60-second interview with Mahala Le May

Picture from Mahala’s site of the sugar skull workshop

Hi Friends,

The Young Innovators Challenge deadline for entries is NOON on May 31st, which is currently… 60 hours from this very minute (Thank you Siri). As The YIC has a Food & Drink category, here is a sweet interview with Mahala Le May to keep your Idea-Machines running!

Mahala is a designer based here in Scotland who creates beautiful and delicious eating experiences.  She was kind enough to share her joy and passion with me, and so I am happy to share it with you too.

I met her at The Mini Makers Faire in Edinburgh last month where she was hosting an excellent workshop decorating Mexican Day of the Dead Sugar Skulls! Check out this video of the skulls made that day, they were excellent.

 

• Your site mentions you create eating experiences – What was your inspiration?

I’m really interested in how food brings people together, how everyone is effected by it and that everyone has a relationship with eating. And I love food.

 

• Of your creations and events to date, do you have a favorite?

Create: Eat was an incredible event to be involved with, 25 collaborators – from chefs to lighting designers and mixologist all worked together to put on a only night only dining extravaganza. It was brilliant to meet and work with so many talented people. The piece I made for it ‘canopy of canapés’ turned out exactly how I hoped, it was wonderful to see peoples’ reactions too it.

 

• Did you get any business advice/assistance from anyone/any group that helped you?

I’ve had business and financial support from Starter For 6 – a programme that helps innovative businesses and from PSYBT, I found business mentors particularly helpful . Also Cultural Enterprise Scotland – who run S46 – arrange lots of courses, advice sessions and had a website packed full of endless help-sheets and resources.

 

• Do you feel you’ve had errors or failures that you’ve learned from?

Yes of course, it’s part of the process, you almost learn more from what doesn’t work and even though it’s disappointing at the time, experiences -good and bad-  allow you to develop and strengthen as a business.

•  What gave you the idea to create Mexican sugar skulls?

I originally made the some sugar skulls to decorate a friend’s cake at their Mexican themed wedding. It been really successful as a workshop with both adults and children. I’d like to do an adults only mexican night with tequila, I’d love to see how the skulls would turn out. I want to make my events hands-on and accessible to encourage as many people as possible to get involved and have fun.

 

• How is the Food and drink industry in Scotland doing in your opinion? A good area to be involved or could it use some shaking up?

There’s a lot about the food industry in general that needs to change, but people are becoming more aware of these issues. In Scotland there are lots of amazing producers and people doing exciting things with food, there’s going to be lots to look forward too as long as everyone keeps communicating.

 

• Do you have a future dream project you would love to create?

I’ve got lots of ideas and a few projects coming up so I don’t want to give too much away.

•  A piece of advice you’d give to a budding edible entrepreneur?

Get out and speak to people, get them tasting and trying out what you make, the best way to know what works and it will give you confidence to grow your business and build up a network of fans – word of mouth is key to your food reputation. Good luck.

 

Mahala has worked on a variety of projects in the UK and in the Netherlands with Edinburgh University, Jelly and Gin and the Makers Faire among others. She combines a sense of delight with the visual and tactile pleasures of food to produce events, workshops and tastes with a joyful flair. Her creations look gorgeous and extremely tasty!! Eating is such a pleasure, it was delightful to meet someone who has as much fun with it as possible.

I will be very keen to attend the adult mexican-night. My attempts at making sugar skulls at The Makers Faire were trounced by the amazing skills of the children sat next to me – my skulls were somewhat geometric and spartan by comparison to the creativity on display! A second round (And perhaps a little tequila-based courage) and a chance to gobble some treats would suit me fine!

Thanks again, Mahala!

 

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/58667046″>Sugar Sugar boogie woogie</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user15810950″>Mahala Le May</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

*Videos and picture taken from http://www.mahalalemay.co.uk

Food & Drink Brands – SIE in Mexico

Hi Friends, here is the second to last post I’ll do about Mexico. Food and Drink style!

The SIE Young Innovators Challenge has a Food and Drink category. So what better time to talk about that which is best in all the world – Food glorious glorious food!

Where we are lends shape to our tastes and fuels the demand for the businesses we start. This is the same all over the world.

SO it’s easy to forget that entrepreneurship doesn’t *have* to be local or use local products – unless we want it to! We are not bound to the market on our doorstep, nor are we bound to produce or enjoy only that which is found on our own turf. IF we were then there would be FAR fewer coffee shops and chocolatiers indeed!

As corny as it sounds, the world is full of open doors, and the potential to go through one remains, who knows what the tastes on the other side will be. Corny like a Midwestern maize field, I know I am 🙂

BUT when it comes to food and drink this is especially true. In what other category are our tastes and interests so wide or so exploratory?

Here’s a few brands I spotted in Mexico that we don’t see as much in Scotland – Your food & drink idea might fly off the shelves there?

King Henry’s – Makers of trail mixes, confections and nuts. These are individual plastic spoons each with a scoop of tamarind paste. In Mexico you can tamarind as raw fruit, in dried salted snacks, in soda and in ice cream.

 

OK Bubba Gump is not Mexican, but it’s still something you don’t find in Scotland! A chain of seafood restaurants drawing its name from the movie Forrest Gump, with locations in Mexico, USA, Japan and Malaysia, among others. This one was in the departures area at Cancun Intl.

