Aspen, Elena Alvarez must free herself from her past in order to move on with her life. She accepts the challenges of creating a new restaurant and all that it involves–creating new cuisine, a new menu, hiring staff, planning decor–along with establishing herself as a female executive chef in a kitchen filled with male co-workers. After surviving a tragedy, Elena is hesitant to believe in her own abilities as well as in love. The Lost Recipe for Happiness offers interesting insights into the world of the restaurant business and what creativity it takes to develop recipes and launch a successful new business. Elena brings her own recipes to the restaurant from her New Mexico background and each chapter begins with a southwestern-style recipe. The ingredients of love, food and cooking combine to make this an enjoyable story of love and the search for happiness.