Lucas Putnam & Marianne Elliott
Born in New York, Lucas Putnam moved to California as a child and grew up eating Mexican food. Previously an editor at Pixar, in 2001 Lucas moved to Wellington to work at Weta Digital on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The films kept coming, he stuck around, became a citizen and now calls New Zealand home. But he never lost his love for Mexican food, and eventually realised the way to bring the flavours of his childhood to his adopted home was to open a Mexican restaurant in Miramar. Lucas opened La Boca Loca with his Kiwi partner Marianne.
Marianne Elliott is a human rights lawyer who until 2007 worked for the United Nations in Afghanistan. She shares Lucas’s passion for fish tacos and tequila, and for helping people develop a more sustainable and nourishing relationship with food.