The big interview: Prenay Agarwal

Prenay Agarwal, CEO and co-owner of London fine dining restaurant Mareida, tells Sarah Neish about the challenges of building an all-Chilean wine list, and why South America’s gastronomy cannot “exist in a vacuum”.

In June 2025, London restaurant Mareida opened its doors at 160 Great Portland Street, following a year of successful pop-ups across the UK capital. According to Prenay Agarwal, co-founder and CEO of the Chilean fine dining establishment: “London let us test the concept, refine the menu and build a following before we ever signed a lease. Those pop-ups weren’t just a soft launch; they were where the idea of Mareida as a platform for Chilean creativity, not just Chilean food, really took shape.”

Agarwal, who founded the restaurant with his Chilean husband Benjamin Figari, hopes to offer something that London’s dining scene has never had before.

“We realised that London, a city that represents almost every geography in the world, had almost no representation of Chile at all,” he says, adding that the mission “was never just to open a Chilean restaurant. It was to create a platform for Chilean talent across gastronomy, wine, Pisco, art and design”.

Perhaps most importantly of all, the pair wanted to present all of this through a contemporary lens, rather than a traditional one. “Rather than lean on the folkloric version of Chilean food that people might expect, we wanted to show where the country’s culinary culture is heading now,” Agarwal says.

Forward motion

It is apt that his philosophy should hinge on forward motion, given that the name Mareida refers to the 1965 ‘Amereida’ expedition, a legendary, cross-continental journey embarked upon by a group of architects, poets and artists from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, travelling from southern Chile to Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia. At its core, the group sought to redefine South American identity through an approach it called “geopoetics”.

Certainly, there is something poetic about the way that Agarwal and Figari went about bringing their restaurant vision to life. “The branding was created by Constanza Gaggero, who is internationally known for her work in major museums, using a colour palette that represents the geographies of Chile,” Agarwal says.

In fact, the menu is framed around the “Andean south”, rather than Chile alone, which he explains is “a nod to the fact that Chile’s food and wine culture doesn’t exist in a vacuum, but carries real influence from its Andean neighbours.”

All-Chilean wine list

That said, the restaurant’s wine list is 100% Chilean, and has become one of the most compelling reasons to pay Mareida a visit, encompassing as it does wines grown close to the ocean and in the desert, expressions made from ancient vines plus a healthy smattering of Chile’s ‘icon’ wines, such as Concha y Toro Don Melchor 2020, hailing from Puento Alto, and Seña 2020 from Aconcagua Valley.

“It is for sure the largest selection of Chilean wines in London,” says Agarwal.

Bottles, chosen with the help of British Master of Wine Alistair Cooper, start from £32, and climb to £280 “for guests who want to go deeper”. The restaurant also offers wines by the carafe, which Agarwal says is “a great way to explore the list without committing to a full bottle”.

He adds: “People are consistently surprised, in a good way, that they can order a glass from Patagonia and a glass from Atacama on the same list. That storytelling is something guests really respond to.”

But building such a sweeping list that represents as much of Chile as possible has also come with its challenges. It is difficult, Agarwal admits, to “have more of the smaller producers, due to the complexities of ordering wines in smaller quantities. However, in the future we would like to feature more wineries outside of the major players”.

Who is drinking them?

Cast your eye over the twinkling dining space, and you will find an eclectic spread of guests, from Chilean ex-pats living in London to people who have visited Chile on their travels and want to recreate a taste of the magic they experienced there, to foodie residents from the local neighbourhood. “It’s a genuine mix,” says Agarwal. “We have even had geologists come in, who have read about the rock installations.”

He is referring to Mareida’s “rock library”, a wall of mysterious alcoves, each cavity displaying a different inhabitant, from Combarbalita stone to volcanic rocks, shipped directly from Chile in a bid to evoke the landscapes of the Andes for visitors. But while Chileans enthusiastically appreciate the broad selection of wines from their home country, Agarwal says: “We have a bit of educating to do to change the perception of Chilean wines to the general consumer.”

He is candid about the possibility of opening up the tightly hewn concept to include cameo appearances from different global wine regions. “To be honest, it [going completely Chilean] wasn’t an easy decision, and we were told many times that there could be risks by going in this direction, but we wanted to stay true to the aim of the project, and we felt that, once you open that box, it is difficult to know where the boundaries are,” he concedes.

Having already staged a series of nights called LatAm, “where we invited leading chefs from various Andean south countries to come and cook at Mareida”, Agarwal is now mulling the idea of collaborating with other wine bars “once in a while”.

Blind spot

Until Mareida arrived on the scene, Chilean food was something of a blind spot for UK diners. “I don’t think there was much awareness about Chilean cuisine in London before Mareida opened. The stereotype was to bucket Chile in with other countries in South America and assume they are all the same,” Agarwal says. “We have worked a lot with the Chilean Embassy to position Chile in its own league, and this is also reflective of what is happening in Chile itself, with many more restaurants entering established food guides.”

Indeed, Mareida recently earned its well-deserved position in The Michelin Guide, thanks to head chef Nico Einersen, originally from Concepción in Chile, but who has spent the last few years cooking in the UK, bringing “both an authentic connection to Chilean ingredients and technique, and a real understanding of what resonates with a London audience”, Agarwal adds. The combination has proved a winning one.

