Michelle Bernstein, whose restaurant mini-empire includes Michy’s in Miami, Michelle’s in Key Largo and MB in Cancún, filters the Latin American flavors she grew up with in Miami through her French training. Sometimes the recipes in CUISINE À LATINA: Fresh Tastes and a World of Flavors From Michy’s Miami Kitchen (Houghton Mifflin, $30), written with Andrew Friedman, struck me as more timid than they had to be — where she calls for half a chili, I’d throw in the whole thing. Her watermelon-and-tuna first course is a visual pun — red on red — but it needs an additional something (more jalapeño, or maybe vinegar) to bring out the contrasting fruit and fish. But most of what I tried I loved. Bernstein enriches a scrumptious “Latina bouillabaisse” with untraditional cream and then brightens it — the perfect touch — with lime juice. Her melt-in-your-mouth oxtail sauce for pappardelle is deepened with cocoa, like a Mexican mole. The eight cups of stock make for a soupy pasta sauce even after it’s thickened with the mascarpone cheese she prefers to Parmigiano-Reggiano, but none of the guests I served it to interrupted their slurping to object.
