Whenever my husband enters a used bookstore, he asks the clerk where to find the cookbooks. An executive chef for three decades and a restaurateur for the past two, he owns a cookbook collection pushing 400 tomes. It isn’t first editions of books by famous masters that he seeks, but rather the Junior League cookbooks. He will tell you that there is nothing junior about a Junior League cookbook. They are troves of the absolute best family recipes of any locale. From a chef’s perspective, they provide a true glimpse into the essence of a region’s food culture.

Today, there are over 23 Junior Leagues in Florida, but there is only one league cookbook that’s garnered national fame. “The Gasparilla Cookbook: Favorite Florida West Coast Recipes” published by the Junior League of Tampa in 1961 has sold over a quarter of a million copies and has been reprinted more than 20 times. Self-described as a “treasure map of good eating,” the book celebrates family recipes from Tarpon Springs down the coast to Boca Grande. It’s a cookbook that my grandmother, a third-generation Floridian, gifted to my aunt and my mother on their birthdays in 1979. Today, it sits on my shelf, too, and one could argue that you’re not a part of Old Florida if it’s not on yours.

Named for the famous pirate José Gaspar, the namesake of the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, Tampa’s original carnival hosted annually since 1904, the hardcover book holds over 700 recipes. It’s just as much a manual of cookery as it is a history of place. Illustrations by legendary Tampa cartoonist Lamar Sparkman are peppered throughout. His 40-year career at the Tampa Times and Tampa Herald led him to the opportunity to create the logo of the new Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1975. “Bucco Bruce,” the iconic pirate with a knife clenched in his teeth donned players’ helmets for two decades.

If new Florida wants to unlock the secrets of Old Florida, this cookbook is a good place to start.
—Nan Kavanaugh

With a hooped earring swashbuckler on the cover, The Gasparilla cookbook is divided into 22 chapters. Each section opens with an anecdotal essay delving into the bounty of Florida’s farmland, sea fare and the people who migrated from all over the world to call the Sunshine State home. The cuisine runs the gamut from tiropita (cheese pie) to kingfish salad to iconic recipes like Pink Elephant sauteed shrimp from the Pink Elephant restaurant in Boca Grande to filet steak salteado from the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa. Not to be outdone, the desserts are just as impressive, featuring award-winning sweets like Sunshine Island cake, the second prize winner of the second All-Florida Orange Dessert Contest. Among the 700 recipes, there’s one constant ingredient: diversity. The people of Tampa in the early ’60s reflected the same melting pot of immigrants that still make Florida one of the most culturally vibrant states in the nation.

If new Florida wants to unlock the secrets of Old Florida, The Gasparilla Cookbook is a good place to start. Because, in the words of its authors, “The food of a land tells the life of its people, and we would like to share our good life with everyone.”

Check out more Flamingo essays here.