Black Cookstove: Meditations on Literature, Culture, and Cuisine in Colombia

Winner of the 2006 Andrés Bello Award for Memory and Ibero-American Thought

In this evocatively written book, Germán Patiño Ossa presents the cultural universe and national identities of Colombia through the lens of traditional cuisine. Focusing on the Cauca Valley, a fertile area in southwestern Colombia where Spanish, Native American, and African communities converged over the centuries, Patiño Ossa studies the food of these communities and its place in the region’s culture.

Using Jorge Isa...