El Jardin is a Latin American food concept built around small and sharing dishes — or as we like to call them, Latin American tapas.

We take traditional recipes and old favourites and give them elevated, modern twists. We want to be authentically inauthentic — traditional, yet modern.

El Jardin was founded in 2025 after several years of working across London restaurants and developing an idea: merging Latin food cultures in new, unexpected, and potentially offensive ways.

I’m Chef Michel. I was born and raised in Colombia’s Pacific region. Some of my earliest memories are of my mother and grandmother baking and making pastries — empanadas and pan de bono — which my grandmother would sell on the street. My brother and I would visit her, steal a couple, and run home happy.

My grandfather would smoke meats in the backyard, and our neighbours would hold comitivas — small community barbecues, usually organised by the kids on the block.

We moved to England in the 90s, and with that came a completely different way of life.

After 17 years working in IT, those memories — and the longing for family, home, and flavour — started to take shape again.

I decided to change careers and step into kitchen life, which led to five years working across some incredible kitchens in London.

In late 2024, I decided it was time to go solo and started building El Jardin.

It began with my version of tacos: slightly elevated, slightly unexpected, and intentionally non-Mexican. As El Jardin started gaining traction, we moved from place to place and evolved into what we are today.

Right now, we’re popping up around East London — wine bars, restaurants, and other interesting spaces.

Come see us. Say hello. Try some food.