Homesickness gave Lily the idea for her business

A WOMAN grappling with homesickness and longing for authentic Mexican food decided to open her own ‘Mexican Pantry’ speciality grocery store delivering cooking classes and selling Mexican products and ingredients.

Picado Mexican Pantry is located on South Richmond Street in Portobello and is run by husband and wife team Lily Ramirez-Foran and Alan Foran.

Speaking about how Picado Mexican came about, Lily told The Echo: “I have been in Ireland for 21 years, and when I came first everything was new and lovely and I loved it, but about three months after I started feeling really homesick and I couldn’t really understand why.

“It took me a while to realise that it was linked to food, because I couldn’t get anything familiar. I always say that it started out of a little bit of greed and a lot of homesickness. My parents used to send me boxes of basic Mexican ingredients so I could make meals.

“I was going around looking and yearning for Mexican food, I got to a point where I was a little bit fed up and said I need to figure out a way to get Mexican food and to cook it.”

After spending years experimenting with the idea, Lily and her husband opened an online shop selling authentic Mexican ingredients and products, while she ran the business from a shed in her back garden.

Three years later in 2014, with the online shop gaining traction and popularity, Lily and her husband Alan decided to open a brick-and-mortar shop in Portobello, with the operation and warehousing taking place in Riverview Business Park on the Nangor Road.

“There was not a lot of education or knowledge about Mexican food at the time and I was adamant that we needed to have a school as well as shelves with products. People thought we were crazy opening a store in the middle of a recession,” said Lily.

Prior to the pandemic, Picado offered people the opportunity to come into the store which transformed into a cooking school at night to learn about Mexican culture and cook traditional Mexican recipes.

Due to restrictions, Lily says she has had to close the shop and switched everything to online, including online cooking classes on demand or on a live stream which have proved popular.

“We were lucky because within a couple of weeks we were up and running and we had a facility for online orders. The support has been amazing, and we actually saw a growth in sales that was unprecedented because a lot of people were stuck at home, bored and wanted to learn how to cook.”

Eleven years on with a successful business under their belt, Lily and Alan are now delving into the world of production with the help of the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) in South Dublin.

“We are setting up a really exciting project which is going to take us more into the production side. LEO has provided amazing help for us from that point of view but when you are an entrepreneur it can be quite a lonely experience.

“Sometimes when you are so engrossed in the day-to-day running of the business you lose sight and need a new perspective and a fresh pair of eyes. We have an amazing mentor in LEO which has honestly just been a life-saver.”

The new production side of Picado Mexican is set to launch at the end of September – which Lily says is an important month for Mexican culture and tradition as it is Independence Month.

To find out more about the company or the products you can go to www.PicadoMexican.com