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Santiago Lastra (born 4 April 1990) is a Mexican chef and co-owner of KOL Restaurant in Marylebone, London.
Lastra was born and raised in Cuernavaca, Mexico. [1]
Lastra 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. [2]
Before opening his own restaurant KOL in 2020, he worked at Noma Mexico with René Redzepi as his Project Manager for the seven-week pop-up in 2017. [3] 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 [4] in London and Hija de Sanchez in Copenhagen. [5]
KOL is Santiago Lastra's first restaurant, a 54 seat ground floor Mexican restaurant in Marylebone, London, opening in October 2020. [6]
In 2021, KOL was voted the Best New Arrival in Europe in the La Liste Awards, [7] and Lastra himself was voted Best New Chef in the GQ Food & Drink Awards. [8]
In 2022, KOL received its first Michelin Star, retained in 2023 and 2024, [9] was named Number 15 in the OAD Top New Restaurants in Europe list and Number 1 in the UK, [10] and entered the World's 50 Best at Number 73. [11] In the same year, Santiago was listed in Top 100 Chefs in the World in 'The Best Chef' awards. [12]
In 2023 KOL entered the World's 50 Best Restaurants at Number 23. [13]
In 2024 KOL climbed to Number 17 in the World's 50 Best Restaurants. [14]