Local flavours: Mareida aims to evoke the Andean south beyond Chile alone

Sense of luxury

Among Agarwal’s favourite pairings at the restaurant is a lobster and gruyère cheese empanada, accompanied by a glass of Tatié by Tabalí, which “works wonderfully and has a sense of luxury”; and a mushroom anticucho (Peruvian kebab) alongside Amayna Sauvignon Blanc from the cool-climate Leyda subregion of the San Antonio Valley, right on the Chilean coast.

“The saline, mineral edge you get from those coastal vineyards plays beautifully against the char and umami of the anticucho,” says the restaurant owner, looking slightly misty-eyed as he pictures it.

Carmenere has easily been the biggest success story from Mareida’s wine list.

“It’s Chile’s flagship grape, with cuttings that were long mistaken for Merlot before being identified as a distinct, largely Chile-only variety in the 1990s,” says Agarwal. “And guests love ordering into that history once they hear it. We carry three Carmeneres, deliberately spread across very different price points and styles, so a guest can move from a casual glass to an occasion bottle without ever leaving the grape.”

At the entry level, there’s De Martino Legado from Maipo (£47), which Agarwal describes as “fresh and approachable”, and “where most first-time Carmenere drinkers start”. From there, Vik Omega from Cachapoal (£75) “shows a riper, more structured expression”. And at the top sits Montes Purple Angel from Apalta in Colchagua (£145), “one of the wines that put Chilean Carmenere on the world stage, from one of the country’s most celebrated old-vine terraced sites”.

Semillon and Albariño get ordered for a different reason: curiosity. “Most UK diners don’t associate Chile with either grape, so there’s a real sense of discovery,” says Agarwal.

Seasonal shift

Then there’s the seasonal shift. “Through the height of London summer, guests move noticeably toward our orange wines: skin-contact whites that pick up texture, grip and spice from extended time on their skins,” he adds. “They’re an easy sell in hot weather, because they drink with a little more weight and spice than a straight white, while staying refreshing; and, because they’re often unfamiliar, they tap into the same sense of discovery that drives people toward the Semillon and Albariño.”

Going forward, the restaurant team is considering offering “small wine flights” to help diners to get to know specific grapes. On the spirits side, Mareida uses Pisco exclusively in its cocktails, which, Agarwal adds, “gives guests an easy, approachable way into Chilean spirits beyond the classic Pisco Sour”.

As he puts it: “We want to represent what the current generation of Chileans are doing, and that means constantly evolving and staying fresh, and trying new ideas.”

Prenay Agarwal at a glance

Mumbai-born Prenay Agarwal grew up in Hong Kong and worked as an analyst for global mining company Zamin Resources, as well as in finance, founding cryptocurrency firm Monad Italy. He then trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Tokyo, undertaking instruction in French cuisine, pâtisserie and boulangerie, as well as Japanese cuisine. After meeting his Chilean husband Benjamin Figari, Agarwal spent a year in Chile, immersing himself in its food scene. “I’ve been lucky enough to live in many countries, but none which have stood out to me as much as Chile,” he has said. Agarwal and Figari opened London restaurant Mareida, dedicated to Chilean and Andean cuisine, in June 2025. Mareida was a new addition to The Michelin Guide in May 2026.

How to build an all-Chilean wine list

Alistair Cooper MW has a long history with Chilean wines stretching back almost 25 years. “I lived and worked there in the wine industry for several years and now I spend at least two months of the year there, writing a guide on the wines of Chile,” he tells db.

Cooper is also president of the Cata d’Or world wine awards, South America’s largest wine competition, and helped select the wines for the 100% Chilean list at Mareida.

“I think we have achieved a triumph in terms of having a good, broad selection of wines, styles and regions. There really is something for everyone,” he says.

Wines were chosen to match “the depth and innovation of Chilean cuisine”, but what would Cooper like his choices to reflect about the nation? “The key thing I’d like to convey through Mareida’s wine list is that Chile is geographically such a diverse country, and this is now reflected in its viticulture. It is something that I don’t think many people appreciate.”

According to Cooper, “seeing less mainstream varieties such as Carignan, Cinsault and Semillon get more visibility [at Mareida] has been great, and I have never come across a country that has such incredible old vines.”

How much of a role does he think sommelier guidance will play in the customer wine journey at Mareida? “I think people do come in with a limited idea of what they may want, and that is great. But to have the ability to also be guided through some grape varieties and styles that they maybe aren’t so familiar with from Chile is also vital for those wanting to experiment and experience more.”

He plans to rotate the wines on the list “seasonally”, but some of the most popular ‘icon’ wines will remain entrenched in the restaurant’s cellar, some with multiple vintages. Mareida’s list also highlights the “much deeper understanding that Chilean producers now have of specific grape varieties and what they need to do to express terroir both in the vineyard and in the cellar,” Cooper says.

“For example, two of Chile’s emblematic grape varieties, Carmenere and more recently Pais, have required a lot of learning as to how to coax out their nuance and fulfil their true potential. As a result, we are now seeing such beautiful expressions of both of these varieties. We have also seen a lighter, more elegant style of wine overall.”