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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.

Your own words are the bricks and mortar
of the dreams you want to realize.
 The words you choose and their use establish the life you experience.”

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

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The best reason to start an organization is to create a product or service to make the world a better place.”

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

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

– Steve Jobs

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”

– Abraham Lincoln

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

Inspiration and genius — one and the same.”

– Victor Hugo

There is little success where there is little laughter.”

– Andrew Carnegie

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

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

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

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Most people never pick up the phone and call. Most people never ask, and that’s what separates the people who do things from the people who just dream about them.”

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

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

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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?”

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

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That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

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Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.”

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

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

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A people who mean to be their Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

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Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.”

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

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

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Everyone is a mirror image of yourself—your own thinking coming back at you.”

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The quality of your life is directly related to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably live with.”

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Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.”

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

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

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

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There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

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

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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.”

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

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

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Do you have the desire to create something new; the strength of conviction to believe your creation will be successful, and the reservoir of energy necessary to thrust it into the marketplace?”

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

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If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.”

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A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.”

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

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

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

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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.”

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

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It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,
 what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

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

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No longer talk at all about the kind of man a good man ought to be, but be such.”

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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