Draft:Santiago Lastra

Santiago Lastra (born 4 April 1990) is a Mexican chef and co-owner of KOL Restaurant in Marylebone, London.

Early Life
Lastra was born and raised in Cuernavaca, Mexico. .

Career
Lastra first began to cook aged 15, when he found a recipe for a crab dip on the back of a packet of Ritz crackers. A love of cooking evolved from there and he cooked frequently at home and in professional kitchens.

He later completed training at the Instituto de Arte Culinario Coronado, followed by a Masters at the Basque Culinary Center, before beginning a high-profile career including Mugaritz and the Nordic Food Lab.

Before moving to London to open his own restaurant KOL in 2020, he was best known for his involvement in Noma Mexico. He worked with René Redzepi as his Project Manager in 2016 for the seven-week pop-up in 2017, and was instrumental in researching and sourcing exceptional, regional produce from small-scale producers across Mexico. Prior to this, he had spent years travelling as a guest chef, through 27 countries, attending a series of one-off events in venues such as The Tate  in London and Hija de Sanchez in Copenhagen. In each he recreated the flavours and recipes of Mexico using local ingredients from each country, earning himself the title of 'The Nomadic Chef'. This style is what later evolved into the underlying ethos of KOL Restaurant.

KOL Restaurant
KOL is a 54 seat ground floor restaurant that takes inspiration from the environment and ingredients around it to champion the flavours of Lastra's home cuisine. It also has a downstairs 20-seat private room with a dedicated kitchen and a popular Mezcaleria Bar with accompanying ‘Antojitos’ (little cravings) menu.

KOL opened to much critical acclaim, with rave reviews from the Evening Standard, calling him "the chef revolutionising Mexican food, one quesadilla at a time", The Telegraph , and The Times.

In 2021, KOL was voted the Best New Arrival in Europe in the La Liste Awards, and Lastra himself was voted Best New Chef in the GQ Food & Drink Awards.

In 2022, KOL received its first Michelin Star, retained in 2023, was named Number 15 in the OAD Top New Restaurants in Europe list and Number 1 in the UK , and entered the World's 50 Best at Number 73 , the only new British entry that year. In the same year, Santiago was listed in Top 100 Chefs in the World in 'The Best Chef' awards.

In 2023 KOL entered the World's 50 Best Restaurants at Number 23, the highest ranking UK restaurant, and climbed to Number 10 in the UK's National Restaurant Awards