If you wanted to scare the livin' bejaysus out of someone, tell them that they're going to be assisting Diana Kennedy in a food demo at the Ballymaloe Cookery School, during the Kerrygold Litfest.
You know Diana Kennedy, the nonagenarian, leather-trouser wearing, keeps-a-rifle-under-the-bed gal who brought Mexican food to the West, and who can silence a whispering student with a one line barb that ricochets off the walls.
For Lily Ramirez, cook blogger, and the most visible face of Mexican cooking in Ireland, such a challenge is just a day's work, just the kind of thing you do if your gig is bringing real Mexican food and culture to the people of Ireland. Diana Kennedy? At Ballymaloe? Bring her on, and let's get it on with the tamales and the tacos, a rip-roaring show of two feisty gals who can trade quips and barbs and gags all day long, with Ms Ramirez showing she is equal to the measure of the legendary Ms Kennedy.
Or what about a demo at Electric Picnic, a chance to show the crowds that Mexican food is complex, subtle and endlessly sophisticated? Not a bother, just hand Lily her food processor and away she goes. Composing a smashing, involving and enlightening blog at amexicancook.ie? Easy peasy, just hand her that keyboard and let Lily enlighten you in the mysteries and mores of the mole, and a whole lot more besides.
Ms Ramirez's secret is not just that she is unflappable, but also that she is extremely funny: she sees the humour, the joke, the ridiculous in just about everything, which is why audiences respond so well to her. But it's not just jokes and tequila in the world of My Mexican Shop: Ms Ramirez and her partner, Alan, have just opened Picado Mexican, a bricks-and-mortar Mexican food store in South Richmond Street, Dublin 2. To walk into it and shop in it will be to experience the magic, the grace and the magnificence of Mexican cooking, and we will all be even more grateful to Ms Ramirez.