Being the first and last Spanish colony established in the region, Cuban food is a blend of Spanish, African, Native Taino, and Caribbean ingredients and cooking styles. Though typically based on meat and is highly seasoned, Cuban cuisine also uses tropical produce like plantains and guava relying on its island location, and its tropical climate. Beyond the famous Cuban sandwich, there is a heaven of delicious dishes waiting for you to explore not just by reaching this land but also through 10 best Cuban cookbooks introduced in this article. Let’s check out!
The Cuban Table: A Celebration of Food, Flavors, and History
No products found.
“A must-have for anyone who loves cooking Cuban food” – Bryan Anderton
Generally, Cuban home cooks do not comfortably share their recipes but fiercely protective of their secrets. As a result, Ana Sofia Pelaez and award-winning photographer Ellen Silverman traveled through Cuba, Miami, and New York to document and learn about traditional Cuban cooking from a wide range of authentic sources. The result of their work is The Cuban Table showing a comprehensive, contemporary overview of Cuban food.
The book’s recipes are told by serious home cooks, professional chefs, restaurateurs, and food writers along the author’s journey. Among over 110 deliciously authentic recipes, you will find everything from iconic Cuban sandwiches to rich stews with Spanish accents and African ingredients. All are accompanied by details about historical context and insight into cultural distinction.
More than just a list of ingredients or series of steps, Cuban cooks’ tricks staying within families or being passed down in copies of old cookbooks that are mostly unread outside of the Cuban community are also highlighted.
About the Author: The author of this cookbook is Ana Sofia Pelaez, a Cuban-American food writer who grew up in a famous Cuban family with great painter Amelia Peláez del Casal. In 2008, Ana Sofia launched her food blog named Hungry Sofia to discover the rich smells, heady flavors, and elaborate rituals of Latin food. Since then, readers can find her featured by several publications. She made appearances on many shows and was nominated by Saveur magazine as one of the Best Regional Cuisine blogs of 2012.
Memories of a Cuban Kitchen
No products found.
“If you could only have one book on Cuban cooking — this should be it.” – Jan
Regarding Cuban cuisine, gourmets can find a mixture of Spanish, Indian, African, Chinese, and Portuguese cuisine from appetizers like Green Plantain Chips to such entrees as Roast Pork Creole, to tropical rum-based drinks and desserts.
Filled with reminiscences and evocative images of Randelman’s pre-Castro Cuba childhood, Memories of a Cuban Kitchen presents more than 200 traditional Cuban dish recipes, a cuisine that incorporates lusciously Spanish, Indian, African, Chinese, and Portuguese influences.
About the Author: The author of this cookbook is Joan Schwartz, who is an enthusiastic reader, writer, and cook. She also works as an editor for several publications such as the University of Chicago Press, Columbia University Press, Macmillan Publishing Company, and The Free Press. Schwartz graduated from Rutgers University and received an M.A. from the University of Chicago.
The Versailles Restaurant Cookbook
No products found.
“Excellent Restaurant and great cookbook” – Ivy
Versailles Restaurant, where serves Cuban food located in Miami, has been at the heart of the Cuban-American community for decades and featured on several media platforms. As one of the top ten places to visit in Miami, even presidents, politicians, and pop stars routinely stop in for a meal. This celebrated restaurant also is a place that welcomes all backgrounds to gather and enjoy great food while discussing work, politics, and daily life.
Carrying some of the most beloved and flavorful recipes passed down for generations that build up the restaurant’s fame, The Versailles Restaurant Cookbook showcases how simple of Cuban cuisine is in preparing these bold and savory dishes. Amateur chefs everywhere can re-create that same warm feeling right at their own dinner tables with this book assistance.
About the Author: The authors of this cookbook are Ana Quincoces and Nicole Valls.
Ana Quincoces is the author of Sabor!: A Passion for Cuban Cuisine and Cuban Chicks Can Cook. Besides, she has co-hosted ABC’s The View and appeared on The Chew, The Today Show, and Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Miami.
