• Columnists

Chef Edgar Alvarez, Avenida Restaurant

COLUMN = FOOD

I grew up in Guatemala, and the thing that is etched in my memory is the scene of my grandmother, aunts, and mother preparing a meal at my grandmother’s ranch outside the city. It was an all-day affair, for we were a giant family and when breakfast ended, all the women in the family would go off to the market to buy the freshest produce, meat, and fish for lunch and dinner. They did not have much to spend, but la comida was always full of love and flavor.

I remember my mother plucking fresh chickens in the yard. She would cut up tons of vegetables and then toss everything in a giant pot. It would simmer just long enough to bring out the most mouthwatering flavors.

She was truly an amazing chef, although she would never consider herself one. But she taught me everything I know. I watched closely the way she would add some of this and not too much of that. She gave me a love for good, healthy, hearty food just like the kind I prepare today.

When I came to this country, I worked as a sous chef at some of the best restaurants in Philadelphia, including the original Dock Street, the four-star restaurant The Striped Bass, and the gourmet Chinese restaurant, Susanna Foo. I had the opportunity to work under the excellent chefs who cooked there, as well as Phillippe Chin and Keong Bahn, when I worked at Phillippe.

After fine-tuning my skills, I was ready to go off on my own in 1999 and became the head chef at The Black Sheep near Rittenhouse Square. Although Irish pub cuisine was new to me, I decided to mix what I knew well with traditional pub-grub recipes. On opening we served elegant comfort food that received rave reviews, and later several awards from Philadelphia magazine’s “Best Of” series, among others.

What I love about being a chef is that there is always something new and different to learn. And after I married my wife, Chef Kim Katz Alvarez, and we had our beautiful children, Emma and Alejandro, we moved to the suburbs and I was eager to see what the Main Line had to offer. I was not disappointed.

In 2004, we bought the Delaware Market House in Gladwyne, a 100-year-old establishment with a wonderful history that Kim and I turned into one of the most unique gourmet markets and catering companies in the region, as CNN Money noted. We closed the Market in March and soon after began working on opening our new restaurant, Avenida.

The goal for me as head chef at this new Latin American restaurant is to bring my childhood memories to life for my kids and my customers. I hope that everyone I cook for thoroughly enjoys their food, and leaves the table with a renewed zest for all that life has to offer.

For more information about Avenida, visit www.avenidarestaurant.com. And to make a reservation to sample the fine Latin American dishes that are getting rave reviews, call Kim Katz Alvarez at 267.385.6857.

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

– Magical

He who knows he has enough is rich.”

– Tao Te Ching

You must learn to be still in the midst of activity 
and to be vibrantly alive in repose.”

– Indira Ghandi

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.”

– Benjamin Disraeli

A truly forgiving person is someone who experiences all the anger merited by injustice and still acts with fairness and compassion.”

– Martha Beck

Destiny is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

– William Jennings Bryan

There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.”

– Christopher Morley

Do not say, ‘why were the former days better than these,’ for it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”

– Ecclesiastes, 7:10

But all the while I was alone, the past was close behind, I seen a lot of women, but she never escaped my mind, and I just grew, tangled up in blue.”

– Bob Dylan

The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. The greatest failure is to not try.”

– Debbi Fields, Mrs. Fields Cookies

The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.”

– Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court justice

Women once had the goal of being Superwoman; I think most of us now simply strive to have a super day.”

– Author, Activist Lee Woodruff

Confidence is the most important thing you can teach someone… if you can teach them confidence, you don’t have to teach them anything else.”

– Vin Diesel

A man without a smiling face
 should not open a shop.”

– Chinese Proverb

A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.”

– Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.”

– Henry David Thoreau

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

– Albert Einstein

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”

– Mark Twain

Do you believe it is important to give back some portion of your wealth to support charitable causes?”

– Steven Schussler

Don’t wait for someone else to lead you to your right life; that privilege—and responsibility—is yours alone.”

– Martha Beck

That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.”

– Henry David Thoreau

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. 
Now put foundations under them.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

– Thomas Edison

Education is an admirable thing to have, but it is well to remember that nothing worth knowing can be taught.”

– Oscar Wilde

Inspiration and genius — one and the same.”

– Victor Hugo

Ripeness is all.”

– William Shakespeare

If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.”

– Joseph Addison

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing.”

– Maya Angelou

My goal was to tell the life side of the story. We have become a nation of voyeurs that expect sensationalism, and that offends me.”

– Kathleen Jo Ryan

Are you willing to help other people succeed even when it’s not a requirement of your job to be of assistance?”

– Steven Schussler

Let us seize the day and the opportunity and strive for that greatness of spirit that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities.”

– W.E.B. Du Bois

Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!”

– Madam C.J. Walker

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”

– Audre Lorde

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.”

