From Mexico to Marylebone
Adriana Cavita honours the culture of her native Mexico, but her global experiences have informed and inspired her cooking. RUPERT BATES meets her at her London restaurant
Cavita restaurant in London’s Marylebone, but within minutes I am transported to the neighbourhood of Tlatelolco in Mexico City where Adriana was born. We head to her grandfather’s farm in Tlaxcala; learn about her grandmother’s little restaurant in her garage in Azcapotzalco – ask the locals about her legendary huarache dish: masa dough, pinto beans, onions, potatoes, salsa and beef.
“Street food and markets are everywhere in Mexico, as well as high-end restaurants. Knock on the door of houses and humble families will offer or sell you food. Native Mexican ingredients have influenced many world cuisines,” says Adriana. Stumble across a wedding in a Mexican village and you’ll be invited in to share from the huge pots and fires of food.
Adriana studied gastronomy – literally, the art of cooking – giving her rare insight into the traditions of food and evolution of flavours around the world, but wherever we go during our conversation her heart and soul rarely leaves Mexico, where cooking techniques and ingredients can vary from region to region, village to village, mountain to sea.
Adriana’s university in Mexico had links with El Bulli in Roses, Spain. If you’re after work experience as a chef, winning an eight-month placement at the best restaurant in the world, under the legendary Ferran Adrià, is not a bad place to start. She later worked at Pujol in Mexico City, another of the world’s finest and at Aska in Brooklyn, New York, when it won its first Michelin Star. Eduardo Garcia from Máximo Bistrot in Mexico City is another great mentor.
“A lot of hard work in wonderful restaurants, but I wasn’t really sure if this is what I wanted as a career, thinking, am I good enough?” Oh, she is plenty good enough and one ingredient she takes with her around the world is fire, with a love of cooking over wood and coals, an open fire kitchen at the core of Cavita restaurant and a comal, “the heart of the Mexican kitchen” to hand as a versatile clay, stone or metal pan.
“Fire is your companion. Talk to it.” Her hunger for knowledge, an eternal student of cooking as well as historian, brought her to London and eventually to open her own restaurant, Cavita, in 2022 in Marylebone. Determined to scorch stereotypes of spicy, sloppy Mexican food – “not everything is wrapped in a tortilla!” – this was never going to be kitsch sombreros and ponchos.
Cavita, both colourful and ancestral, is as authentic as it is stylish, with its reclaimed granite tables, terracotta tiles, exposed brick and lots of plants, flowers and lamps overhead. I imagine this is what a grandmother’s patio in a Mexican village would look like, before heading downstairs for tequila cocktails and mezcal in the bar, with a mood that hints at post-prandial hedonism.
Such is Adriana’s love for her country and its heritage, it is no surprise to see her also supporting Mexican arts and crafts, through Copal London, promoting and preserving the work of indigenous people, such as the vibrant beadwork of the Wixárika.
To the food. Go raw with a ceviche tostada – sea bream, avocado, onion, citrus, lemon balm and ginger. Appetizers include camarones al grill – chargrilled prawns, achiote marinade, pineapple sauce and lemon.
There is a ‘from the street’ section of the menu and corn, often hung over an open grill, is a foundation of Mexican cuisine. Try the taco de okra – grilled fresh corn, ricotta, okra and habanero sauce.
Sharing plates include line-caught sea bass, and carne asada – British dry-aged ribeye with red mole, leeks and parsnip puree. Her book Cocina Mexicana is a potpourri of colour and culture. “The collection of recipes is built around my experiences, from breathing in the aroma of woodsmoke from a barbacoa, to seeing first-hand the care that goes into preparing seemingly simple dishes, from sales and moles to tortillas and tostadas.”
Show me a country that worships breakfast, and I’ll book my flight. Mexicans love the first meal of the day. Try the book’s huevos rancheros (farmer’s eggs), or scrambled eggs with warm tortillas.
Street food – antojitos – is covered too, including corn cobs grilled over hot coals, and grilled beef tlayudas, cooked on a barbecue, seasoned with salt, pepper and oregano and served with beans and salsas.
I am drawn to the pibil-style pork, a dish from the Yucatan peninsula, with banana leaves scorched quickly over an open flame. The Mayan word pib refers to an oven dug underground to cook a cochinita – suckling pig.
There is a saying in Mexico: ‘Barriga llena corazón contento.’ Full belly, happy heart. It doubles as a motto for Cavita restaurant. It is both warming and instructive to find so many great chefs who learnt at the feet of their grandparents. It is the ultimate grounding in the value of family, the provenance of food and an understanding of cultural roots and cooking connections.
As a girl, Adriana would go to Mexican markets in search of coal for the grill, or corn to knead. Now you can find her not only at the restaurant that carries her name, but at events such as Meatopia On Fire, the devil’s very own fire tables at Tobacco Dock in London. You know there is much more to come from this exceptionally talented and educated chef – rooted in Mexico, seasoned by the world.
