Advice For Life

Some excellent advice for life today (via the Memphis Flyer) from Bea Gonzalez, now retired from running her wonderful restaurant, Lupe and Bea's. It was on North Watkins, less than a mile from me here and now, and served wonderful Mexican and Cuban dishes. She's got a new cookbook out and will be signing copies at noon on Saturday, at Davis-Kidd Booksellers.

Anyway, she says:

"Many of these are [recipes] I've invented. It was always a handful of this, a little more of that. Till you get it right. And you just do it. You make it."

"The man said he was looking for work and I said, no, I can't afford to pay anybody. I can't afford to pay myself. But he begged me, "Oh please just give me a chance. Give me two weeks to work for you and don't pay me -- just so I can show you what I can do."

That man was Esteban Nodal, who worked with her from that day until the closing of Lupe and Bea's in 1996.

Something to consider.