Santiago Lastra, KOL: From Mexico to Michelin stardom in London

While he always loved eating and cooking, Santiago Lastra had no plans to open his own restaurant, during much of his early career in hospitality.

However, after an eye-opening spell with Noma’s Rene Redzepi, Santiago took the plunge and brought a taste of his Mexican heritage to London, with KOL.

Having learnt lessons from his various experiences across the world, which also included time working at two-Michelin-starred Mugaritz, Santiago opened KOL in Marylebone in October 2020.

There were plenty of early challenges, navigating the stop-start nature of the pandemic.

But all has been worth it. In 2022, KOL was awarded a Michelin star, which it has retained since, while Santiago himself, as well as the restaurant, has received a host of other accolades in that time.

Santiago Lastra's Beginnings in the Kitchen

Discussing his route into the industry, Santiago explained: “I started cooking when I was 15. I went to the supermarket, bought a box of Ritz crackers and on the back of the box was a crab dip recipe.

“I cooked it at home and I really liked it. After that I started cooking Italian food. I went to work in an Italian restaurant to see if I liked it and I fell in love with the idea of the pressure and the teamwork and just the fact that you can take something like flour and transform that into bread. Or taking a random Tuesday night and transform that into magic. That is something that I fell in love with, and I still love it.”

He continued: “I organised this event in Mexico that was called Noma Mexico, a pop up of seven weeks. A worked for a year there, setting up, all the research trips, all the logistics and all the supply chain, organising the sourcing of the crockery and the farming and everything.

“Before that, in the first 14 years of my career, I didn’t want to have a restaurant, because I thought it would be too stressful. But then after working there, I was thinking okay, I want to give it a go, to showcase Mexico in the world and I want to go to a city where I can do that, where I can find investment and people will be open-minded for a new concept and new flavours and spice.

“London ticked all the boxes of what I wanted to do. I moved here without knowing anyone, with a dream of opening my own restaurant. I was 27 at the time and it was a big challenge.

“I spent all my savings in the first two months, travelling around the UK and learning about produce, suppliers and foraging.”

After various pop-ups and conversations, Santiago teamed up with Jake and Marco from MJMK and KOL was born. A second restaurant, Fonda, followed in 2024, to try and target an even wider section of the market.

Challenges and Triumphs: Opening KOL in a Pandemic

“Kol means cabbage in Spanish,” Santiago explained.

“The idea is that we want to represent that things that are undervalued can be special if you put them in the right context, like Mexican food and British ingredients in the context of being in a restaurant in Marylebone, in a beautiful place in the West End of London.

“It's interesting to think that when you open, it is just the beginning.

“Everything that you do leads you be ready to open your restaurant. We did 150 recipes to choose five and everything that I was cooking, it wasn't ready. So there was a vision of I want to do this concept, but I didn't have enough tools, enough experience, enough knowledge to be able to do it.

“Imagine that someone wants to make a computer that you can put on your lap and you can fold and open, like a laptop. You want to do that, but you don't know how to do it. So then what is the difference is the team. Steve Jobs would not be able to do a laptop or iPod himself. He needs a team of people that believe that can be possible.

“That is something that I learned here.

“Opening in the pandemic was the biggest challenge that I faced. But also I think it is what made this place magical at the beginning, because the guests that were coming here, they felt that they were on holidays because they were not able to travel.”

Something that has surprised Santiago is the quality of ingredients available in the UK.

“I've been blown away by the produce here,” he said.

“It is incredible. The seafood is another level. It has Scotland, but also Cornwall and Wales. This country has some of the best seafood in the world – scallops, langoustines and lobsters, everything is so good.

“The varieties are not as diverse as in Mexico, in terms of fruits, but the vegetables and the professionalism of the people that grow things here, it's unbelievable. It's about developing the right relationships with the farmers and with the producers to be able to have a wider spectrum of things.”

Michelin Recognition and Looking to the Future

In terms of shaping him as a chef, Santiago credits the teachings from the indigenous cooks of Mexico, being taught to dare to dream by Andoni Luis Aduriz at Mugaritz and learning what quality really means from Rene Redzepi.

“I think as a chef you're a combination of the people that you work for and the places that you've been,” he said.

“When we won the Michelin star, it was a life-changing moment. I didn't open this restaurant for any recognition, but I really like doing what we do. For you to be able to do what you do, you need different things. One of the things is the team needs to be motivated and they need assurance of what they do is good enough. It doesn't matter how many times I tell them well done, it's not enough. It needs a certain stamp of saying you guys are good, unique, you're consistent and you're world class. And that is what the Michelin star gives you.

“In Mexico it was a big thing. My mum was flying back from London to Mexico when they announced it.

“And then when she arrived, I was on the TV in the airport. It was just so crazy.”

He added: “This year we’re turning five years since we opened KOL and it's been a crazy rollercoaster journey.

“It was a restaurant that opened as an idea and as a vision, but it was not there. And the most incredible thing and fascinating thing is that it's just never going to get there. It just keeps evolving in a way that I am very excited to see what we can do next.

“I think we have the best team we have ever had. I want to be able to see the vision become a reality in the highest of the levels.”