London's Best New Restaurant: I learned to cook as a girl to help my carer mother, says Barrafina chef
Now one of London’s star chefs, Nieves Barragan Mohacho was born in Bilbao and first learned to cook as a young girl to help her mother cope with caring for her paralysed grandmother.
She came to London aged 20 with no professional training other than the Basque cooking skills she learned at home. She got her first job at Simply Nico in the Barbican, then in 2003 started working with Sam and Eddie Hart when they opened Fino off Charlotte Street.
Barragan Mohacho, 39, is credited with the success of spin-off Barrafina, first on Frith Street in Soho and last year on Adelaide Street near Trafalgar Square.
Despite the shared name and ownership, the menus at the two restaurants are markedly different. She is also overseeing the launch of a third Barrafina on Drury Lane.
Spanish food is now one of the fastest growing cuisines in the capital. But she said when she first arrived, it was so starved of good Spanish restaurants — apart from Gaudi in Clerkenwell, where she worked briefly — she had to get her taste of home from the Spanish supermarket on Portobello Road.
On hearing Adelaide Street had been nominated for the Standard’s Best New Restaurant Awards, she said: “It was incredible, I was really emotional, it’s been an amazing time.”
Readers can vote for their favourite new restaurant on standard.co.uk/awards until 11.59pm on June 16. The winner will be announced at a VIP reception to launch the Taste of London festival, from June 17 to 21 in Regent’s Park. Voters will be entered into a prize draw and six will win dinner for two at one of the six shortlisted restaurants, plus a pair of invitations to the awards ceremony and the opening night of Taste of London.
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