Maharlika Restaurant, 111 1st Avenue, New York, NY
For Reservations please call 646.392.7880
Maharlika, New York's premiere Filipino restaurant, features Chef Akiko as its next - and first Japanese - Guest Chef! Akiko brings a Japanese twist to Filipino food with a prefixe menu consisting of 10 courses, this is a one night event not to be missed!
Japanese born and raised, New York chef Akiko Thurnauer first got noticed for her culinary talents in 2003, in a rather unusual manner. The traditional Japanese bento lunch boxes she prepared for her husband Eric garnered so much attention from his envious co-workers that they became the springboard for a thriving lunch box business. With enthusiastic coverage from the New York Times and NY Post soon after, Akiko’s culinary career was born.
Akiko trained with stints at restaurants Nobu Tribeca and Pichet Ong’s dessert bar PON*G, as well as at two fine catering companies, Danny Meyer’s Union Square Events (formerly Hudson Yards) and Creative Edge Parties. She opened her first restaurant on Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side in June of 2011. With Family Recipe, Chef Akiko honed her unique point of view as a chef, drawing upon her own personal influences (and her actual family recipes) to create a space that featured reinvented Japanese comfort food through the lens of refined dining. The public took notice, with positive nods from the New York Times, Village Voice, Eater and others, culminating in a Michelin Bib Gourmand listing in 2012.
Family Recipe closed in 2013, but Chef Akiko hasn’t slowed down. She took first runner up when she competed on popular food competition show Chopped, and won the top prize in the FYI network’s Midnight Feast cooking show. She recently spent time cooking at cult ramen destination Ivan Ramen before moving to the acclaimed L.E.S. hot spot Mission Chinese Food. But all throughout, Chef Akiko has maintained her own business as a private chef and caterer.
This place is a gem, so full of wonderfully inventive dishes and flavor combinations that I would rank it among my top 5 favorite restaurants right now. And this after being open only 3 weeks!
The quality of the food is superb implementing both local and imported ingredients from Japan. It was a delight to experience such an array of paired ingredients exacted with precise culinary techniques.
