Chef Kyle Gairhan introduced many Memphians and Mid-Southerners to the culinary delights of Cuba through his Buen Sabor (Good Taste) Tours company.
His tours, which he began in 2019, focus on “mainly the good culinary parts of Cuba,” says Gairhan, 40. They eat at the best restaurants, including La Guarida, which, he says, serves “high-end French-style cuisine with a Cuban flair,” and Amigos Del Mar, a seafood restaurant on the coast where Gairhan ate shark for the first time. They also experience farm-to-table dinners, take cooking and cocktail-making classes, and ride around Old Havana in classic cars, including a 1950s convertible.
And they visit El Floridita, where the daiquiri was popularized, and Sloppy Joe’s, where they possibly invented the classic sandwich of the same name.
Gairhan takes people using the “Support of the Cuban People” license through the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). “It’s legal for Americans to go but not under straight tourism. We have to have an itinerary that is full of support of the Cuban people. Like staying in Cuban houses, eating at Cuban restaurants, and not supporting the government.”
Several Cuban trips are planned, but a future Cuban tour will focus on helping with his soup kitchen, Un Plato Más (One More Plate), which he plans to open in December in Cuba.
A Memphis native, Gairhan started a nonprofit, Cuban Aid Alliance, last spring. “I am trying to reduce food insecurity in Cuba.”
“I’ve been going to Cuba for a long time, and every time I go I see people that are desperate for food. The food there costs around the same as it does here, but people only make $10 to $20 a month, so it’s really hard for people to buy it. I figured the best way for me to give back was with my cooking skill.”
Gairhan saw people in Old Havana who were begging. But, he says, “They’re not asking for money. It’s ‘Can you give me some bread? Can you get me anything?’ They’re just desperate for food. I figured a soup kitchen would be the best way to do it.”
Shark from Amigos del Mar (Photos: Courtesy Kyle Gairhan)
Sloppy joe from Sloppy Joe’s
Ooctopus carpaccio from La Guarida
The soup kitchen is in Old Havana, “where there are a lot of unhoused people.”
Gairhan was going to Cuba about four times a year, but now, he says he’s planning on being there more often when he opens his soup kitchen, which is housed in a Colonial building that he believes dates to the 1700s.
Gairhan will strictly be doing food deliveries at first. “The place I found is just a kitchen, really. I can’t seat people in it.”
He plans to be at the soup kitchen most of the time. “And then I’ll be going back and forth from Memphis because my family doesn’t want to move down there. The secretary of my nonprofit is Cuban, and she will oversee it when I’m gone.”
Gairhan will serve Cuban fare, but “different from restaurants that are around and in Cuba,” he says. “I’m going to try to use ingredients I can find in Cuba, but with a twist.”
Like guava-barbecued pulled pork. The pork will be cooked normally, but the barbecue sauce will be made from guava paste.
Also, he says, “I’m going to do these skewers with chicken. Mojo chicken. It’s like a citrusy garlic seasoning they use in Cuba. It’s going to be chicken, plantains, onions, and peppers. A kabob, but with Cuban ingredients.”
Gairhan has eaten all over Cuba. “You can buy two lobsters off a lobster fisherman for three dollars. And mangos. You can get a mango the size of your head, They’re so good.”
“Ropa Vieja,” which means “old clothes,” is one of Gairhan’s favorites. “It’s an old beef dish that has shredded beef in it. A stew. Cuba’s national dish.”
Gairhan might sell cocktails in his soup kitchen, but he’s not sure. Since he’s in Havana, it will be “mostly rum drinks.”
He won’t be running the soup kitchen by himself. “I have a few friends who are going to work with me. I have these mission trips I’m starting to set up, where people will come down on a five-day trip and work in the mornings with me in the soup kitchen.”
Gairhan has always found Cuba a safe place to be. “Cuba is the safest Latin American country. I feel way safer there than I do walking about in Memphis. And I feel safe walking around in Memphis. Most places. It’s like any big city. Just don’t go in dark alleys or places that look seedy.”
A former chef at Memphis Whistle, Gairhan also was the sandwich chef at the old Backlot Sandwich Shop. He made barbecue at the Alpine Beer Company in San Diego, California, and was head chef at the old Not a Burger Stand in Burbank, California.
Gairhan also began his own cannabis business, Pissing Excellence, in Los Angeles, California. He won the High Times Cannabis Cup a few times doing extracts and topicals.
He was co-owner of RAWK’n Grub in Memphis until the pandemic hit. Gairhan then began his now defunct Mane St. Provisions line of pickles, jams, sausages, and sauces.
Gairhan isn’t planning to stop with one soup kitchen in Cuba. “I want to buy a farm, so I can be able to make enough produce to open the soup kitchen in other towns and just supply my own food there.”
For info on Buen Sabor Tours, go to buensabortours.com, and for info on Cuban Aid Alliance, visit cubanaidalliance.org.