Nicole Valls is an operations manager and public relations director for Valls Group, Inc., which is the family-owned and operated parent company for the Versailles Restaurant.
Cuba: The Cookbook
No products found.
“Lived up to my expectations. Need a few recipes after a trip to Cuba.” – Dan Jeffus
Cuba: The Cookbook is the first book to celebrate and document the blended colors cuisine and contemporary food culture comprehensively. To most accurately reflect the island’s remarkable culinary diversity, three hundred and fifty home-cooking recipes here are collected by those who best know the entire Cuban culinary landscape.
Through recipes for appetizers, rice dishes, fish, meat, vegetables, egg dishes, desserts, and more, people can trust this book in bringing unique, authentic Cuban dishes into your meals.
About the Author: The authors of this cookbook are Madelaine Vázquez Gálvez and Imogene Tondre. Having over 30 years of culinary experience, she has run a restaurant in Cuba and authored several Cuban cookbooks. Moreover, she also worked as a host for a cooking show named Slow Food Caribbean and has the most extensive collection of culinary printed materials in Cuba.
Imogene Tondre is a writer living in Cuba for the past decade. She has a Master’s Degree from the University of Havana for Cuban food culture.
A Taste of Cuba: A Journey Through Cuba and Its Savory Cuisine, Includes 75 Authentic Recipes from the Country’s Top Chefs
No products found.
“Read this before you visit Cuba” – Victory Gold Levi
In Cuba cuisine, people desire to explore a mouthwatering, little-known food since the recipes are rarely public. Knowing that demand, A Taste of Cuba offers unprecedented access to the kitchens of Cuba’s top chefs. By stopping in Cuba’s twenty top private, family-owned establishments called paladares across the country, the authors let readers sê Cuban chefs adapt their dishes based on the changing ingredients available.
Here, readers are equipped with seventy-five original recipes of the country’s most delectable dishes tested and translated for an American kitchen. Here, the chefs’ brilliant techniques, inspiration, and best methods are also shared for the first time, allowing you to make staples and more elaborate dishes.
About the Author: The author of this cookbook is Cynthia Carris Alonso and the two contributors are Valerie Feigen and José Luis Alonso.
Cynthia Carris Alonso is an acclaimed photographer, writer, and the author of Passage to Cuba. Since 1992, she has traveled regularly to Cuba, documenting its news, musicians, and culture for music recording companies and publications. Readers can see Alonso as a Cuban consultant on national television, print, and radio. Her images have exhibited throughout the United States, as well as in Canada and Brazil.
Valerie Feigen is a self-taught chef and a blogger with a blog called recipistsdiary.com. She also works under multi roles out there and. Meeting Cynthia Carris Alonso at the age of five, they have become friends since then.
José Luis Alonso is a teacher, writer, and award-winning children’s book author of Secretos con mi Almohada. Born in Cuba and is Cynthia Carris Alonso’s husband, the couple has collaborated on numerous lectures and exhibits to celebrate Cuban culture. Before working in academia, Alonso was a chef and restaurant manager.
A Taste of Old Cuba: More Than 150 Recipes for Delicious, Authentic, and Traditional Dishes
No products found.
“Cuban cooking at its finest!” – Niv66
For Cuban emigrants, charming and vivid memories of a childhood on the idyllic island before Castro’s revolution are always in their hearts. Carrying an evocative feast for all the senses, A Taste of Old Cuba brings up the combination between those remember in more than 150 recipes for delicious, authentic, and traditional Cuban dishes. Readers can find a wide range of appetizers, soups, rice and bean dishes, entrees, salads, sauces, desserts, and beverages.
About the Author: The author of this cookbook is Maria Josefa Lluria De O’Higgins. She is a Miami resident Maria Josefa Lluria de O’Higgins born in Cuba and married an Irish-American later.
Paladares: Recipes Inspired by the Private Restaurants of Cuba
No products found.
