Mimo London Cooking School

The Spanish word Mimo, means the love and care that you would typically give a baby, or a pot of something you’re cooking – a suitable name for Mimo London Cooking school, the fifth cooking school from Jon and Nicole Warren. Jon and Nicole successfully opened four Basque cooking schools in Spain, beginning in the town of San Sebastian, before returning to London to bring the same passion for food, culture and socialising to the UK.

Mimo London is found in what was the original Trustees office for Borough Market, arguably London’s most popular food market. The interior is bright and airy with large, impressive windows overlooking the bustling market, adding to the vibrancy of the cooking school.

Mimo’s Marketing and Creative Director Marti, designed each of the culinary spaces to ensure a continuity in design in each school. Marti chose to incorporate different textures and features on a micro-detail level so as to allow the original fabric of the building to remain a key part of its character. In order to pay homage to the school’s Basque heritage, Mimo continued their relationship with Spanish artisans Bois et Fer to create the bespoke tables which are found throughout the school.

Recognising that London is a highly competitive and bigger market than the other Spanish locations, Jon and Nicole knew they needed to stand out with a luxury offering. Cooking school appliances should be technologically advanced, yet easy to use, offer high performance and be hard-wearing. The appliances chosen included ovens and cooktops from the 400 series. A wine climate cabinet used to house Mimo’s spectacular collection, forms the centre piece of their Spanish viniculture masterclass. The kitchen furniture used alongside Gaggenau appliances was handpicked by Roundhouse Design, a London based kitchen design studio.

Every Friday, Mimo hosts The Best of Borough Market, which sees one of their Chefs accompany an intimate group into the market to educate on how to seek out the best ingredients and how to tell when something is in season. Seasonality and ingredients play an important part in the San Sebastian culinary scene. When Mimo opened in London, they knew they wanted to highlight the beauty of seasonality and the finest ingredients.

Mimo’s culinary masterclasses are led by Basque born Executive Chef Joseba Lasa. For him, the kitchens that Mimo offer are a paradise for any culinary connoisseur. The environment, the ingredients and the Gaggenau appliances, allow him to create innovative cooking classes that enable visitors to create recipes that would not look out of place coming from a professional kitchen. Both Jon and Joseba find motivation in their desire to bring the tradition of gastronomic societies from San Sebastian to a wider audience in the UK. In the same way that markets and kitchens draw a crowd, so does Mimo, to bring people together to learn about and socialise over food.