DF/Mexico, a new restaurant from Wahaca founder Thomasina Miers (pictured right) launches in the The Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane today.
Set to run for 18 months, it leaves behind authenticity in favour of giving Mexican dishes a US twist. We talk to Miers about what to expect from what she describes as the ‘cheeky little brother of
Wahaca’, as well as Mexican cuisine, her growing restaurant empire and plans for the future.
Where did the idea of DF/Mexico come from?
I’d just come back from maternity leave and felt I needed to catch-up on what was going on with food. Mark Selby (Wahaca co-founder) and I decided to go on a trip to Chicago, which is known as
‘little Mexico’, and we went to New York too. We were both so blown-away with the food that we felt compelled to open a restaurant inspired by it.
What were the main sources of inspiration?
In America we saw a lot of nose-to-tail eating, Mexican-Korean fusion, chunks of grilled meat, generally very playful uses of Mexican ingredients.
How does DF/Mexico differ from Wahaca?
In many ways DF/Mexico is the cheeky little brother of Wahaca. It’s more light-hearted and the design is really fun, with all kinds of iconography from street food culture.
And what about the menu?
DF is unashamedly fusion. At Wahaca, I was scrupulous about authenticity and adamant not to serve anything off the Mexican radar. I feel more educated since then, and more generally I think the
hatred of fusion food has died down. I think David Chang (chef at New York’s Momofuku) showed that fusion food really can work. As well as burritos, nachos and tacos, the menu at DF will include steaks (pictured below right) and filled tortas (pictured right) — a kind of
Mexican sandwich served New York-style with brioche buns.
It’s being billed as an 18 month pop-up, any chance it will become permanent?
Who knows. The lease is for two years, so after that it’s impossible to say. At the moment we’re considering it an experiment. We tried to do something similar with the Wahaca Southbank experiment, but found that we couldn’t be that different or creative while still being Wahaca.
This is a great opportunity to do something new.
Can you see yourself doing more one-off restaurants?
There are no plans for that whatsoever, but anything is possible. I’m still very dedicated to Wahaca, too.
There are 12 branches of Wahaca now. How big will it get?
We don’t plan to make it too big. Compared to other groups we’ve actually grown quite slowly, and that was a conscious decision. My name is very closely associated with Wahaca and it would be a bad
thing if standards started to slip. (Pictured below: Wahaca Soho)
Have there been
any sacrifices as the group has grown?
Honestly, I don’t think so. I really hope not and feedback we’ve had suggests not. I actually think Wahaca has got better; we now have really well-trained and highly-skilled teams in each kitchen,
at the start it was just me running things.
Mexican food seems to be increasingly popular in this country. Is it still evolving?
I think Mexican is very popular with chefs all around the world at the moment and there are some very exciting things going on. I think in London we’ve been working towards authenticity for a long
time, and as that becomes established it allows for more creative takes on the traditional dishes.
What are your favourite Mexican restaurants in
London?
I really don’t eat that much Mexican food in London because I eat it so much for work. That’s really bad, isn’t it! I think Rita’s is amazing, and I love Skye Gyngell’s (due to open Spring in October) cooking, though.
Would you ever launch something that wasn’t Mexican?
It’s possible. My Wahaca life is very cheffy and entirely Mexican,but I also do a lot of food writing from the perspective of a mother,which is rarely Mexican-focused. Before the age of 29, I
hadn’t cooked Mexican once, so things can easily change.
Published 24 July 2014