�"The Fight Doctor"
� �
The
Columbia Restaurant
Spanish
Cookbook
by
Adela Hernandez and Ferdie Pacheco M.D.
�
Adela�s
affair with food is a family legacy that began more than 90 years ago, when
her beloved grandfather Casimiro emigrated from Cuba to Tampa, then a little
town on Florida�s west coast. There, amid scrub palmettos and rattlesnakes,
an enclave of Cubans, Spaniards, and Italians worked in the growing cigar
industry in a neighborhood known as Ybor City.
This
book is both a history of the elegant family restaurant, which now boasts six
locations in Florida, and a cookbook of 178 recipes that make them famous. It
is also the biography of Adela, the heart of the Columbia, with commentary by
Ferdie Pacheco, television�s �fight doctor,� Ybor City�s famous
raconteur, and Adela�s neighbor as they grew up together in Ybor City.
Pijuan, Casimiro�s fabled chef from the kitchen of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, contributed numerous works of art, such as pompano papillot and steak capuchina. Adela and Ferdie now reveal the best of these recipes and offer many others, giving lovers of good food the opportunity to bring home the aroma, the seasonings, and glamour of the Columbia, gem of all Spanish restaurants.
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