torta, a collab with Dusty Knuckle, which was something I was so excited about living in Mexico City last year. It’s an experiment, so watch this space. I just feel Mexican food is on this massive upward trend, and I think, more than anything, my role now is to remind people that we were the first ones here telling people that Mexican was not Tex Mex 18 years ago. I still feel we’ve got so much to do, to spread the word, spread the love.”

The Mexican restaurant scene in the UK has come on considerably since you first launched but still remains relatively small. What’s your take on it?

“Well, I feel like I could have made a load more money if I’d done Indian food! But you know, that wasn’t me. We have a tiny Mexican population in England. We’re very far from Mexico, something I am painfully aware of – I cried in my pillow when I got back from Mexico last year – and therefore ingredients are hard to get hold of and there are very few Mexican chefs in this country. That explains a lot why Mexican food was never really known about before. I feel like we’re still on a massive journey of discovery, which I think is exciting. It will take a while, but if you talk to any grocery store or deli or journalist, people are still screaming for more.”

You visit Mexico fairly regularly. Are there any trends in Mexican bars or restaurants that you think could translate here? 

“The torta. Torta is a very old school, quite old fashioned street food, found mainly in Mexico City. It’s essentially a white, crusty roll filled with avocado, sometimes refried beans, mayo, pickles, tomato, lettuce, and then either a kind of Milanese or slow-cooked beef or pork. They are absolutely delicious. Since I lived there 20 years ago, quite soon after I left, Rosetta started making the first sourdough in the city and since then there’s been a real explosion of bakeries doing a more European-style, ciabattas, sourdoughs. Obviously, there are still tortillas everywhere but when I was in Mexico, I saw sandwiches everywhere. Almost the second I got back, I phoned Max [Tobias, founder of Dusty Knuckle], who’s an old friend, and asked him to make the bread for us. My new book is basically a concise version of everything I cooked and ate in Mexico last year and a lot of that has translated onto our new menu [launching in October].

We’ve got some fun stuff coming on. When we get new chefs in the kitchen, they can’t believe that we make everything from scratch. I think customers don’t realise that either. When we started we were limited in how much we could push the food; people would just come in and ask for fajitas. Santiago Lastra is incredibly kind; he has said a couple of times recently that if it wasn’t for Tommi and Wahaca, he could never have opened Kol.”

How have diners’ expectations evolved since Wahaca launched?

“Massively. When I did MasterChef, we were almost still in the ‘80s. The food evolution that’s happened has been huge. And interestingly, that same revolution has happened in Mexico too. When I lived in Mexico twenty years ago, Enrique Olvera had recently opened Pujol, and he was one of the first male chefs of his era to say our own heritage is as good if not better than France and Italy’s. There are incredible catering colleges all over Mexico; all over the country you have young chefs who are homegrown. They haven’t done three years in Paris and then two years in Madrid; they’ve grown up and cooked in Mexico, and they’re cooking the most exciting, incredible food. That was one of the reasons I wanted to go back and live there again, because I felt I was behind in my knowledge.”

Wahaca has always been ahead of the pack on sustainability. Was it always a priority?

“It was, because I’m basically an eco warrior at heart. When we opened Wahaca, both Mark, my business partner and I wanted to make it for everyone. It had to be affordable. In Mexico, good food is for everyone. It’s part of the culture. I knew I wanted to have well sourced meat which is expensive; having a really good option of vegetarian things made it more affordable. I don’t think I realised 18 years ago how much better for the plant it is to eat more vegetables. Caroline [Lum], our head of sustainability has been with us for 17 years. She and I are always trying to think about what else we can do. For example, we’ve got refried beans, they’re delicious, but can we cut them with 30% carlin peas from Hodmedod’s which are grown regeneratively in Suffolk? It’s a fun challenge.”

There’s been a huge shift in workplace culture since you launched. How has your approach evolved?

“I don’t think we ever really had a lot of work to do. I came into restaurants sideways. I worked for two really, really mean bosses, and I remember thinking, right, if I’m setting up my own company, it’s got to be fun coming into work. My business partner came at it from the same perspective; he worked at Nando’s which, whether you like the food or not, has an incredible culture. We started doing sabbaticals about three years ago for anyone who’s worked for us for longer than five years. We’ve also got our masterchef competition where the winner gets £1500 to go on a foodie quest. As a food business, to make good food, the people have to care as much as you do. You can’t have good food if people aren’t engaged, full stop. It doesn’t work.”

Wahaca is offering 30% off to CODE members. Are there any particular dishes you’d recommend right now?

“We’re about to have our white bean allioli dip on the menu with a confit garlic, lemon and charred jalapeño oil on top. I was so excited about it in my book that we put it on the menu. We’re doing it with Bold Beans because I love them. We also have a secret ingredient in it – cauliflower hearts. We get through so many cauliflowers for our crispy cauliflower bites because they’re so popular but we were chucking the heart of the cauliflower which I always think is the most delicious bit so we started roasting them and putting them in our Sonoran ‘hummus’ which is on the menu now and will also be going into our next dip. We’ve also got a free range pork skewer with an incredible smoky tamarind sauce that’s going to be amazing.”

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