Cocina al Minuto
- Year
- 1954
- Era
- 20th century
- Origin
- Cuba · Americas
- Language
- Spanish
- Category
- Caribbean
Cocina al Minuto established itself as the defining household cookbook of twentieth-century Cuba, drawing on Nitza Villapol's parallel television program of the same name to gather practical recipes from the Spanish, African and Creole strands of the island's cuisine. Successive editions tracked Cuban kitchens through abundance and the rationing era, with Villapol adapting techniques and ingredients accordingly, making the work an enduring document of national domestic cookery.
Cooking from this book
Arroz con Pollo a la Chorrera
Signature dishThis soupy, saffron tinted rice with chicken is one of the dishes most often linked to Nitza Villapol's kitchen. Wetter and more forgiving than its drier cousins, it became a Sunday staple in Cuban homes thanks to her television presence and the practical spirit of Cocina al Minuto. The book taught a generation to cook it confidently, adapting to wartime shortages and rationing, which is why the dish reads today as comfort, memory and household ingenuity at once.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
