Shaping Taste 

When it comes to food at Fonda, one has to explain its approach to hospitality by starting with clay. And more specifically , what happens to clay when it hits the heat of a kiln. What proceeds is a process at once precise and instinctive. A ceramicist must go about manipulating the distribution of heat, how long and how hot. To do so they use a pyrometric cone, whose shape at specific heats can be eyeballed through a little window in the kiln to determine the temperature it has reached. The amount of oxygen allowed in is controlled using sliders at the back of the chimney, this controls how much oxygen is used from within the material its glazing, producing different colours. 

But let’s bring it back to Fonda, where ceramics and cuisine make a natural pairing. The chef behind KOL, Santiago Lastra’s second restaurant, brings a menu that feels at once intuitive and scientifically deliberate. Following the tradition of Mexican Fondas, the restaurant is family run and as such has an inviting warmth brought about not just by the homey sharable food, assembling tortillas encourages reaching across the table and negotiating when you’ve had your fair share, but equally by Lucia Ocejo’s ceramics that decorate every nook as though they were carved from the walls of the restaurant itself, and feel instantly like something you’ve never been without. 

Few countries can rival the richness and history of Mexican cuisine with the blending of unique and vibrant Mesoamerican ingredients like maize, chillies, cocoa, vanilla, squash with Spanish meat, dairy and frying techniques. Even fewer people would doubt that it's some of the best food in the world. But it takes real skill to create a dance in flavours - much like balancing out the melting temperature of your ceramic glaze to get your colour spot on - and Fonda has that in spades..If you’re looking to find a nirvana of flavours and atmosphere in London, Fonda offers not just a taste of tradition but a package singularly and spontaneously human