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    REBUILDING THE PERFECT CUBAN SANDWICH


    By JEFF HOUCK  |  The Tampa Tribune
    Illustrations by DAVID WILLIAMS

    The food in our memories is powerful stuff. The flavors, the aromas and the places where we ate them combine to taunt our taste buds. Fourth-generation restaurateur Richard Gonzmart knows this. The Cuban sandwich served at his family's Columbia Restaurant was a good value at $7.95, but he craved the version he remembered eating as a boy. Through the years, the sandwich just tasted ... different. So Gonzmart began a quest two years ago to remake the sandwich using the recipe his grandfather, Casimiro Hernandez Jr., served to customers in Ybor City. Now president of the Columbia, he had no idea how difficult and expensive it would be to recapture a taste of history.

    When I was a little boy, I remember how people made Cuban sandwiches ... the marinating of the roast pork, the glazing of the ham, the caramelizing and slicing. I remember the Genoa salami that had the peppercorn in it. Everything was done fresh daily. The sandwich came about in Tampa because of the people who emigrated here: the Germans, the Italians, the Spanish. That's why it's diferent from the ones in Miami. A Tampa Cuban sandwich has better bread. It's better than it is in Cuba.
    When I was a boy, the Columbia had windows in the front on Seventh Avenue. They had glass-front refrigerators where you could drive by and see the ham, the pork, the salami and the cheese. This was where great Cubans were made. Luis Garcia made sandwiches for 31 years. I think they cost 75 cents. Over the years everyone in Ybor City took shortcuts, even the Columbia. A lot of pre-prepared ham, pre-prepared pork. The salami producers started changing the style, maybe because it was cheaper.
    I knew we were doing it wrong when USF historian Andy Huse wrote about the best Cuban sandwich and he didn't mention us. I wasn't going to argue. We did do shortcuts. We used a different ham. We used a different pork. The salami? I didn't use it because I couldn't find it, so I didn't worry about it. It was one of those shortcuts you make. We were just slicing the ham instead of putting the rub on it. We'd score it, and put the rub on. Caramelizing it takes time.
    So I went on a mission two years ago to make the best Cuban sandwiches I remember as a kid that my grandfather made. Everyone has a different thought about what the sandwich should be. I went to a recipe I found from my grandfather.
    There's a certain order when you build the sandwich, and I'm real, real particular about how we make our Cuban. I went to one of our restaurants the other day and ate it and I told the general manager, You made the sandwich upside down. He looks at me and says, What do you mean? I didn't even inspect it. I could taste the difference. He made it wrong.
    First comes the ham. We went back to getting the fresh ham and marinating it with garlic and sour orange. It just has a unique taste. What we're using costs more money, but it's the closest thing to a de-boned ham. I was looking for something that was the closest possible thing to bone-in ham without having to do that. I did blind tastings. If it was going to be better bone-in, I would have gone bone-in. The bone-in was what they used to make Spanish bean soup with, so we're buying shanks for the soup.
    On top of the ham is the marinated roast pork sliced thin. It has to have some cumin in there. I went and bought a brand new frigging oven that cost me $30,000 to cook the roast pork. We didn't have a combination steam and heat oven. You know what the amazing thing is? We went to making the pork ourselves and ended up saving money on the pork. I think with everything, my sandwich costs 8 cents more, and it's SO much better. The price didn't matter. It's just a better product.
    Then comes the salami. It has to be Genoa salami with peppercorns. We're importing it from Italy. Then comes the Swiss cheese. We were buying it imported. I didn't have a problem there. Then the pickles. They have to be dill sandwich pickles sliced to a certain thickness. The mustard has to be on top so that if you eat it right, the taste kind of explodes on the roof of your mouth. It has to be yellow mustard, not brown mustard. It gives it that tartness, that bang. I'm using French's right now.
    Lettuce and tomato? You can't put it on a Cuban sandwich. All that moisture seeps and it screws up the bread. If you want to add it on afterwards, that's OK.
    We brush the outside of the bread with butter. When I went to put the butter on top, my chief operations officer, who has been with me for 15 years says, Nobody puts butter on top. They do! That's how it was done! I had to convince people who don't understand the history of the Cuban about what makes it special. Once we did it and they tasted it, they believed me. La Segunda Central bread is the key to the sandwich. It's the best Cuban bread. The same family has been supplying us bread for 93 years.
    You know what? Our sales since it debuted in January have increased on the Cuban sandwich dramatically. Probably 40 percent. It's not on our dinner menu, but we're selling a lot at dinner. People are asking for it at dinner. It lowers our average check, but that's OK. I don't care about stuff like that. As long as people come in. That's what I try telling my people.
    One day a waiter, before we changed the sandwich, three men came in wanting a Cuban sandwich at nighttime. He gets all mad. I said, Serve them the Cuban sandwich. You don't know who these people are. About 10 minutes later, he comes up to me and says, They ordered a bottle of Dom Perignon! The guys had been on their yacht and they wanted a Cuban. You have to serve what you're famous for. It's a signature item and I'm proud of that.

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