“Great stories and recipes from fantastic restaurants in Cuba” – Chanoochi
Paladares (private restaurants) are places where tourists seek for a more vivid interaction with Cuban reality and looking for homemade Cuban food. With recent investment and tourism flooding the country, they are at the forefront of change.
Through the lens of the restaurant owners, chefs, farmers, and patrons, this is the first book to tell the story of Cuban cuisine to examine the implications of food shortages, tourism, and international influences of a country experiencing an example shift in cooking.
Filled with 150 authentic and modern recipes adapted for the home cook and 350 vivid color photographs, Paladares brings the country’s spirited cooking into your own kitchen.
About the Author: The author of this cookbook is Anya von Bremzen, who is considered one of the most accomplished food writers of her generation. She is an award-winning author with many acclaimed cookbooks and journalism.
Moreover, Anya also worked as a regular contributor to several publications. Readers can find her articles anthologized in Eating Words: A Norton Anthology of Food Writing and several editions of Best Food Writing.
Cuban Flavor: Exploring the Island’s Unique Places, People, and Cuisine
No products found.
“The dishes I tried were amazing!” – bryan
Cuban Flavor is an introduction to a new unexplored of Cuban cuisine. This visual volume features more than fifty Cuban recipes, from appetizers to main courses and drinks to desserts, that you are very likely to fall deeply in love and come back several times.
Along with color photographs of the dishes, you’ll also get to meet the people who create them and feel yourself in the middle of the country’s glorious sights, the lively people, and the fantastic variety of food.
About the Author: The author of this cookbook is Mari Aixalá, who is a creative writer and executive producer of Cuban origin. Spending the last two decades focused on Cuba and women’s untold stories via AniMari Films, Mari Aixalá is a sixth-generation heir serving as a board member on the Bacardi Family Foundation, sponsoring TEDxHavana. She is now working on her TV debut series called CUBA LIBRE.
Three Guys From Miami Cook Cuban: 100 Great Recipes With a Touch of Miami Spice
No products found.
“I have been following their website but it is no nice to have the recipes in a book” – Sheri Martin
For more than thirty years, the Three Guys From Miami have been perfecting their Cuban recipes by cooking and eating. Therefore, if you are going to explore Cuban cuisine, this cookbook is a considerable choice to enter this exciting world of flavor.
Here, readers are shown the Cuban cooking combination between Spain’s taste and the tropical flavors of the Caribbean, as well as strong African influence and New World spices and ingredients.
About the Author: This cookbook is authored by Glenn Lindgren, Raúl Musibay, and Jorge Castillo, who are all brothers-in-law writing books under the name Three Guys from Miami. Brought together by fate, they shared a passion for good food, good conversation, and a great party and became fast friends.
With two of Cuba-born and a big fan of this nation, they provide Cuban cooking tips and advice for professional and amateur chefs all over the world through cookbooks and the website: iCuban.com. Views can see them on the Food Network, public television documentary, the Travel Channel, and public radio.
Comida Cubana: A Cuban Culinary Journey
No products found.
“Love this book! In fact, it’s on the table because we used it very recently!” – Stardazer
As a watercolor illustration artist, Marcella Kriebel has done an excellent job creating a new type of cookbook that combined vivid watercolors with the culinary traditions of Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Puerto Rico in the debut cookbook. In this return, she brings up a new collection of recipes that span the country of Cuba from coast to coast.
Comida Cubana is a part travel guide, part cookbook with a collection of authentic Cuban recipes. Here readers can learn about the country’s food culture and ingredients through interviews and local stories.
About the Author: The author of this cookbook is Marcella Kriebel, who is an artist best known for her watercolor illustration. Marcella has partnered with National Geographic to create art for National Food Day, and viewers can see her mentioned on Food 52 and other culinary blogs.
Marcella also shares her passion for food and art through digital and television media, demos at farmer’s markets, and teaching classes that combine her love & cooking and painting.
We hope you like this post and finally find out your favorite Cuban cookbooks. Meanwhile, we welcome you to explore our site and discover more cookbook recommendations from the same cuisine below.
