Chef Chris Mauricio grew up in the kitchen, learning Filipino cooking techniques from their grandmother. By age 17, Chris had left their family in San Diego to attend culinary school, a growing passion, in Portland, Oregon. Their wife Eva was born and raised in the Hudson Valley, and living on the West Coast always dreamed of moving back to New York.
Their love of food has brought them to the Hudson Valley.
Chris and Eva shared that food has always been at the center of their relationship, including their travel, friends-and-family gatherings, and life celebrations. They consider food one of their love languages, and talk of their food as a serenade to their customers. Even going as far as to name their business “Harana” after a traditional Filipino musical courtship. Through their perseverance and hard work, Harana Market has become a food destination in itself, bringing multi-generational Filipino recipes to the Hudson Valley. The people have spoken, and the fresh flavors Chris brings to the plate have been widely praised. James Beard nominated chef Chris for the best chef in New York 2024.
Chris and I discussed the history of Harana Market, their culinary background, and why the Hudson Valley is such a great place to enjoy cooking and community.
Jason: Tell me how you got involved in cooking.
Chris: The restaurant industry? Well, cooking and just food in general was through my grandparents. I was very close with my grandparents. They loved to cook and they insisted that I be in the kitchen with them. They insisted I learn from them, and through cooking show our family’s history. They’re from different parts of the Philippines. My grandmother’s from a little bit outside of Manila, and my grandfather’s Ilocano, which is northern Philippines. So they have very different flavor profiles, which was really fun growing up and actually kind of complementary to each other, I would say.
Jason: At what point did you go to culinary school?
Chris: I kept cooking on my own through high school, and I started to realize I actually really do love cooking and sharing food with people. I thought, I’m not quite sure if college is right for me.
I said, “Uncle, I think I’m going to go to culinary school. Can I go live with you for a little bit?” That was me right out of high school, and I just learned a lot really fast.
Jason: When did the jump to the restaurant happen?
Chris : It wasn’t until, really, I met Eva that I started to do small catering jobs. I was working in real estate for a little while, and one of the agents was doing an open house and needed food. So I made her food for the open house. That was sort of the moment for me. I was 28 at the time. I want to say that was around 2014.
Jason: Did the catering stuff take off out there?
Chris: It wasn’t growing per se. We both had nine-to-five jobs that we were just sort of focused on and it was time for us to leave the Bay Area. We just sort of had reached our time limit. We talked about moving to a variety of different places. We landed on moving to Brooklyn because Eva wanted to move upstate and I wasn’t ready for all of that. So six months into living in Brooklyn, the Covid lockdown happened. Then we moved up here. We’re definitely a Covid move.
When we first we moved to Phoenicia, we were driving to Woodstock, and that’s when we drove by the old Wittenberg Store. We saw that it was for lease and they had a commercial kitchen. It was basically like a residential stove, but we just sort of looked at each other like Oh, my god! Imagine how cool this could be.”
Jason: That’s so unexpected to actually bring Filipino food to Bearsville. That section of the woods in the middle of nowhere.
Chris: I was missing home and I was missing family. I just needed a little bit of that comfort. Plus I was having a hard time finding any role. There were no Asian groceries in the area. So I told Eva, “Why don’t we try selling Asian groceries in the front and hot food in the back. We’ll do one pot of rice, one meat, one veg.” She said okay, and then it morphed from there. We had more than just two dishes and it just kind of blew up. It was very much beyond our dreams. It’s crazy now.
Jason: So I delivered beverages for my family business, Esotec beverages, for 39 years. I delivered beverages to Cub Market in Bearsville. I went in there, I want to say her name’s Allison. She’s like, “I have these pastries from this new place in the old Wittenberg Store.” I think she said it’s Filipino.
Chris: Oh, god. Right from our first opening weekend it was really out of control. It was just me and chef Sam Fernandez.
Jason: Ahh, I’m good friends with Sam!
Chris: I called Sam and was like, can you help me because I think this is going to be something!? We had people basically stopped in the road in both directions, trying to find a place to pull over, trying to park. Cops came!
Jason: How many years were you in Bearsville?
Chris: We were there for three years. Three years, and it was pandemonium. About sixmonths into business in Bearsville, we started looking for a bigger space. So we teamed up with our broker and made a new spot happen. This building used to be a gym. Before that, it was the Pizza Barn. They also did barbecue here.
Jason: I always considered the Hudson Valley to be this super progressive, eccentric area of the country. You know? To me it was always like California, New York, and the Hudson Valley.
Chris: Yeah. Yeah, totally.
Jason: You were a destination, and that’s the one common thread between Bearsville and Accord. You are still a destination and you’re still kind of on your own in the middle of nowhere. You don’t have any competition out here. Draws a lot of attention to you in this area. This isn’t going to work in, like middle of nowhere Ohio, right?
Chris: I don’t really have those preconceived notions of the Hudson Valley. I think that’s why I was so bold and just opened here. I do feel like there are a lot of people who are craving this sort of different food establishment and what people would consider not very predominantly white spaces, right?
I think what sets Harana apart is we are trying to uplift and support the AAPI and the queer people. I think oftentimes the Hudson Valley has this narrative that it’s just like a bunch of white people here. I think that’s kind of what sets us apart. We are creating the space to be able to serve those people and to make them feel welcome in a place that they may not otherwise feel welcome.
Jason: Out of curiosity, would you name any other local restaurants that are doing similar service for the queer community?
