What made you take the big step from running a frozen food business to opening a Mexican restaurant?

Gaby: I think in my case that’s really easy. I am a chef, and I think that’s what all chefs dream about!

Oscar: I feel at home with people. Frozen food is a good business but you never meet the people. But here, they are a part of your daily life.

What does Mi Tierra represent for you?
Oscar: Mi Tierra is a symbolism that involves us all. For me, it stands for Mexico, family, and tradition mainly. It is all about those things that you lose when you leave Mexico. So I can say that our target is to try to give those things a little bit back to you when you are on the other side of the world.

Gaby:  For me, it is a small word with a big meaning. Mi tierra talks about family, quality, and serving our customers with joy.

Is it a 100% Mexican investment?

Oscar:I think it can be considered that way. The 3 most important parts of the restaurant including management and the kitchen is run by Mexican people, but we obviously cannot do everything ourselves and we use a little bit of Chinese help.

What do you think are your main challenges now that you opened your restaurant and that you’re set to open a restaurant inside the Mexican Pavillion?

Oscar: Well, I think that many people wants to come and make business in China. Before, they use to take things from China to other parts of the world, but now everyone is bringing things to china. In that sense, our main challenge is to make Chinese people like Mexican food. It is not a difficult thing to do, because the ones that had already tasted it liked it. However, you have to motivate them, and that’s what we plan to do during the expo.

Gaby: Since we started bringing Mexican food to Shanghai, we noticed that the Chinese market is not as difficult as it seems. We have participated in several fairs, and we have always been the most crowded place. The only challenge here in my opinion, is to get Chinese people to be more familiar with the Mexican food. We don’t want to be like several restaurant’s here in shanghai that are only know by the expat community, we want to be know by the locals as well.

What do you plan to offer to your visitors during the expo?

Gaby: Mexican food, mexican hospitaly, and mexican quality.

How are you planning to make people discover the Mexican culture through its flavors?

Gaby: The only thing that most people know about Mexican food are tacos, quesadillas and burritos. It is not bad, but that is not the only thing Mexican food has to offer.
The Mexican cuisine might not be described as “high ending” like other cuisines, but it is definitely made of special flavors that you are not going to find in the dishes I mentioned before. The Mexican food dishes are not just about tacos and chips, and that’s a stereotype we definitely have to work on.