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¡Cuba caliente!
Changes in U.S. diplomacy could mean big things for Cuban cuisine.
Tribune photos by JEFF HOUCK
The interior of Cuba Libre Restaurant and Rum Bar in Orlando is meant to evoke the tropical romance of 1950s Cuba. The Florida location opened in January.
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Published: April 30, 2009
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ORLANDO - When considering Cuba, the mind drifts to two places.
There is the forever-gone pre-revolution haven of tropical romance and corrupt glamour, a place which still haunts the memory. There is also the island of lost dreams, where the imaginations of how the country and its culture might have blossomed without Fidel Castro loom large.
At Cuba Libre Restaurant and Rum Bar, the two ideas are married in a dining experience that celebrates Cuba's glory days and its future culinary potential.
The interior of the restaurant, which opened in January, looks as if someone has cut a slice of Cuba's architectural cake from 1958 and wedged it into an upscale entertainment complex near the Orange County Convention Center. Intended to evoke a section of Old Havana from the '50s and '60s, the replica provides a visual connection to a physical place.
Diners find food constructed with the traditional Cuban cornerstones of citrus, barbacoa, spice and seafood flavors. But instead of trying to recapture a menu five decades old, chef Guillermo Pernot uses the plate to paint a culinary picture of what Cuban food could have become without communism, rationing and embargos.
Castro's failing health, his handing of the government to brother Raul in 2006 and the Obama administration's softening of the U.S. stance on the Cuba trade embargo have prompted thoughts of what effect the changes might have on Cuban culture in the United States.
It's an emotionally charged subject upon which the restaurant's founders avoid treading. They've done the research, visited the island and seen how scarce food is there. They know the lobsters and finest ingredients go to the government officials and tourists. They've seen the only functioning guarapo-extraction machine sitting on a pedestal at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba instead of providing a stream for native mojito cocktails. But as Barry Gutin, president of parent company Libre Management, says, "We're restaurateurs, not diplomats."
Restaurants like Cuba Libre, which also has locations in Philadelphia and Atlantic City, N.J., are likely to gain from consumer curiosity spawned by increased attention on Cuba in the news, says Maeve Webster, director of Datassential, a Chicago-based food research firm.
Webster's company examines menu trends with a database of ingredients used in 5,000 restaurants across the United States. Their research shows that the word "Cuban" is among the top 10 growing descriptors in ethnic cuisine for menu items among independent restaurants and chains.
Webster says one reason for that growth is because many traditional Cuban flavors, ingredients and cooking techniques are familiar to Americans, who have embraced similar-tasting Latin and Spanish foods.
"It's not a hard sell for Americans," she says. "It's very easy for it to move from restaurants into home cooking because the meals are easy to make accessible."
Pescado de Oriente graces the menu at Orlando's Cuba Libre Restaurant and Rum Bar.
Elevating the cuisine
Culinary innovation usually happens organically, most often in the countries of origin.
Not Cuba.
The food most Americans identify as Cuban consists of simple dishes made by mothers and grandmothers for generations and brought to the country through immigration. For centuries, the island has acted as a culinary filter of sorts, picking up flavors as various ethnic groups — Spanish, Creole, African and Chinese — have moved through.
As Cuba Libre's chef, Pernot has attempted to rediscover those ingredients to make fresh combinations.
For the restaurant's vaca frita, a shredded beef roast dish, they use short ribs, marinating them for 48 hours in spices and herbs. The ribs are braised slowly and then kept in liquid for another 48 hours before cut into small steaks. When an order is placed, the dish is then pan-seared the traditional way.
No Cuban menu would be without moros y christianos, a pilaf of black beans and white rice. Instead of using a light broth, Pernot uses a rich rioja sauce and garnishes with grilled onions and a salad with soy sauce, as a nod to the island's Asian influence.
Anyone looking at it from a home cook's standpoint will find more of a hybrid than a traditional meal.
"It is supposed to be different," he says. "We need to elevate the cuisine and make it more complex and interesting than home style. The home-style restaurants, many of them do a great job, but Guillermo is taking it to another level."
"Cuban people are very proud of their heritage and cuisine," says Pernot, who has family members who fled Cuba in the late 1950s. "But they come in and enjoy the food as it is. They have a great time."
Tribune file photo
Richard Gonzmart of the Columbia Restaurant predicts excitement for the country's cuisine.
Stirrings in Tampa
Culinary links to the Cuban revolution are direct. Before President Fulgencio Batista's ouster in 1959, Fidel Castro came to the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa to hold gatherings that would raise money for his revolution.
"Batista was a bad guy," Columbia president Richard Gonzmart says.
Gonzmart's father, Cesar, once played concert violin for Cuba's national symphony. It's where he met Gonzmart's mother, Adela, who played piano. Cesar once told Richard to open a Columbia Restaurant in Cuba if the nation became free again.
After Cubans fled the island, the Columbia became an occasional haven for expatriates who were rebuilding their lives. Although primarily a restaurant which serves Spanish cuisine, the Columbia also serves such Cuban staples as roast pork, boliche, platanos and yucca.
"When I started working at the restaurant, a lot of traditional dishes weren't on the menu," he says. "They were considered peasant food."
Gonzmart said he thinks the cruise industry would benefit from a free Cuba, but that other cultural aspects would rise in prominence as a result.
"I think it definitely will spur an excitement for cuisine," he says.
It's a view shared by Louis Capdevila, vice president of La Teresita restaurant in Tampa. After leaving Cuba as a child in the early 1960s, he started returning to visit the Cuban towns of Mariel and Bahia Honda for church missions 15 years ago.
Never an embargo fan, he agrees with the idea of letting Cubans go back to the island as often as they like. "Fidel used the embargo to excuse the failure of communism," Capdevila says.
At La Teresita, which seats more than 300 people, at least 65 percent of the clientele are non-Cuban. One reason: Cuban food in America has not been Americanized like Mexican food has at chains like Taco Bell. It remains authentic, homespun comfort food.
"I have always said that Americans have a love affair with Cuba," he says. "The fact that this is coming open is only good for restaurants."
Reporter Jeff Houck can be reached at (813) 259-7324.
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