Roland Hewes was on a student exchange in California during the mid-1990s when he discovered Mexican food. He was so taken with the “bold spicy ingredients” he headed to the Baja California peninsula to learn how to cook with them. On his return to London, he graduated with a 2:1 in law and politics, accepted a job in sales in London and began to frequent music festivals during the summer months. But he quickly became frustrated with the food that was on offer. “It lacked quality, choice and affordability,” he said. “It was a far cry from the street food of the Mission District in San Francisco.” Increasingly aware, too, that office life was not for him, he quit his job and set up Flaming Cactus the following year, at a time when “people thought guacamole was mushy peas”. Fast forward 21 years, and you can still find Hewes dishing up tacos to punters at the UK’s biggest festivals.
“My business partner Andrej and I were adamant that we would use only fresh ingredients delivered directly to our loving renovated 1960s airstream at each event, and that we would prepare our food from scratch each day and serve it right before our customers’ eyes,” he says. “And this is exactly what we have been doing for more than 20 years.”
