Sex sells?

On my last trip to Cuba, I hung out with my friend Adolfo, a filmmaker and part-time tour guide. I’d promised to teach him how to bake chocolate ginger cookies. Baking cookies isn’t so popular in Cuba as in the U.S., and a lot of ingredients I use aren’t even available: chocolate chips, molasses, ground ginger, crystallized ginger, and even baking powder. So I had to bring those with me from the States.

Together with all the ingredients, I brought a set of measuring cups and spoons, figuring that at Adolfo’s house I’d find either metric or none at all. The correct answer was “none at all.” Adolfo thought the whole idea of measuring was silly. He scoffed at the spoons and used them only as rough guides. (I put him in charge of the dry ingredients while I was beating the butter and sugars.)

Adolfo learns how to use measuring spoons. He doesn't like the fact tsp means something different than Tsp.

Adolfo learns how to use measuring spoons. He doesn’t like the fact teaspoons and tablespoons are abbreviated almost the same.

Measuring? What a waste of time!

Not knowing how hot the oven runs, we burned the first batch pretty badly. But the next day we tried another batch with the dial at minimum heat. Perfection! Adolfo said they were the best cookies he’s ever baked. Of course I immediately asked, “Are they the only cookies you’ve ever baked?” That’s a fair question, as baking cookies isn’t a typical activity in Cuba. It turned out this was not his first, but his third time baking cookies.

But it won’t be his last! He emailed a week ago to say the cookies went fast… and he’s waiting for me to come make more.

The cookies pair well with cafecitos, little shots of espresso. Very Cuban.

As we worked on the cookies, Adolfo was telling me that sex sells, and he insisted that if I want to draw more business, I need photos of half-naked Cubans on my website. That’s really not my style, and I argued about it with him for a bit. Finally I said, “Okay, Adolfo, then take off all your clothes and pose with the cookies.”

Well, that was the end of the half-naked Cubans idea. So all I got were pictures of Adolfo making cookies, fully clothed. But a friend was just telling me there’s nothing sexier than a man working in the kitchen… and there’s even research to prove it!

So I’m grateful to Adolfo for putting me onto the whole Sex sells strategy; being the model for all these sexy photos; and letting me pay him in chocolate ginger cookies. What a pal!