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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 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 [2].
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 [3].
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 [4], 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 [5] in London and Hija de Sanchez in Copenhagen [6]. In each he recreated the flavours and recipes of Mexico using local ingredients from each country, earning himself the title of 'The Nomadic Chef' [7]. This style is what later evolved into the underlying ethos of 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 [8]. 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" [9], The Telegraph [10], and The Times [11].
In 2021, KOL was voted the Best New Arrival in Europe in the La Liste Awards [12], and Lastra himself was voted Best New Chef in the GQ Food & Drink Awards [13].
In 2022, KOL received its first Michelin Star, retained in 2023 [14], was named Number 15 in the OAD Top New Restaurants in Europe list and Number 1 in the UK [15], and entered the World's 50 Best at Number 73 [16], 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 [17].
In 2023 KOL entered the World's 50 Best Restaurants at Number 23, the highest ranking UK restaurant [18], and climbed to Number 10 in the UK's National Restaurant Awards [19]
Submission declined on 29 August 2023 by
Qcne (
talk). This submission appears to
read more like an advertisement than an entry in an encyclopedia. Encyclopedia articles need to be written from a
neutral point of view, and should refer to a range of
independent, reliable, published sources, not just to materials produced by the creator of the subject being discussed. This is important so that the article can meet Wikipedia's
verifiability policy and the
notability of the subject can be established. If you still feel that this subject is worthy of inclusion in Wikipedia, please rewrite your submission to comply with these policies.
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
| ![]() |
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 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 [2].
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 [3].
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 [4], 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 [5] in London and Hija de Sanchez in Copenhagen [6]. In each he recreated the flavours and recipes of Mexico using local ingredients from each country, earning himself the title of 'The Nomadic Chef' [7]. This style is what later evolved into the underlying ethos of 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 [8]. 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" [9], The Telegraph [10], and The Times [11].
In 2021, KOL was voted the Best New Arrival in Europe in the La Liste Awards [12], and Lastra himself was voted Best New Chef in the GQ Food & Drink Awards [13].
In 2022, KOL received its first Michelin Star, retained in 2023 [14], was named Number 15 in the OAD Top New Restaurants in Europe list and Number 1 in the UK [15], and entered the World's 50 Best at Number 73 [16], 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 [17].
In 2023 KOL entered the World's 50 Best Restaurants at Number 23, the highest ranking UK restaurant [18], and climbed to Number 10 in the UK's National Restaurant Awards [19]