That’s the question from Argentine born chef Guillermo Pernot that he shared with Viviana Hurtado of Fox News Latino.
That question came to him during culinary cultural exchanges to Cuba, which follow his Cuban-born wife’s Quaker humanitarian trips. He returned, leading tours of cultural foodies, with the group heading straight to Havana paladares or small “restaurants” owned by Cubans and located in their homes.
“The first time I ate at a paladar, I couldn’t believe the intensity of the food,” he said. “It was delicious and not what I expected.”
Ms. Hurtado explains that paladares are small restaurants owned by Cubans and located in their homes, forgetting to mention that they are only allowed by special license, granted and rescinded at will by the state.
She met up with Chef Pernot and other Cuban chefs he met in Havana and invited to the U.S.
We were also minutes from a special food series called “Pop-Up Paladares” featuring Cuban chefs Pernot met in Havana, including chef Alain Rivera Santana of Havana’s Doctor Café, and invited to the U.S. to cook with him.
This is when both men would try answering the question of Cuban cuisine without Fidel, although it means messing with some of my all-time-food faves — mouth-watering ropa vieja, comforting arroz con camarón, and crispy tostones, staples I will always find in Miami’s Little Havana restaurants.
I decided to challenge them with a barrage of questions backed up by a growling belly.
With every bite I went overboard, savoring hints of the familiar: merluza al escabéche, fresh cod in vinegar-chile sauce with lamb tongue and beet salad followed by canelones de cangrejo: fresh corn pasta cannelloni stuffed with sweet chili crabmeat.
We feasted on grilled yellow fin tuna in a Malta honey reduction with ruby red grapefruit and lavender supremes. Pernot and Rivera arguably saved the best for last: sopa de mango, chilled mango soup, with Cuba Libre’s rum ice cream.
Like the subtle touches of fine extra-virgin olive oil in each savory dish, politics permeated the dining room.
The guests asked how the regular people of Cuba could afford to buy grilled tuna when shelves in markets stand bare.
Pernot tried to keep the focus on food, but Alain subverted his host for a moment, answering honestly: “Regular Cubans don’t have this meal. They don’t have the money.”
A bit shy and soft-spoken, he admitted being blown away by the blast-chillers that cool food in seconds, a kitchen staple in U.S. restaurants he had never seen, much less used and that probably couldn’t fit in his home kitchen.
Rivera also told us some recent policy changes have allowed paladares to expand from seating a dozen to more than three times that number, that some don’t serve rice and beans, and that Havana’s #1 lunch item is pizza!
Maybe food is more dynamic that the politics that expelled whole peoples or the memories that keep them trapped in that moment.
Maybe we are more resilient than the policies that rule us. Maybe the change that everyone’s been waiting for is already happening.
What would Cuban cuisine be if there had not been Fidel? The question is based on contorted propagandist reasoning that has no point beyond attempting to create a feel good aha moment about good old Fidel and his 53 years long “revolution.”
I have a better question, what did Cubans eat before Fidel? The answer is anything they wanted to eat! Before Fidel Cubans enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the world. Just as in the the U.S. stores were well stocked with every imaginable food item, both from Cuba and imported; there was no rationing, there was a free press, and free media, so cookbooks and recipes were plentiful.
Here’s another; please explain how allowing an American chef to travel to Cuba for a state sponsored propaganda tour and granting visa’s to Castro’s handpicked chefs so they could enjoy a Kum Bah Yah cook-in promotes democracy in Cuba?
The article is here.