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Illyanna Maisonet is vocal about preserving culinary traditions from her homeland, Puerto Rico.

Illyanna Maisonet shared three recipes from Diasporican for AARP members to try:

Brazo Gitano With Burge Road Cherry Cream Filling

Fresh cherries from an orchard in Stockton, California, lend a flavorful burst to this rolled sponge cake dessert. 

Carne Guisada

This stewed meat recipe — using lamb, chicken or beef — can easily become a staple dish.

Pernil

Although this family recipe takes six to seven hours to cook, it’s well worth the wait.

The food writer extensively covers the ingredients, dishes and techniques of the territory's Taino, Spanish, African and mainland U.S. history in Cocina Boricua — her column in the San

Francisco Chronicle. These stories, paired with 90 authentic recipes, are featured in her recent cookbook, Diasporican: A Puerto Rican Cookbook (October 2022).

Part memoir, part cookbook and part retelling of Puerto Rican history, Diasporican provides a thoroughly researched guide to essential Puerto Rican foods and flavors — adapted for

functionality and accessibility stateside. Combining familial memories and her culinary school background, Maisonet, 41, documents Puerto Rico’s vast culinary culture through beautiful food

and travel photography. The book also serves as a critical reminder of how geography, immigration and colonization reflect the ingenuity and diversity of Puerto Rican people.

AARP interviewed California-based Maisonet to talk about growing up in the kitchen and creating content online. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

love about creating this cookbook?

I loved being able to share Puerto Rican food through the lens of the diaspora, specifically from someone who grew up in Northern California. Who knew that the book would also be a part of

my grief journey — my grandma died within a year into the process. A lot of the stories attached to the recipes in the book came from my San Francisco Chronicle column, and those stories

gave me a way to work out my traumas.