 

You’ll find Jose Cuervo in Scotland, but you might not find this special edition Frida Kahlo “The Broken Column” package. The painting was a self-portrait of the artist symbolizing the lifelong pain she suffered following an accident in her youth. Not the most cheerful advertisement, but certainly eye catching!

 

Charricos Banana Flakes. Not so much a flat dehydrated chip like we might find in Holland & Barrett, and more like a crisp! These were good:)

 

El Yucateco – XXXtra hot Chile Habanero. These can be bought in a pack with three other types of El Yucateco sauces. On the Scoville Heat Scale for hot sauces, this one gets a score of 11,600. For comparison, Sriracha hot sauce is rated as around 1000-2500. Don’t let it touch the sides.

 

Ron Zacapa – This limited release is an award winning rum from Guatemala and is marketed and distributed by Diageo (As many brands in Scotland are). Though Zacapa is not very widely found in the UK compared to Diageo’s others such as Captain Morgan.

 

Silver Patrón – Made by Patrón of Mexico using the piña (The heart) of the blue agave plant (Also the source of Agave nectar). You can find this one in Scotland in some select markets.

SIE in Mexico! Mexico & Scotland.

Hi Friends,

A few weeks ago I wrote a bit about Scotland and Mexico, commenting on the views about Scotland expressed by Mexicans that I met while traveling. I took some photos for a blog post about things you don’t see in Scotland that I’ll post very soon (It’s mostly related to people enjoying being in the ocean and going into the water without being dared to do so). But it all got me thinking, just for fun, what do we have in common?  Quite a lot.

Here is some evidence – you be the judge.

• Scotland in Spanish is Escocia! Mexico in Scottish is “Ooh I bet the weather was lovely!”

• Bagpipes, meet your cousin the Mariachi band

• Complete this sentence: Scotland is to Mexico as Caber tossing is to… Luchador wrestling

• Did you imbibe a great deal of the alcoholic export of the land? Want the world to know? We have shirts for that.

• Feeling like expanding your palette? Both our countries have ominous yet intriguing foods.

One is poisonous, and the other looks like it has been weaponized.

• What are two of the most common products found in every house?

That’s right, incredibly outdated telephones!

• A thrillseeker are you? Check out this dangerous wildlife

!

And if you think Highland cows aren’t dangerous then you’ve obviously never seen the paint job on your car after they’ve tried to scratch an itchy ear against your side mirror.

• Or how about some rare creatures!
• 

Both majestic in their own special ways, you certainly wouldn’t want either in your trousers and they are both likely to run in front of your car.

• What else do we share?

We are sunset champions

 

We have awesome cultural events like Day of The Dead and The Torchlight procession

And we have distinctive artists:

 

We also share our number one export market (The USA)

AND both our countries are going into something of an entrepreneurial renaissance. Both have a big increase in interest in entrepreneurship and a subsequent increase in startups, AND increased funding and  investment.

So is it too early to start referring to myself as an English speaking Mexican señorita with wet-weather and a poor tolerance for habanero peppers? I guess it all depends on your point of view 🙂

SIE in Mexico – Thoughts on Scotland

Hi Friends, I promised I would write a little bit about Mexico, so here is… a little bit!

I came across a quote in the BA business magazine while I was on the plane, “Life is a mountain range. From every peak the view is different” You could say that we see entrepreneurship from our own Scottish peak, and people in other parts of the world do the same. Obvious yes, but then what is the view of our peak… from a Mexican peak?

I enjoyed very much my time in Mexico, the people are kind and friendly and were very forgiving of my disgracefully bad Spanish, which must have required incredible patience. The country is beautiful and has a rich and vibrant culture and history. The first person I spoke to informed me how to pronounce Scotland en Español (Escocia! Gracias, Luis). It was really terrific getting to meet so many new people, and I was also very happy to hear their thoughts about Escocia.

I noticed most people were very familiar with a number of Scottish brands and exports, especially beverages. Several people immediately listed off several whiskey brands of choice, in particular Johnnie Walker, J&B, Highland Park and Speyside single malts – which I was informed are the best ones. Alas, no one mentioned Irn Bru.

Regarding Scottish cuisine, no one I spoke to knew the name MacSween – though a number of people DID state that they knew *of* haggis but were not 100% on *what* it is. Which is something like my feelings about haggis too!

Other Scottish exports that were well known included Celtic FC and Rangers FC, and people were eager to know which we like the best. The kilt and bagpipes also receive top marks, with a number of people being very interested in the kilt and why it is worn, when, where and how. Upon my describing a Sgian-dubh and a Sporran, the word “machismo” was used and everyone viewed this very positively 🙂

While that is only a few things that popped up during conversation and is not indicative of any trend or consensus, it was really interesting hearing what came to the minds of new friends. I don’t know if that means I can set up a Scottish restaurant on the beaches of Cancun quite yet, but it is certainly a start.

Granted it makes sense that a country known for it’s whiskey exports would find people familiar with it’s products, but that this was so frequently commented upon says something about visibility and association, particularly beneficial in a country that has much potential for economic growth. After all, these markets are just an internet connection away.