Table Talk: Wahaca brings a taste of Mexico to London

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - After decades in a culinary desert of Tex-Mex eateries with plastic cacti and dreadful cheese-drenched nachos, Wahaca is leading a wave of modern restaurants bringing the authentic flavors of Mexico to London.

But few Mexicans have settled in Britain and their culinary riches have remained largely unknown until former Tommi Miers and business partner Mark Selby opened the first branch of Wahaca in 2007 after falling in love with Mexican food while traveling.

"Mexican food is so badly depicted in the UK. There are so many more interesting things to offer," Selby told Reuters in an interview at the company''s third restaurant which opened in Canary Wharf in November.

"I really wanted to do proper Mexican food ... it can be fresh, it can be wonderful, the flavors can be brilliant."

Miers and Selby traveled around Mexico in the late 1990s, with Miers returning to cook her way around its food hotspots for over a year, collecting recipes as she went.

On her return, she won British TV cookery contest show Masterchef in 2005 with a Mexican dish and the two opened the first Wahaca (phonetic pronunciation of Mexican state Oaxaca) in a basement in trendy Covent Garden two years later.

That branch now serves around 5,500-6,000 people a week, with queues often stretching up the stairs and down the street. The company is now looking to open a fourth branch soon.

"We love the idea of what Oaxaca state stands for. It''s a culinary center, it''s a cultural center, it''s got this wonderful feeling about it," Selby said as the waiting staff buzzed around the gleaming Canary Wharf branch preparing for the long queue of bankers that soon gathered at the door.

"Everything about Wahaca is that we are inspired by Mexico but we are not just copying it. We never say we are authentic. But the style, the tacos, the flavor of the markets, the speed of the food, that''s what inspired us," he said.

EAT CACTUS, DRINK

Many Mexican restaurants in Britain claiming to be "authentic" are anything but, serving up a movie-set parody of Mexico, complete with sombreros, ponchos and garish neon beer signs to crowds looking for a place to party.