– Charles Dickens

What is the point of having free will if one cannot occasionally spit in the eye of destiny?”

– Jim Butcher, White Night

‎Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”

– Booker T. Washington

Do not be afraid of mistakes, providing you do not make the same one twice.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

– Leonardo da Vinci

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

– Anais Nin

Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.”

– Arthur Rubinstein

That which grows fast withers as rapidly; that which grows slowly endures.”

– J.G. Holland, novelist

Why am I whispering when I have something to say?”

– Eve Ensler

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

– Leo Jozef Suenens

The person who makes a success of living is the one who see his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.”

– Cecil B. DeMille

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

– Robert Frost

You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it.”

– Goldie Hawn

Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible.”

– Lord Chesterfield

A lot of people have ideas, but few decide to do something about them now. Not next week. But today.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Atari

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.”

– Lao Tzu

Never never never never give up.”

– Winston Churchill

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

– Winston Churchill

We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.”

– General Omar Bradley

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!”

– Andrew Carnegie

My task is really not to change myself but to become familiar with who I am.”

– Maureen Cook

A person who learns to juggle six balls will be more skilled than the person who never tries to juggle more than three.”

– Marilyn vos Savant

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”

– Winston Churchill

Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”

– Groucho Marx

The only dream worth having is to live while you’re alive and die only when you’re dead.”

– Arundhati Roy

There is little success where there is little laughter.”

– Andrew Carnegie

To find what you seek in the road of life, leave no stone unturned.”

– Edward Bulwer Lytton

Who cares if my glass is half empty or half full; I still have something to drink.”

– Optimism rules

They who give have all things. They who withhold have nothing.”

– Hindu Proverb

We are perfectionists. We are hungry to work all the time. We are entertained by every aspect of business and we never want to stop working.”

– Suzy Welch

If people like you they’ll listen to you; if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.”

– Zig Ziglar

The dove descending breaks the air / With flame of inkandescent terror.”

– T.S. Eliott

If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.”

– Jesse Jackson

The goal of Life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with nature.”

– Joseph Cambell

Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.”

– Annie Dillard

An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.“


– Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton Industries

Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of innovation that indicate opportunities for success.”

– Peter F. Drucker

Passion makes perfect.”

– Eugene Biro

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

– Leon Joseph Suenens

It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.”

– Alfred Adler

The follow-your-gut mentality of the entrepreneur has the potential to take you anywhere you want to go or run you right out of business.”

– Bill Rancic, "The Apprentice"

If you were independently wealthy and never had to work a day in your life, would you still choose to spend your time attempting to become a successful entrepreneur?”

– Steven Schussler

If it really was a no-brainer to make it on your own in business there’d be millions of no-brained, harebrained individuals quitting their day jobs.”

– Bill Rancic, "The Apprentice"

I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun.”

– John D. Rockefeller

I may not be able to change what takes place, but I can always choose to change my thinking.”

– Michelle Sedas

Part of your destiny is to live in the zone of maximum satisfaction.”

– Martha Beck

Remove those ‘I want you to like me’ stickers from your forehead
and, instead, place them where they truly will do the most good—on your mirror.”

– Susan Jeffers

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!”

– Andrew Carnegie

Treat the attainment of happiness in the same way an entrepreneur would approach building a business — with a vision, plan, goals, and a systematic approach.”

– Ted Leonsis

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

You don’t go into a field that requires cracking people’s heads open or operating on something as delicate as the spinal cord unless you are comfortable with taking risks.”

– Dr. Ben Carson

Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail. There’s only make.”

– Corita Kent

Success is about finding a livelihood that brings joy, self-sufficiency, and a sense of contributing.”

– Anita Roddick

The journey is the reward.”

– Greg Norman

Our deepest wishes are whispers of our authentic selves. We must learn to respect them. We must learn to listen.”

– Sarah Ban Breathnach

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it”

– Andrew Carnegie

I’m not afraid of storms,
for I’m learning to sail my ship.”

– Louisa May Alcott

If you want to be busy, keep trying to be perfect. If you want to be happy, focus on making a difference.”

– Lisa Earle McLeod

The world I believed in, back in my most innocent, uninformed, childish mind—is real.”

– Martha Beck

Whosoever knows how to fight well is not angry. Whosoever knows how to conquer enemies does not fight them.”

– Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent.“


– Thomas Edison

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

– T.S. Eliot

4oz tequila + 1oz TripleSec + 2oz lime juice + 1oz simple syrup (sugar=water), 1 cup crushed ice. Shake + dance around the kitchen.

– Avenida Margarita

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams go, life is a barren field frozen with snow.”

– Langston Hughes

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

– Joseph Campbell

Some things are destined to be—it just takes us a couple of tries
to get there.”

– J.R. Ward, Lover Mine

Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

– Christopher Robin to Pooh