• 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.

You don’t love someone because of their looks or their clothes or their car. You love them because they sing a song only your heart can understand.”

– L.J. Smith

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

– Madam C.J. Walker

There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

– Leonard Cohen

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

– Oscar Wilde

We are not meant to resolve all contradictions, but to live with them and rise above them.”

– William Blake

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

– Albert Einstein

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.”

– Voltaire

Letting go of expectations is a ticket to peace. It allows us to ride over every crisis—small or large—like a beach ball on water.”

– Martha Beck

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

– Eckhart Tolle

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

– Nelson Mandela

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

– William Shakespeare

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

Change is a math formula. Change happens when the cost of the status quo is greater than the risk of change.”

– Alan Webber, author, "Rules of Thumb"

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

– Anita Roddick

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

– Martha Beck

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

– Goldie Hawn

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

– Arundhati Roy

How do you stay resilient? It’s about momentum. Like riding a bicycle. If you stop you fall over. So I keep pedaling.”

– Diane Lane

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.”

– Francesca Reigle

When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

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

– Debbi Fields, Mrs. Fields Cookies

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which obstacles vanish.”

– John Quincy Adams

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

– Charles Dickens

Find somebody to be successful for. Raise their hopes. Think of their needs.”

– Barack Obama

You’ve got to be willing to crash and burn. If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t get very far.”

– Steve Jobs

Traveling is one way of lengthening life, at least in appearance.”

– Benjamin Franklin

You may ask me for anything you like except time.”

– Napoleon

Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.”

– Albert Einstein

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

– Thomas Edison

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

– Seneca

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.”

– Thomas Carlyle

Ripeness is all.”

– William Shakespeare

That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.”

– Henry David Thoreau

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

– Annie Dillard

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

– Andrew Carnegie

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

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Atari

Almost anyone can start a community, but it takes real talent and commitment to get people to show up and keep coming back.”

– Andy Sernovitz

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.”

– John F. Kennedy

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

– Alfred Adler

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

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

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

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

– Michelle Sedas

Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love.”

– Jalaluddin Rumi

It is only when the mind is free from the old that it meets everything anew, and in that there is joy.”

– J. Kristnhamurti, The First and Last Freedom

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

– Charles R. Swindoll

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

– Henry David Thoreau

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

– Optimism rules

As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

– Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

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

– Avenida Margarita

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in your room.”

– A wisdomism