Cuba: The Cookbook

by Madelaine Vazquez Galvez, Imogene Tondre

Overview

A unique compilation of authentic home-cooking recipes from Cuba, reflecting the island's remarkable culinary diversity

Cuban food is known worldwide for its blend of bright colours and intense flavors, and Cuba: The Cookbook is the first book to celebrate and document comprehensively its cuisine and contemporary food culture. Collected by those who best know the entire Cuban culinary landscape, the 350 home-cooking recipes in this compendium explore the country's myriad traditions and influences - from Spanish to Soviet to Chinese - through recipes for appetizers, rice dishes, fish, meat, vegetables, egg dishes, desserts, and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780594156468
Publisher:	Phaidon Press
Publication date:	06/01/2018
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	128,657
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 10.70(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Madelaine Vázquez Gálvez has over 30 years of culinary experience - she has run a restaurant in Cuba, authored several Cuban cookbooks, hosted a cooking show, led Slow Food Caribbean, and has the most extensive collection of culinary printed materials in Cuba.

Writer Imogene Tondre has lived in Cuba for the past decade. She has a Master's Degree from the University of Havana for Cuban food culture.

Editorial Reviews

06/18/2018
This enticing though overpacked collection of Cuban fare favors volume over editing and goes light on guidance and dish background. Cuban chefs and writers Vázquez Gálvez and Tondre list nearly a dozen omelets, for example, but don’t explain the reason for such ingredients as saltine crackers or rum, and their rote recipe for mashed potatoes adds nothing to the common preparation. There are exceptions: the authors cover the history of popular dishes like the Cuban sandwich (which most likely came from the Cuban community of Ybor City in Tampa, Fla.), red beans and rice, and the murky origins of the Cuba libre cocktail of rum and coke (which some say dates back to Cuba’s war for independence in 1898, but could have also been named by an American officer years later), and address the popularity of pizza and pasta among Cuba’s youth. The cross-cultural pollination of such dishes as Cuban paella and Cuban fried rice—a winning mashup that combines pork loin, ham, shrimp, chicken with traditional fried rice—add some zip to the collection. The book’s final chapter highlights a handful of dishes and the restaurants in which they’re served, like a guava and cream cheese pie from a Cuban restaurant in Brooklyn, and a maduros old-fashioned, made of sweet plantains, from Asia de Cuba in London. While this might be the most comprehensive collection of classic and new Cuban cuisine, it will nevertheless leave home cooks wanting better context and more lively descriptions. (June)

Publishers Weekly

As featured in The Sunday Times

'[One] of fall's top cookbooks.' - Wall Street Journal

'Pulling from Spanish, African, and Haitian influences, Madelaine Vázquez Gálvez and Imogene Tondre capture the mingling of different cultures with every recipe.' - Entertainment Weekly Online

'Each dish speaks to a moment in Cuba's history...The thoughtfulness behind these anthropological recipes is due to the fact the book's authors, Imogene Tondre and Madelaine Vazquez Galvez, are not just fantastic cooks but also food historians; the recipes are inspired by and made for home cooks.' - Food52

'Perhaps the most comprehensive compendium of traditional Cuban recipes to date — with an eye to preserving heritage techniques and preparations that are in danger of being lost in a fast-changing Cuba.' - Travel + Leisure

'This impressive overview of German cuisine—the type of encyclopedic cookbook that Phaidon does so well—is packed with the kind of comforting German recipes you might expect . . . But there are plenty of dishes that will challenge your assumptions about stereotypical German food, too.' - Departures

'Cuba: The Cookbook could not be more timely and necessary. Through illuminating text, vibrant photos, and mouthwatering dishes, Madelaine and Imogene skillfully share the history, memories, and stories of the Cuban people, and this collection will undoubtedly reverberate across oceans and continents.'– Bryant Terry, James Beard award-winning author of Afro-Vegan 

'The ultimate guide to Cuban food... A compendium of Cuban home cooking, from golden arepas to rib-sticking stews, kaleidoscope-coloured shrimp cocktails to toothsome caramel custards.' – MrPorter.com

'Hefty and comprehensive. Stare at the images...and imagine a trip to Havana.' - Forbes

'On a mission to save traditional Cuban recipes, the authors interviewed Cuban chefs and elderly members of the community, and the result is this impressive tome. Interspersed with the traditional recipes are modern methods. There's a handy section on alternatives for any hard-to-find ingredients. With more than 350 recipes, it's a cookbook that just keeps on giving. ' - Choice

From the Publisher