Rosamund Urwin

How she’s done it

blanche to tuck it in.” The other impetus for change has been new Mexican rivals such as Soho’s Corazon and El Pastor in Borough. “We’re finally getting some decent competition!”

Although Wahaca has been at the forefront of trends — no bookings, sharing plates, mezcal — Miers wants to keep adapting. She regularly visits Mexico for ideas and is heading there in April. So what does she make of the US President’s plans to build a border wall? “I’m baffled by Trump. I can’t believe the Democrats didn’t put a suitable person to stand against him. The Mexicans prop up the entire American industry — not just restaurants, everything.

He’s living in la-la land. When I go to LA they understand my Spanish more than they do my English.”

She stops, thoughtful. “Maybe it will actually help Mexico, because [the US] might stop shipping so many arms there and buying so many drugs. They’re outsourcing the drugs war to Mexico.”

We turn to the other big upset of 2016, the EU referendum result. Miers says Wahaca “tends to do well in crises”, having opened its first site just before the 2008 recession. “Brexit is weird because it’s hard to get Mexican chefs over because of visas, and Brexit might help that. But we’ve got a staff party tonight — we have 1,200 staff from every nation — they’re great kids, and the idea that you’d stop people coming over...” She sounds exasperated. “Lots of Brits don’t want to do [restaurant] jobs.” This is, she adds, changing slowly. “When we opened, graduates never went into this. You wanted to be a lawyer or whatever. But since the recession, and since food has become such a thing, more young, bright people see the food industry as a viable career.”

Miers was a forerunner. Having studied at St Paul’s, she initially shied away from entering the food industry: “Entrepreneurship used to be seen as “dodgy — all that smoothtalking.” It was her mentor, Clarissa Dickson Wright, who told Miers to “just do it”: “Why did I waste from 18 to 26 examining my belly button?” she laughs.

I ask if she feels overwhelmed juggling a business with so much else. “I’m trying to say no to more things,” she replies, before telling me about yet another project she’s involved in, trying to reduce antibiotic use in livestock. She smiles her wide, gaptoothed grin. “I get carried away.”

@RosamundUrwin

‘Mexicans prop up the entire American industry — not just restaurants. Trump is in la-la land’