Chef Vicky Pacheco is the Executive Chef and COO of the 1771 Group of Restaurants.  She is a joy to watch in the kitchen. She’s bubbly, and happy, and very inspirational.

When she first saw me, I was inspecting the Le Creuset enameled cast iron pans on the demo table and she smiled at me and said, “mahal ano?” I laughed because that was the exact thing I was thinking about.

Her demo  is featuring the dishes of her newest baby – the Flatiron Restaurant in BGC at the the Ground Floor of Uptown Place Mall in the  36th Street Corner 9th Avenue. Flatiron is the griddle (which is a flat iron or plantcha) where burgers, grilled sandwiches, steaks, pancakes, meat, etc. are cooked directly. According to Chef Vicky, the restaurant is envisioned to provide good urban comfort food that is designed for the Filipino palates straight from the griddle. It serves steaks, pastas, pizzas, salads, pork chop, lamb stew, and burgers.

She demonstrated how to cook the following dishes:

• –Flatiron Brisket 6 – Fork-tender beef brisket slow-cooked for 6 hours in aromatics; served with sautéed brown and red rice and fresh cucumber-carrot slaw

• -Chicken Piccata – Succulent thinly-pounded breaded chicken breast fried in butter & tossed in lemon butter sauce; lightly creamed spaghettini

• -Pizzaiola Pasta – Bowtie pasta, napolitaine sauce, bell peppers, salami and bacon covered with cheese and gratinated

• -Pomelo Orzo Salad – Lettuce, orzo pasta, pomelo, crumbled parmesan cheese, fried spinach, grilled lemon vinaigrette

• -Manhattan Seafood Chowder – A tomato-based chowder with fresh fish chunks, shrimps, clams and bacon

As you can see, these are all comfort food dishes, the kind that you want to eat when you’re feeling low, sick, or tired. My favorite among all of the dishes is the Flatiron Brisket 6. As in OMG, I was still dreaming about it 3 days after the event. It was rich, and succulent -not dry at all, which was I kind of expecting. The taste of wine and the celery did something to my tastebuds that Ill never forget. Halfway home I was already figuring out how to make it using a slow cooker as it takes 6 hours to cook in an oven.

I also really liked the Manhattan Fish Chowder. It was so tasty and delicious. Best for those cold rainy days and just because days when you’re hankering for some soup to fill you or your family up. If a hubby or kid is sick, this would be a great dish! And did I mention it was healthy?
Thanks at The Maya Kitchen for inviting me to this event! For more information and schedule of cooking and baking demos, go to to www.themayakitchen.com!

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Disclosure. This post was #commissioned. All the ideas, views, and input was mine.