Chris: There’s a really substantial portion of the population, in this area, that are queer and trans and we’re certainly not the only ones. I would say other establishments that provide that sort of space, the very obvious one, would be Unicorn Bar in Kingston or Snug’s in New Paltz. They do some programming. Camp Kingston would be another one. Sam’s a good guy. And Salt Box. Queer Kingston. I mean, it’s not just like an establishment, but as an organization, they really are helping create those spaces and a variety of spaces. You know what I mean?
Jason: You’re not hiding it. You’re not holding back.
Chris: No. We are like, look at us. Come here. We accept everybody. I feel like this can also be a touchy subject. Especially right now. I think the idea of being visible right now is tough, right? Because the face of the business is me and Eva, and we are also living in this community. We live in Accord. So being visible in a time where it feels scary to be visible is a target. People honk at us on 209, you know.
Jason: Are they friendly honks?
Chris: No, no, they’re not. We’ve seen some people posting online about us, about how, you know, we are liberals and, so on and so forth. So it’s definitely not the time to shy away from the visibility. I’ve been queer for 40 years, and I certainly don’t plan on doing anything different.
Jason: Is service still included in the price or do we tip now?
Chris: So we definitely have included tip in the past. We still pay everyone a living wage. It’s a little bit of a subject that we’re still talking through. Gratuities are certainly welcomed but they’re not required. We want to make sure that anybody can come eat here at Harana Market. We still have our salo salo board and on Sundays queer and trans people eat for free. There’s no attachment to the old-school gratuity way, but if you feel like you’ve received amazing service by all means. I mean, there is no questions asked here. Just come in, say, I’m here for the family meal and no problem.
The whole purpose of these types of programs is to ensure that anybody can come here. The idea , the concept here, is that you’re in our home and we are very fortunate to work in food and to have access to food. So many people don’t have that access. So it’s really important that we are nourishing our community, Food is so important, and everyone’s gotta eat, so that’s the thing that we’re just trying to bridge.
Jason: Where did you come up with the name Harana market?
Chris: Harana means serenade. It’s a very traditional form of courtship, when someone is interested in someone, they’ll gather their buddies and a guitar, and sing harana songs. They’re like love songs underneath the window of the person that they’re trying to court, and if the person that is being sung to opens their window, that means they are open to the courtship. People still do it. It’s really very sweet.
Harana, Serenade, is kind of connected to music. We were in Woodstock and I’m a huge fan of music. So it just felt like the right thing, you know? Also, serenade felt important because we knew that a lot of our neighbors in Bearsville had maybe never tried Filipino food before. So we wanted to make it kind of romantic. Open your window and try us out.
Jason: So how do you incorporate all of this Hudson Valley influence into your Filipino cooking? How did you melt the two together?
Chris: What’s really exciting about the Hudson Valley, like you mentioned, it’s like the breadbasket of New York. A very familiar feeling to me because I grew up in California, and the produce that’s grown here is really incredible. Also the proteins are really, really nice. Pork, beef, chicken, eggs. We try to shop as New York local as possible. I think taking the Filipino flavors that I know and love and utilizing Hudson Valley ingredients has been really fun because I get to think a little bit more about what’s in season in this area. Seasonally, you know. What can we cook that’s nearby?
Jason: What ingredients are you using right now going into the summer?
Chris: A lot of corn. I’m obsessed with corn. So I’m going to do a corn soup. It’s gonna have shrimp and water spinach in it. I think it’s gonna hit really nicely. There’s also this dessert that I’ve been work shopping for a couple years, but it’s like never been right enough to put on the menu. It’s called mais con yelo. It’s basically corn kernels, and then a creamed corn that I make in-house, but not like a creamed corn from a can, and it’s layered with shaved ice and then we put evaporated milk on top, frosted flakes, and a piece of flan.
Jason: Do you get your corn from Davenport’s, or where is it from?
Chris: We get them from Saunderskill. We just go over there and say, Load me up.
Jason: So let’s talk a little bit about the James Beard nomination thing. How did you get nominated?
Chris: You and I are on the same page with that one. I have no idea. What I’ve deduced is in order to be nominated, you have to cook the cuisine for three years in your area, and so I was nominated at the very tail end of our time in Wittenberg. They just send somebody in to test you out or something. Well, when we got the news that I was a semifinalist, we were told that someone is going to come and we don’t know if it’s one person or if it’s like a whole group. So we just kind of continued to do our thing and see what happened. They don’t announce themselves, so it’s like a secret.
If I could just use this platform to plug, our work hiring needs. Partially why we are closed today, for example, is because we’re short-staffed. I’ve been basically doing the job of three people. It’s not sustainable. We’ve been able to stay open normal hours, but I also need to find a little bit of balance in my own life. So, I think we need to bring in a few more people to make that happen for the summer. So, I’m open to all of it. I would say some of the people who have reached out to us to apply for jobs are people within the queer and trans community, but we also have quite a few people who are not within that community that work here as well. So I’m open for anyone. We are all-inclusive here.
Jason: No problem. Seems, staffing is a major problem in the Hudson Valley. I hear it from most of the restaurants I have relationships with. Everyone is always short-staffed, it seems.
Chris: I really just want to say that I love cooking, and I love that the Hudson Valley has embraced us, that we’re able to do this thing here. I’m grateful for all the local producers and makers that help make my job a little bit more fun and a little easier. Just the community that’s been surrounding us, just like a lot of gratitude — and I just want to keep cooking.
Jason: You’re here for the long run. Very cool.
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