Whether you’re in the heart of the city or a few miles away, you can find cuisine from all over the world that reflects the vision of talented chefs with a passion for making people happy through food. One chef who epitomises this value to the full is Nieves Barragán Mohacho, who hails from Spain and who recently launched the restaurant Legado in the trendy Shoreditch district. ‘Legado’, meaning ‘Legacy’, is a profoundly personal expression of Spain and its rich regional food culture. It is Nieves’s creative home, the place where she shares the culinary traditions of her beloved Spain, as viewed through her intuitive artistic lens.
Nieves grew up in the País Vasco, where she learned about the region’s produce and cuisine from an early age. She regularly accompanied her mother, a passionate home cook, to the market, learning the value of fresh ingredients and traditional cooking. Initially studying graphic design in Bilbao, she worked in kitchens to support herself and realised her deep connection to food. In 1998, at 19, she moved to London without a job or English skills but secured a kitchen porter role at Simply Nico.

In 2003, Nieves became Sous Chef at Fino, a Spanish restaurant in Soho. It was a hit, and by 2006, she became head chef, refining menus with flavours from her childhood. Barrafina followed in 2007, earning a Michelin star in 2013. The chef later oversaw four locations and in 2018, she launched her first solo restaurant with JKS Restaurants, Sabor, on Heddon Street. Located near Piccadilly Circus, the establishment expanded beyond tapas to celebrate Spanish cuisine.

Legado is set to move beyond the familiar, allowing a wider range of ingredients, lesser-known dishes, regional culinary traditions, and the Spanish artisans Nieves adores to take centre stage. With seating for over 60 in the dining room and space for 16 at the counter, the restaurant also houses the Taberna, a dedicated bar and outdoor terrace open all day serving tapas and pintxos. Nieves explains, “Spain’s food heritage is incredible and rightly deserves recognition in London and globally. Its colours, tastes, and smells are rooted deeply within me. However, there are many dishes I love that I have never seen outside Spain, and I want to bring these and much more to London.”

Ingredients – including their producers, history, and legacy – are at the fore of Nieves’s vision and the very soul of Legado. Whole animal butchery takes place in-house, honouring farmers, animals, and the regions that rear them. Lamb, for example, is from Zamora, Lechazo de Castilla y León. It weaves its way throughout the menu, celebrating dishes from the Basque Country to Mallorca. Likewise, suckling pig, a symbol of prosperity and abundance with roots that trace back to Roman times, comes from the award-winning farm Tabladillo el Cochinillo in Segovia. Ham hails from Señorío de Montanera – a DOP company specialising in 100 per cent Iberian pigs that roam freely in the dehesa of Extremadura.

Equal attention is devoted to Legado’s seafood and fish offerings, with a menu celebrating the country’s diverse coastal cuisine. Dishes include tiny, translucent, crisp, crystal Mediterranean prawns, finished with smoked paprika and Moscatel vinegar, or confit lobster with chilli and garlic on a base of thinly sliced rose potatoes – each topped by an egg. The grilled catch of the day is served by the half with an Ajada sauce from Galicia. There is also a wide array of delectable vegetable and salad dishes and seasonal desserts.

The Drinks

Meals at Legado are designed to begin with a ‘3-Sip Serve’, a choice of five seasonally changing vegetable and fruit-based cocktails served chilled but without ice. Each drink is presented in a small bespoke ceramic vessel representing different regions in the country. The 150-bin wine list celebrates traditional and emerging regions and styles, showcasing the finest in Spain. Modern, classic, and artisan producers using historic minimal intervention winemaking practices sit beside small growers that champion the revival of forgotten indigenous grape varietals.

Legado is Nieves’ biggest project yet. It is her creative playground, the place where all her research, ever-evolving ideas, and discoveries have met their match. We wish the chef and her team at Legado every success and hope to take a weekend flight to London soon to savour their fare.