Journey inside the kitchen of celebrity chef Luis Ramón Batlle, an ambassador for Cuban cuisine. While U.S. sanctions impact the availability and cost of food, Chef Batlle says there is a silver lining: forcing creativity. “You become a magician, an inventor,” he says.

Batlle was part of the first delegation of Cuban chefs to visit the U.S. during the Obama opening. “It changed my life,” he says. But things changed when Trump became president. Cuban food culture, which was flourishing during normalization, has taken a hit from sanctions and other restrictions imposed by Trump and Biden. It is harder for Cuban chefs to travel to the United States, there are fewer visitors to Cuba and food is scarcer than ever.