A Taste of Cuba: A Journey Through Cuba and Its Savory Cuisine

*New enhanced edition of the best-selling Cuba cookbook: A Taste of Cuba!*

Join the leading photographer of Cuba on an insider’s tour of the country, with stops along the way to meet the world’s most resourceful chefs in their kitchens and enjoy rare access to their recipes for more than 75 authentically Cuban culinary delights.

In a country shrouded in secrecy, a mouthwatering, but little-known food scene thrives. A Taste of Cuba offers unprecedented access into the kitchens of Cuba’s top chefs, where the country’s most delectable dishes are created, and the chefs share their brilliant techniques, inspiration, and best recipes for the very first time.

Renowned Cuba photographer Cynthia Carris Alonso and her Cuban husband, José Luis Alonso, take you with them on their ride through Havana and around the country, as they stop in Cuba’s twenty top paladares--private, family owned establishments. Inside you’ll see how Cuban chefs are world-class resourceful and inventive, adapting their dishes based on the changing ingredients available on the market. Between visits with the chefs, you’ll walk the streets of Cuba, experiencing its vibrant, colorful culture and seeing its lush landscapes up close.

A Taste of Cuba in its second edition offers a wealth of new photos and additional, newly procured recipes from Cuba’s top chefs, again tested and translated for an American kitchen. The result allows you to make classic Cuban dishes such as ropa vieja, frijoles negros, and maduros--stewed beef, black beans, and sweet plantains--as well as more elaborate foods, such as eggplant caviar, fish tacos, and ham croquettes. It also shares the recipes for La Cocina de Lilliam’s life-changing bread; sweets such as dreamy alfajores con dulce de leche; Cuba’s famous coffees, mojitos, and juices; Ernest Hemingway’s papa doble daiquiri of legend; and much more. In addition to the recipes and spectacular photos of the chefs and their kitchens, stunning photos of Cuba and insightful text about its regions and culture are throughout.

Cynthia Carris Alonso is an acclaimed photographer, a writer, and the author of Passage to Cuba. Since 1992 she has regularly traveled to Cuba, documenting its news, musicians, and culture for music recording companies and publications such as Newsweek, Vanity Fair, BusinessWeek, and People en Español. Alonso has appeared as a Cuba consultant on national television, in print, and on radio. Her images have exhibited throughout the United States and in Canada and Brazil. She lives in New York City.

José Luis Alonso is a teacher, writer, and award-winning children’s book author of Secretos con mi Almohada, published in Cuba in 1980. Alonso was born in Cuba and met Cynthia Carris Alonso, now his wife, in Havana. Together, the couple has collaborated on numerous lectures and exhibits to celebrate Cuban culture. Prior to working in academia, Alonso was a chef and restaurant manager. He lives in New York City.

Valerie Feigen is a self-taught chef who previously worked as a lawyer, stock analyst, and co-owner of Edit, a women’s fashion specialty store. At age seventeen, Feigen professionally baked and sold her buttercrunch candy to food stores in New York City and Philadelphia. Feigen writes the blog recipistsdiary.com and each entry includes a memory and one or more of her original recipes. Feigen and Cynthia Carris Alonso met when they were five years old and have been friends ever since. Feigen was the inspiration for Marisa Tomei’s character in The Big Short. She lives in New York City.