Tales of Cuban culture and people, told through food

“Uncertainty is the only thing the Cuban chef can count on, and so he has learned to rely on his ingenuity.” So write Guillermo Pernot and Lourdes Castro, to explain the variety and creativity of Cuban cuisine in their new cookbook, Cuba Cooks: Recipes and Secrets From Cuban Paladares and Their Chefs.

For a chef at a paladar, or speakeasy restaurant, survival is all about improvisation. One day there might be garlic, parsley or beef available in the market; the next day, maybe not. In this new book, Pernot and Castro share recipes and explore how entrepreneurial chefs have skirted government regulation, established maverick restaurants to compete with state-owned eateries, and pushed the boundaries of Cuban cuisine while preserving its essence.

“Throughout my travels in Cuba,” says Pernot, “and countless days cooking along with my chef-counterparts at their paladares, homes and farms, it became clear to me that while individual paladares in Cuba come and go, often at the whim of the government, the spirit of these stalwart Cuban chefs endures. This book tells their tale.”

Pernot is a two-time James Beard Award winner and chef-partner at the four-location restaurant group Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar — one of which sits at 9th and H streets NW in DC’s Chinatown, serving up creative contemporary Cuban cuisine. His Cuban wife and in-laws helped him develop his interest and expertise in Cuban cuisine.

Castro is a Cuban-American professor, recipe developer and cookbook author whose recipes have appeared in Food & Wine, Latina magazine and The New York Times.

For Castro, Cuban cuisine is her heritage, evoking memories of her childhood and her grandparents’ cooking.

For Pernot, a casual invitation from his Cuban sister-in-law to visit Cuba together struck the first spark, which turned into multiple trips to the nation, a love of its culture and the idea for this culinary guide. The book is essentially the two authors’ celebration of the resiliency of the Cuban people, told through their cooking.

Divided into four sections — farm, land, sea and dessert — the book is filled with stories of the paladares chefs, food-stall vendors and interesting characters the authors met along the way. There are the Cuban locals who insist they eat plenty of vegetables, then list plantains, avocados and calabaza squash as examples. There is the former paladar chef Carlos “Mykel” Fuste, who chafes under the recipes of the past, saying, “Ropa vieja, vaca frita and lechón asado. Cuban cuisine has become incarcerated within those three dishes. … Look, [President] Obama came and what did he order? Ropa vieja.”

While any Cuban cookbook worth its salt will have a recipe for the classic ropa vieja, Pernot and Castro include a riff on the original, using duck in place of beef. Many of the recipes present a similar blend of old and new, honoring tradition while encouraging experimentation.

For the tamal en cazuela, or tamale in a pot, the authors highlight its originator: Lilliam Palenzuela, one of the few female chefs in Cuba as well as the operator of one of the longest-running paladares in Havana. To the pollo mayombe, or oven-roasted chicken recipe, they add notes about how to create the classic Cuban flavor base using garlic, onion, cumin and oregano, plus an acid like sour orange, lime or vinegar. For the rice pudding dessert, el arroz con leche de Mami Totty, Pernot selected not a complex concoction from a leading paladar chef, but his own mother-in-law Mami Totty’s homey recipe — noting it saved his marriage that he was able to call it one of the best he has ever tasted.

The recipe for ceviche de pez perro, or hogfish ceviche in “dog sauce,” is served up with the legend that the dish got its name when a group of hungry fishermen begged a cook to keep his restaurant open for them, even though he had only a few ingredients left. The cook was so disappointed with what he was able to fix for them, he declared that even a dog might not eat the dish. However, the fishermen loved it.

The book’s gorgeous photography by Steve Legato is enough by itself to stimulate the appetite and inspire some culinary bravery. Luckily, most of the recipes are simple enough for an intermediate cook. For ingredients hard to locate outside of Cuba, the authors provide possible swaps or tips on how to source.

International restaurateur and DC celebrity chef José Andrés of Jaleo, Beefsteak and minibar fame also makes an appearance. He contributed the book’s foreword, where he speaks of his own experiences in Cuba — traveling with President Obama, ironically.

In their final note closing out the book, Castro and Pernot sum up lessons learned in the course of their travels and research. They say that because the past 60 years have, for the Cuban people, often been a struggle just to survive, the idea of restaurants, professional chefs and haute cuisine may seem absurd. “Fortunately,” they say, “there have been many who held on to the culinary torch during lean times so that Cuban cuisine could survive and be passed down.”

Cuba Cooks: Recipes and Secrets From Cuban Paladares and Their Chefs, released this month by Rizzoli International Publications Inc., is available from local and online booksellers. Signed and unsigned copies are also on sale via the restaurant’s website.

The restaurant will host a release party — featuring a meet-and-greet with author and Cuba Libre chef-partner Guillermo Pernot, dishes from the book, and an open bar — on Tuesday, Nov. 13, from 6 to 8 p.m.; tickets cost $50. And Smithsonian Associates will present “Home Cooking, Cuban-style: Hot Lunch at Cuba Libre,” a lunch and book signing, on Wednesday, Nov. 14, at noon; tickets cost $65 to $75.

Pernot will be leading a culinary cruise to Cuba with Victory Cruise Lines in March 2019, so fans of Cuba Cooks can experience firsthand the paladares and personalities highlighted in this new book. For more information, email info@cubalibrerestaurant.com.