Beatriz De Proano

Beatriz was born in Lima, Peru in 1928. She came from a good home — her father was a diplomat and her mother ran her own business. Beatriz had a German nanny and went to a German school in Lima until her father’s career took the family to Chile when she was fifteen. When she was twenty, Beatriz married an Ecuadorian cattle rancher who raised bulls for bullfights; they divorced when she was twenty-three. She then married the love of her life, an architect named Guillermo, when she was twenty-six. Together they raised three children and were married for forty-six years, until his death last year.

Even though her family employed a cook, Beatriz could not stay away from the kitchen. She’d always want to watch and help. It ended abruptly when she was nine — she was banished from the kitchen for cutting meat intended for stew into pieces too small to use. This didn’t keep Beatriz out of the kitchen, however – she always insisted on making the family meals on the cook’s night off.

Even though Beatriz was a working mother (selling real estate and managing buildings), she kept cooking alongside the cooks she hired for her family. Her husband, Guillermo, was known to proclaim: “the best restaurant in Lima is my house.”

Many believe that the secret to being a good cook is being a good eater. This holds true for Beatriz. A Peruvian politician nicknamed her “Ceviche” because as a little girl she couldn’t get enough of it. When she was about to give birth to her daughter, Luciana, Beatriz was staying at an aunt’s house to be near the hospital. Her aunt had just finished making “Chupe” (a traditional shrimp soup) when Beatriz began having severe contractions. Rather than rushing to the hospital, Beatriz insisted on staying and finishing her Chupe. She’d take a spoonful and walk around the dining room table, so she could forget about the pain. When her aunt asked her why she didn’t just go to the hospital, she said “I want to finish my Chupe – it’s too good not to finish!” We hope you feel the same way about Beatriz’s specialties.

Provecho!