"The Cuban Table": A Savory Trip Through Cuba, Miami And NY

[Jefferson23]

NEW YORK, NY -- For Ana Sofía Peláez, author of The Cuban Table: A Celebration of Food, Flavors, and History (St. Martin's Press), writing a cookbook was the ultimate collaborative project. The original idea for the book came from photographer Ellen Silverman, who was inspired after a 2010 trip to Cuba to create a cookbook that shared the recipes, stories and complicated history of the people who had welcomed her during her stay.

Enter Peláez, a Brooklyn-based Cuban-American writer and food blogger who was born and raised in Miami. The plan involved gathering actual recipes and stories from Cuban home cooks and professional chefs in New York City, Miami and Cuba.

The two did just that, spending months traveling, interviewing, and photographing their way through a multitude of Cuban kitchens, ultimately pulling together a prize of a book that does justice to a culinary story that for many is as painful as it is beautiful.

In our conversation, Peláez shared the process of uniting so many voices and stories into one cohesive cookbook, the challenges of recreating family recipes and the way she finally conquered her fear of that Cuban kitchen favorite—the pressure cooker.

in full: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/ana-sofia-pelaez-author-cuban-table-labor-love-n320976