A DAY OF TACOS AT KOL, SANTIAGO LASTRA'S MICHELIN-STARRED MEXICAN KITCHEN IN LONDON.
THE PLACE
Kol is at 9 Seymour Street, in Marylebone. From the street it looks calm. Inside, it is the only Mexican restaurant in the United Kingdom holding a Michelin star, and once the service starts, you understand why. Santiago Lastra's whole idea fits in one line: Mexican soul, British ingredients. The corn, the chocolate and the dried chillies come from Mexico. Almost everything else is found around the British Isles, down to langoustines from Scotland that end up in a taco.
THE CHEF
Santiago was born in Mexico City and raised in Cuernavaca, the city of eternal spring. He cooked all over the world before landing in London, and he opened Kol in October 2020, at thirty years old, in the middle of a pandemic. The star arrived in 2022 and never left. I called him my Mexican brother in the video, and that is exactly the energy he cooks with: zero ego, all generosity.
IN HIS KITCHEN
He did not hand me a spectator's apron. We pressed fresh corn masa into tortillas on a traditional press and laid them on the comal until they puffed. A whole lobster tail went over the charcoal. Thin slices of marbled beef hit the heat next. Then the building: tortillas still warm, the sauces, the meat, a little caviar because Kol is Kol, everyone tasting as we went, laughing, fist pumps when a taco landed right. His brigade moves like a family that happens to run a Michelin kitchen.
WHAT STAYED WITH ME
A taco at Kol is street food and fine dining in the same bite, and nobody in that kitchen treats the two as opposites. The technique is serious, the room is happy. The food is Santiago's, the recipes are his and his team's, and I was lucky to be invited inside. If you are going to London, book Kol. Just do it early, because everyone else has the same idea.
SHOP THE STORY
A little of that day, from the shop:
TF SALSA VERDE x HEARTBEAT: $12.00 CAD
TOUJOURS FAIM! THE COOKBOOK: $39.95 CAD
CLASSIC APRON: $60.00 CAD
By Laurent Dagenais.
WATCH THE VIDEO