Other
Lord Maynard Llera
James Beard Award winner
- Discipline
- Other
i. Biography
Lord Maynard Llera moves through Los Angeles with a kitchen vocabulary shaped by formal schooling, chain service, opening work, and later management. As chef owner of Kuya Lord in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, he has turned those different registers into one restaurant language: personal history translated through prep, seasoning, and service. His training at the Culinary Institute of America sits alongside a tenure as Culinary Director at The H.wood Group, giving his work a line from technical formation to larger operational control.
The Climb
Training at San Sebastian College – Recoletos and The Culinary Institute of America gives Lord Maynard Llera a route marked by both local grounding and formal technique. The combination points to a working standard built on repetition, discipline, and the sort of fluency that comes from time on the line. He worked as fry cook and mascot at Jollibee in Norwalk, California, a post that places him inside the daily mechanics of high-volume feeding. He then became opening sous chef at Bestia in Los Angeles, California, taking on the demands that come with an opening kitchen and the pressure of helping set a room’s pace from day one. Culinary direction at H.wood Group (2017–2019) widened the scale of that work. The role moved him beyond a single station and into the coordination, oversight, and precision required across a larger operation. Seen together, the sequence shows a progression from hands-on service to broader culinary management. Since 2019, he has been chef owner of Kuya Lord, where that accumulated experience has a direct outlet.
Today
"My name is Lord Maynard Llera, I'm the chef owner of Kuya Lord." The line is plain, and that plainness fits the work: a kitchen identity stated without ornament, with the responsibility attached to ownership already implied. He has said, "The menu is the story of my childhood food favorites," which places the restaurant’s point of view in remembered home cooking rather than abstraction. He has also said, "My goal was opening a restaurant influenced by the culture, traditions and flavors of my home country." Taken together, those statements define a menu built from memory, inheritance, and the specific flavors he chose to carry forward. At Kuya Lord, that framework shapes the house style. The name suggests familiarity, but the real structure is the way the restaurant holds culture, family, and personal history in one service model. Lord Maynard Llera’s approach reads less like concept-building than translation: taking remembered food and turning it into something immediate at the table.
In Their Words “My goal was opening a restaurant influenced by the culture, traditions and flavors of my home country.” “My name is Lord Maynard Llera, I'm the chef owner of Kuya Lord.”
Recognition
Lord's honors include James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: California (2024).
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Lord
What is Lord Maynard Llera's current role?
As of 2026, Lord Maynard Llera is Chef Owner.
Where did Lord Maynard Llera train or study?
Lord Maynard Llera trained at San Sebastian College – Recoletos and The Culinary Institute of America.
What recognition has Lord Maynard Llera received?
James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: California (2024).
