Can you introduce us to yourselves and Maiz?

We are the founders of Maiz, a Mexican inspired cafe in Manningtree, Essex. Tom’s a chef who has been working in kitchens since he was 16 and Harriet is a Fine art graduate. Maiz was dreamt up whilst we were on a three-month trip around Mexico. Maiz offers a laid-back dining experience with bold Mexican flavors. Our menu is short and simple as everything is prepared and cooked from scratch daily by Tom, including our homemade tortillas which get rolled out twice a day just before the start of service.

What has been your highlight in the first year of Maiz opening?

I think for us having regulars who come in to eat with us each week is a huge highlight, knowing that people are enjoying the thing you have created is something we feel very proud of. We are extremely lucky to be part of such a supportive community.

Can you provide examples of how your menu changes to reflect the availability of seasonal ingredients?

We usually have four or five tacos on the menu at a time. We always have fish, a meat or two, and normally two vegetarian/vegan options. Throughout the autumn and winter, you can expect to see root vegetables such as celeriac and sweet potato or squash on the menu, and this week Tom has been experimenting with a cabbage Caesar salad, which is a wicked side to be shared with a taco or two. Spring is an exciting time for us because we can get produce like asparagus and spring greens that were a huge hit last year, even amongst the avid meat eaters. Over the summer months we look forward to local sweetcorn, for elotes and esquites and ripe tomatoes for salsas.

How do you balance traditional Mexican cuisine with the use of local and seasonal ingredients?

Mexican ingredients are at the heart of each of our dishes. We are lucky to have suppliers that import high quality Mexican ingredients into the UK. This enables us to get essential products like Masa Harina and dried chillies from Mexico that we then combine with whatever fresh local produce is available to us to create our dishes.

Can you describe the process for developing new items that showcase local produce?

It is generally quite an instinctive process, using what is available to us. We are always on the hunt for the best local produce, and we benefit from being next door to The Wholefood store in Manningtree, so we can easily get our hands on organic and seasonal vegetables. We also plan some dishes in advance, ordering ingredients to be grown by local producers like Lauriston Farm on the Dengie Peninsula, which is a great Community Benefit Society producing biodynamic vegetables. Last year they grew some incredible tomatillos for us, which Tom used in a couple of our salsas, and this year we will be sourcing plum tomatoes from them for a salsa roja.

What is your favourite falcon product and why?

At the moment we are loving the oval plates, they are a really classic shape and make any dish stand out. We want to do some more sharing plates; they would be perfect for whole roasted fish dishes such as pescado a la talla.

What are you looking forward to this spring?

In our first year it was tricky to recipe test whilst learning how to run our first business, but we have now found are feet and are excited for the year ahead. We are looking forward to being a bit more experimental with our menu, coming up with some new ideas and continuing to enhance the café interior to welcome in the sunnier weather and our customers, old and new.