With more than seventy mouthwatering recipes throughout, Havana Salsa is the vibrant memoir of Viviana Carballo and her extraordinary childhood growing up in Cuba. A collection of stories about her large, extended family – an eccentric group who conducted their lives against the extraordinary backdrop of Havana – Carballo recalls the 1940s and 1950s when Havana was a nonstop party, and food and music defined the culture, until Fidel Castro took power in 1959, and she was forced to leave her beloved country.

With each delightful family memory, Carballo showcases the food of her culture and a delectable recipe, beginning with her childhood in the forties (calabaza fritters, sweet plantain tortillas, and oxtail stew), through the sensual fifties (roast shoulder of lamb, Cuban bouillabaisse), and then the first eighteen months of Castro’s revolution (mango pie, tamal en cazuela, and papas con chorizo). Havana Salsa tells the history of Carballo’s Havana as only she can – through the intimate and unifying experience of food, family, and friends.