You may have seen our previous post about this year being the year of Mexico here in the UK, 2015 is a year of partnership with the country whose food is the only cuisine to have been chosen by UNESCO as of Intangible Heritage of Humanity. To embrace the culture there are loads of exciting things happening to celebrate Mexico and everything it has brought us from day of the dead candy skulls to Tequila and tacos.
Selfridges is one of London’s most famous shops and they want to help celebrate by letting some of Mexico’s most innovative young chefs take over both their Corner Restaurant and Foodhall. They have decided to open their doors between the 14th April and 12th May to these chefs so they can create their own unique menus and weekly food tasting demonstrations to showcase some truly authentic foods and flavours.
At the Corner Restaurant we got to experience one of the weekly take over nights with Chef Miguel Angel Guerrero. Expect wine, tequila, yummy avocado and some seriously innovative and delicious food.
We had the very masterful culinary skills of Chef Miguel Angel Guerrero who made an amazing menu, starting with Shot Cabo, Madagascar Tuna Tostada, Duck Breast Taco, Lamb Sope with Roasted Tomatoes and Bunuelo with Brown Sugar and Hibiscus, sounds amazing right?
Not only have Selfridges been hosting these Mexican nights of food and wine but there have been weekly food tastings and demonstrations in the food hall, which by the way are free! Each week there is something new to taste, from these famous restaurants, Lupita, Chilango and Benito’s Hat.
We even got to ask one of the Chef’s, Javier a few questions, to find out a bit about Mexican cooking:
BATD: How is Mexican cooking changing in recent times?
CJ: We have lots of traditions in Mexico like lots of other cuisines, but now there is a new generation of chefs that are doing a modern take on Mexico. We have such amazing ingredients that we source from all over Mexico like chilli’s, we farm our own animals, we have our own gardens so we take a lot of produce from our own gardens. Mexican food now is more fresh, it’s more interesting, lots of flavours, textures, colours, it’s modern Mexico and thats what the younger chefs are pushing right now.
BATD: What exciting things are happening in Mexican cuisine at the moment?
CJ: Many young chefs like myself, are doing regional. A lot of chefs are looking into their own region and are finding new products, working with local farmers and fishermen. In Baja, California where I come from there are a whole array of different products from the ocean. We have the seafood from the Pacific ocean but we also have it from the Sea of Cortez which is very amazing. We also make a lot of olive oil and cheese so a lot of the chefs from Mexico come here and exchange ingredients which makes it interesting for us as chefs.
BATD: What inspired you to become a chef?
CJ: My parents opened their first pizzeria 47 years ago, and it’s still there. I grew up in a restaurant since I was a little boy I knew I wanted to be a chef, I love it, it’s a passion. Now I run five restaurants of my own and I’m so blessed to be able to travel the world and bring Mexican cuisines to the table like we are doing here in London.
BATD: Which three ingredients can you not love without?
CJ: Chillis dried or fresh, olive oil and probably garlic.
BATD: Finally what are your top tips for making Mexican food at home?
CJ: Try to use the best quality. Especially with tortillas, Mexcian cuisine without a good tortilla isn’t Mexican cuisine, always try to make it fresh, handmade its not that hard. When you make a salsa, if you are going to use dry chills toast them a bit to get that aroma out, those oils, and that will work very well. And enjoy, a good taco needs a good salsa, try to look into regional foods as well.
If you want to go to one of the meals they cost £80 per person for a tasting menu with paired wines and spirits, find tickets at the website (be quick they tickets will sell out) and the demonstrations in the food hall are held between 12pm and 8.30pm.
Get involved with the hashtags #SelfridgesXMexico or #mxuk2015 to show people what they are missing.
If you want to see more of Mexico go to this site to see more events happening this year http://mexicouk2015.mx/en/dual-year.