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Cocina
Maricel E. Presilla

Maricel E. Presilla is a culinary historian, chef and author specializing in the cuisines of Latin America and Spain. She has lectured for organizations ranging from the James Beard Foundation to the Smithsonian Institution. Her most recent book is The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes (Ten Speed Press), and she has completed a major Latin American cookbook for W.W. Norton, forthcoming in 2008. A native of Santiago de Cuba, she is co-owner and chef of two Hoboken, N.J., restaurants, Zafra and Cucharamama, and was a 2007 James Beard Award nominee for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic.

Her website is www.maricelpresilla.com.

Write to her at mpresilla@miamiherald.com.

Top Story

The cacao fruit with seeds exposed; the cacao beans after being cleaned, fermented and roasted; and ground cacao that is used to make chocolate.

CHARLOTTE SOUTHERN

S. Florida scientists work to decode the genetics of chocolate

No one who loves chocolate needs to be told that it is experiencing a golden age. The very fact that the names of illustrious cacao types like Venezuelan Porcelana have made their way onto chocolate-bar labels shows a deepening hunger for vivid cacao character and careful artisanship.

Cocina Recipe: Tropical Night Brownies

Cooking at La Casa Blanca with Fiesta Latina guest chef

Culinary historians and food bloggers already are poring over the menus of White House functions to draw conclusions about the First Family's tastes and discern the social and political meaning encoded in their food choices.
COCINA

New tastes of Portugal

Stretching from the Minho River on its mountainous northern frontier with Galicia to the dry Algarve in the south, Portugal occupies most of the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula. And though it once ruled half of the world, it has enjoyed far less of the culinary limelight than its neighbor, Spain.