The Best Cuban Cookbooks (Review) in 2020

The first cookbook on our list is The Cuban Table by food writer Anna Sofia Pelaez. If you’re looking to try authentic Cuban cuisine, then this is the cookbook for you. Inspired Pelaez’s travel around Cuba, Miami and New York, this recipe book includes tasty dishes from traditional Cuban families, containing more than just the usual list of ingredients and step by step process, but also revealing some of the best kitchen tips and tricks that give Cuban food the original and amazing taste and flavor that it is known for.

This book is also a celebration of Cuba as a culture, delivering beautiful Cuban recipes and highlighting the historical context associated with the different foods. Coupled with phenomenal photography that showcases the exotic and exciting nature of Cuban food, this comprehensive cookbook with 110 easy to make dishes is a gem that is going to be greatly appreciated in every kitchen. You’ll love the wide variety of dishes that you can execute by yourself or with loved ones, ranging from small eats with big flavors to wholesome dinners stews and fruity desserts that can be shared around the table.

Writer and cook Jon Schwartz is the genius behind this next cookbook, Memories Of A Cuban Kitchen. This book contain out-of-the world recipes, with flavors that embrace the essence of Cuban cooking, but are also straightforward and easy to follow, resulting in impressive dishes that taste just like if a Cuban grandma made it. For anyone who wants to learn how to cook Cuban food, this is the recipe book that delivers more than your expectations. With 200 immersive and interesting recipes with many variations, including desserts, this book is the Cuban cookbook to have.

Not only are the recipes uncomplicated, but they also make use of spices that you have around the kitchen, do not require expensive ingredients, and help you save a quick buck while enjoying delicious and filling food. With easy dishes such as black beans and rice to more outgoing foods like the Cuban creole stew, this recipe book encompasses everything that you would need to know about cooking Cuban.  This heartwarming book also includes touching photos of pre-Castro Cuba, with beautiful backgrounds and family stories that are absolute tear jerkers, and would leave you with a smile on your face.

When people speak of bona fide Cuban cuisine, they might as well be referring to A Taste Of Old Cuba by Maria O’Higgins. The originality of Cuban delicacies shines through in this cookbook. Trust us, it’s the real deal. This book comes with recipes that are as traditional as it gets and are sure to bring your kitchen to life. Written by a Cuban expatriate with childhood memories of Cuba before the revolution, this book is an ode to old Cuba. It contains engaging details about the origin of Cuban food, addressing the different cultural influences that led to the formation of Cuban cuisine.

The recipes are 100 percent genuine, some of them, like the recipe for classic Cuban soups such as sopa de ajos and cocido; even coming from the writer’s Catalan grandmother. 150 entertaining and informational dishes grace this cookbook, with clear and precise directions that have all been tried and tested to perfection. The food in this book ranges from simple to elaborate, meaning that you can start easy and work your way up. With vivid childhood pictures, well written text and dishes using authentic Cuban spices, it’s hard not to fall in love with this book.

Vibrant and colorful, Cuba! Is a cookbook that you’re going to enjoy reading just as much as you’re going to enjoy cooking with. Award winning photographer Dan Goldberg in collaboration with food writer Jody Eddy have created this bold and exciting cookbook that draws you in with every flip of a page. With spirited pictures that feed your eyes and adventurous recipes and dishes that delight your taste buds, this book is no ordinary cookbook. Its 75 carefully tested recipes have been inspired by the authors’ travels around the magnificent country of Cuba, and contain both traditional Cuban recipes such as the black bean soup, as well as other delicious food with a Cuban twist like the Cuban style fried chicken.

This book captures unique recipes that you’ll be excited to try, and brings a slice of Cuba to your kitchen. The recipes are bold and flavorful, yet easy to understand and apply. Using simple ingredients that are staples in any Cuban home, this cookbook is going to transform the way that you prepare meals. With a variety of dishes that everyone is going to love, you’re going to need to hide this cookbook from friends and family that are definitely going to want to borrow it.

This next cookbook takes you on a journey through the very streets of Cuba without you even having to leave your kitchen. Cuban Flavor by Liza Gershman is a photographic masterpiece that illustrates the beautiful country with its sensational culture and its stunning and flavor filled cuisines. This book shows you a new era Cuba, and encapsulates the nation’s astounding growth and innovation post revolution. The beautifully detailed recipes draw you in with dishes that will tantalize your palate and leave you wanting more.

With rich and mouth watering food, making use of unique and delightful Cuban spices, this cookbook is going to have you mesmerized. It includes a shopping list at the beginning of the book, so you know the basics to stock up your kitchen with when making Cuban food. With several dishes that are going to become regulars in your household, Cuban Flavor is one to add to your collection. This book is so much more than its recipes though, doubling as a travel guide around Cuba, coming with a 7 day itinerary for visiting the country, and detailing incredible aspects of the different locations while capturing them in stunning photographs.

A Taste Of Cuba lets you in on never before shared recipes by the best of the best Cuban chefs, and gives you access to secret dishes, tips and tricks that make Cuban food generally loved. Cuban Husband and wife Jose and Cynthia Alonso team up to create this cookbook, traveling around Cuba and stopping at the country’s top twenty restaurants owned by private Cuban families, and provide you with inventive and resourceful adaptations of dishes shown to them by these establishments, with recipes that can be changed depending on ingredients available in the market.

Their visits with these restaurant chefs give way to delectable dishes that are obscure to the food scene but open you and your kitchen, and are going to leave you and your dinner guests pleasantly surprised. With 75 recipes that have been tested and translated to easy to understand steps for your reading pleasure, this book gives you a taste of Cuba’s culture and history. When they’re not sharing untold recipes, Jose and Cynthia are giving you a tour of the lively and exciting streets of Cuba with pictures of the country’s phenomenal landscape and delightful people.

One thing to appreciate in a cookbook is its ability to tell you a story while teaching you how to make dishes that you’ll want to eat, and Paladares offers exactly that. This book by award winning writer Anya Bremzen and photographer Megan Fawn features a cultural, culinary and visual tale that is going to keep you interested and engaged. This recipe book shares unique tales by Cuban cooks, chefs, farmers and even historians that gives you a clear picture of the journey that this great nation has travelled to get to where it is.

It is entirely inspirational and educative, but also fun and innovative, containing more than 100 recipes that are inspired by the amazing people behind them. These recipes include traditional Cuban food as well as a great selection of cocktails that widely are enjoyed all over the country and that you can simply make in your own kitchen. Stunning pictures showcasing local markets, restaurants and scenery are also a great addition to this cookbook, and once you pick this book up, you won’t be able to put it down.