If Mexico is to be defined in one word, it’d certainly be diverse. The landscape of the country varies from palm-fringed beaches and rainforests to snow-capped volcanoes and cacti-dotted deserts. It conjures up images of wide brimmed hats, Frida Kahlo and the majestic ruins left behind by the Aztecs and the Mayans.

Mexico’s vibrancy extends to its palate too; food here changes dramatically from state to state. The ingredients are diverse, and one can always expect a kick of herbs and spices. Dining out options range from taco stands in street corners and seafood on beach shacks to multi-course gourmet meals in Mexico City. Outside Mexico, the cuisine is commonly associated with Tex Mex classics like chipotle, cheese nachos and burritos. But there’s so much more to authentic Mexican cuisine than these Americanised dishes, as Masterchef UK winner Thomasina Miers discovered on her trip to Mexico.

Having always been good at Maths, Thomasina was set to be a tax consultant, a career picked for her by her father, but one where her heart didn’t lie. She even laboured at it for nine months to keep him happy. After a friend left for Mexico, Thomasina decided to pay her a visit.

On her first trip to Mexico, Thomasina stayed for four months, taking in all the sights, scenes and, most importantly, the flavours the vibrant country had to offer. It only helped that the matriarch of the family she stayed with had a kitchen stuffed with all kinds of cookbooks. Every single person she spoke to was passionate about food and eating, and took pride in feeding the guests. After an exciting time in Mexico, Thomasina struggled to build a conventional career back in the UK. She drifted from one underwhelming job to another, never really feeling satisfied, until celebrity British cook, Clarissa Dickson Wright, pushed her to explore cooking as a career after listening to her life story.

After earning her cooking chops, Thomasina returned to Mexico, this time to run a cocktail bar. She made full use of the time she spent there, going on taco tours, exploring the best late-night taquerias and eating her way around the states in a bid to get under the skin of the cuisine. This experience paved the way for her hugely successful career today. She won Masterchef in 2005, which gave her the cred required to eventually start Wahaca — a Mexican street food restaurant chain — when Mexican cuisine wasn’t prominent in London. Watch Thomasina describe her journey in her own words in the video below.

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Immersing herself in the culture of Mexico is what finally brought passion, meaning and success to Thomasina Miers’ life. Her experience shows that some trips can, indeed, be life-changing. This is the insight behind Lufthansa’s #LifeChangingPlaces campaign, which asks ‘how much of who you are is where you’ve been?’

With this campaign, Lufthansa aims to facilitate life-changing trips for people. They even have an interesting tool for it. When you visit the website lifechangingplaces.com on your smartphone, you will see an option to click and upload a photo of your surroundings. Based on where you are, Lufthansa will show you where you can be – dancing the samba in Sao Paulo, painting traditional masks in Beijing, paragliding in Rio...all you have to do is keep an open mind. To plan your life changing trip and explore Lufthansa’s #LifeChangingPlaces campaign, click here.

This article was produced by the Scroll marketing team on behalf of Lufthansa and not by the Scroll editorial team.