Thomasina Miers

Thomasina Jean "Tommi" Miers was born in February 1976[1] in Cheltenham,[2] the daughter of (Michael) Probyn Miers, a joiner and furniture maker,[3] formerly a management consultant[4][5] and Niki Miers, of Guiting Power, Cheltenham.[6][7] She grew up in "a big rambling house" at Acton, West London.[8] The Miers family, landed gentry originally of Aldingham, Cumbria (then in Lancashire), owned the Ynyspenllwch estate in Glamorganshire until the time of her grandfather, Cmdr Richard Eustace Probyn Miers, RN.[9] Miers has a twin brother, Dighton, and a sister, Talulah.[10][8]

She was schooled at St Paul's Girls' School, studied modern languages at the University of Edinburgh and studied at Ballymaloe Cookery School. She worked as a freelance cook and writer, with influences from time spent in Mexico.[11][12]

In 2005, Miers won the BBC TV cookery competition MasterChef, "impressing judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace with her bold and, at times, eccentric cooking style".[13]

She has made two series of cookery programmes for Channel 4 with co-presenter Guy Grieve: Wild Gourmets[14] in 2007 and A Cook's Tour of Spain in 2008.[15] In 2011, she presented Mexican Food Made Simple for Channel 5.[16]

She is co-editor with Annabel Buckingham of the cookbook Soup Kitchen (with an introduction by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall). She has also written Cook: Smart Seasonal Recipes for Hungry People,[17] The Wild Gourmets: Adventures in Food and Freedom, with Guy Grieve,[18] and Mexican Food Made Simple.[19]

Miers co-founded Wahaca, which became a chain of Mexican "street food" restaurants, alongside Mark Selby in 2006.[20] The company opened its first restaurant in London's Covent Garden in August 2007[21] and in October 2008 a second opened at Westfield London.[22] Wahaca launched their first mobile kitchen in 2011, selling Mexican street food on the streets of London.[23] By the end of 2017 Wahaca had 25 branches,[24] and in January 2021 there were 13.[25]

Miers is married to Mark Williams, a fund manager at Liontrust Asset Management[26] and they have three daughters.[6][27]

In January 2019, Miers was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the food industry; she received the honour from the Duke of Cambridge later in the year at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace.[28]

• The Wild Gourmets: Adventures in Food and Freedom (3 September 2007) ISBN 9780747591573 co-author Guy Grieve
• Wahaca – Mexican Food Made Simple (4 March 2010) ISBN 9780340994979
• Wahaca – Mexican Food at Home (21 June 2012) ISBN 9781444722390
• Chilli Notes (8 May 2014) ISBN 9781444776881
• Cantina: Recipes from a Mexican Kitchen (1 November 2014) ISBN 978-1742703992
• Home Cook (2 March 2017) ISBN 9781783350964
• Meat-Free Mexican (5 May 2022) ISBN 9781529371840

• Official website
• Miers' cookery articles in The Guardian