ANDREA Moya Romero was always fascinated by the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration when she was growing up in Spain.

She lived in Seville but heard tales about the festival – where people gather to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died – from her grandma who was half Mexican.

Andrea said: "Even though we’re Spanish we’ve always loved Mexican food.

"Not only the food – I absolutely love Mexican culture. I have a tattoo of a skull from the Day of the Dead.

"I think it’s brilliant the way they celebrate something that can be perceived as very sad – having family that have died.

"They commemorate them in such a beautiful way with all the flowers and all the food."

Andrea now splits her time between Warrington and Manchester where she gets to combine her love of Mexican food and culture every day.

Warrington Guardian:

She came to the UK in 2016 as a student and then had a number of roles at a Mexican restaurant in Manchester, including front of house, chef and manager, before taking it on herself and leading its rebranding as Casa Mexica in August 2019.

Andrea then jumped at the chance to bring Casa Mexica to the new £11million Warrington Market.

She added: "We had interview with the market team in the temporary building but even at that point we could see the skeleton of the new market and knew how much potential it had.

"It looks amazing now. They’ve definitely made something great with the place.

Spicy chicken and beef burritos are the favourites.

But there is plenty of choice for vegetarians and vegans such as the jackfruit burrito, vegan sausages, veggie chilli and a new soya-based Mexican-style dish is being introduced.

The new chicken mole burrito filling has also been a hit.

Andrea, who has a team of eight working in Warrington, said: "It is a mix of traditional Mexican spices with chocolate.

"We thought people wouldn’t be that keen on it as it’s very different but that’s doing very well so far. Bearing in mind we opened during a pandemic, the first two weeks felt a honeymoon period.

"It was really busy and fantastic for us. But it was challenging to manage stock and staff with everything that was going on and we've seen a bit of a dip since then.

"The next step for us is opening on Sundays as we feel that would benefit trade. We thank everyone for their support."