In the foreword to Guillermo Pernot’s new cookbook, José Andrés calls him the maestro of Cuban cooking, but Pernot didn’t grow up eating Cuban food. The two-time James Beard Award-winning chef is originally from Argentina and now lives in the Philadelphia area, home to one of his four Cuba Libre restaurants.
He got interested in the cuisine thanks to his Cuban-born wife, Lucia – they’ve been together for more than 30 years, plenty of time for the chef to become a "maestro."
Pernot first visited Cuba in 2010, after years of cooking Cuban food and learning about the culture. "Cubans talk about everything, about history and everything else," he says. "I married this beautiful woman with a beautiful family, and they love to chat about everything."
One day, Lucia Pernot’s sister, María Rosa Menocal, an author and professor at Yale, said she wanted to go back to Cuba – she hadn’t returned since the family left in 1959. "I said, 'Can I tag along?'" Pernot recalls. "I’d been cooking Cuban food for all these years and I always imagined what the island was like, because of what my mother-in-law used to talk about, the anecdotes she would tell when we used to cook together."
Photo from Cuba Cooks: Recipes and Secrets From Cuban Paladares and Their Chefs — Photo courtesy of Steve Legato
Menocal was initially interested in researching and writing about her family, which had been prominent in Cuba. Pernot wanted to eat. He started talking about creating a cookbook, and Menocal, who also loved to cook, suggested they write it together. "I wanted to show the world that Cuban food is not what you know here – it’s not just rice and beans," Pernot says. "There’s a lot more history. There are so many hurdles that [Cuban chefs] have to go through."
After that first trip, he journeyed back and forth to Cuba, joining cooks in their kitchens, leading groups on food tours, and gathering recipes and techniques in a country where resources are scarce and chefs quickly learn how to improvise. Menocal died while they were working on the project, but Pernot decided to continue on with it, bringing in Cuban-American cookbook author and professor Lourdes Castro. The result is the recently released Cuba Cooks: Recipes and Secrets From Cuban Paladares and Their Chefs.
Photo from Cuba Cooks: Recipes and Secrets From Cuban Paladares and Their Chefs — Photo courtesy of Steve Legato
Pernot and Castro sought out recipes from throughout the massive Caribbean island, from the ambitious paladares (privately owned restaurants) in bustling Havana, to roadside stands selling smoked chicken or ropa vieja with ripe plantains in the middle of the country, to the spicy Jamaican- and Haitian-tinged dishes of the southeastern region.
"Cuba is so versatile. It’s a big, big island with a lot of different cultures, different flavors. You can taste so many things," Pernot says. "Cuban cuisine is very complex. Yes, there are the classics, but the new generation is coming up with all these new things."
In the U.S., the next best thing to eating your way through Cuba is heading to Miami, home to the largest Cuban population in the U.S. Here’s where Pernot likes to eat when he’s in the city, from breakfast through late night:
Puerto Sagua | South Beach
View this post on Instagram
This long-running, low-key diner in South Beach is the place to go for breakfast, especially after a late night out. "You just sit at the counter and you get your eggs, your rice, your ripe plantains, a coffee con leche, and some Cuban toast – that’s what I need in the morning," the chef says.
He’s been frequenting Puerto Sagua since a meal with soup, an entrée, a glass of wine, flan and coffee went for $7.
Sansara | Coral Gables
View this post on Instagram
Two chefs whose families own Miami staples La Rosa Bakery and Tinta y Café run this weekly brunch pop-up serving twists on Cuban breakfast fare. It’s a more modern option than the diner-style Puerto Sagua. "They have great breakfast," Pernot says, calling out the croquetas Benedict, fried eggs with maduros hash and papaya salad with fried pork.
For now, Sansara takes over the bright Tinta y Café every Sunday, while the chefs work toward opening a permanent restaurant.
Doce Provisions | Little Havana
View this post on Instagram
Local craft beers, vegetarian tacos, "fantastic" croquetas, and a handful of Latin-Asian fusion dishes keep Pernot coming back to Doce Provisions. "People forget that there is a culture called Chino-Cubano. Some of our recipes, people ask, 'Why do you use so much soy and sesame?' But there’s a culture of Asian-Cuban food. There is a Chinatown in Havana – although there are no more Chinese people or Chinese food now, but there used to be."
The gastropub is open for lunch, brunch and dinner, and has a back patio for dining outdoors.
El Rey de las Fritas | Miami and Hialeah
View this post on Instagram
A frita is a Cuban hamburger topped with shoestring fries, and El Rey de las Fritas has been cooking them up since 1976. The family-run spot now has four locations. "It has this sauce with tomatoes and chilies – but not spicy – and sugar, lots of sugar. And instead of putting the French fries on the side, they put it inside the sandwich," Pernot says. "There’s nothing better than a Cuban frita."
Las Vegas | Multiple locations
View this post on Instagram
Pernot calls this casual restaurant a "mom and pop" establishment. While it is family-run, Las Vegas has expanded to a dozen locations in South Florida since it opened in 1984. The extensive menu covers all the Cuban classics. "There you have tamales, empanadas, papa rellenas, which are potatoes filled with ground beef, sandwiches like pan con bistec or medianoche, which is like a Cuban sandwich but smaller and made with brioche – they have a lot," he says.
El Palacio de Los Jugos | Multiple locations
View this post on Instagram
Like Las Vegas, there are several locations of this counter-service juice destination with outdoor seating, easily spotted thanks to its red-and-yellow awning. El Palacio de Los Jugos sells food, too – freshly fried chicharrones, breakfast sandwiches, yucca fries, fufu, fritas – but, as the name implies, the juices are why this one should be high on your list.
"You go there when you want to feel healthy," Pernot says. "It’s fantastic – mamoncillo, passion fruit, coconut, guava, sugar cane juice, and they use these big presses. It’s very refreshing."