Caribbean Influences on American Food: Caribbean Foods and Cooks in the British Colonies

In 1765 the British took over Florida, and most of the Spanish returned to Havana. Enough stayed, however, to preserve some local foodways, such as the use of the fiery datil chili, a variety of habanero localized in Saint Augustine and taken up by the newly settled Catalan-speaking Minorcans (whose Mediterranean home island had been acquired by Britain at the same time). During much of the British rule over Florida, the Spanish were officially in charge of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast (“West Florida”), increasing the influence of such Caribbean foods as mirlitons and possibly jambalaya in New Orleans, Louisiana.