transform and develop society.According to the World Food Program, the energy used for cooking represents approximately 90 percent of household energy consumption in developing countries, therefore the ability to access it is a fundamental factor in achieving safe and sustainable food.Among the energies for an efficient, affordable and reliable kitchen, there is electricity.Electricity is crucial in the home, to produce, process and preserve food, for the lighting that cooking requires, for the refrigeration of perishable products, for the operation of household appliances, and even for the storage and flow of drinking water that It is needed for the preparation of food.In the community, electricity guarantees the institutional kitchen (of schools, workplaces, among other official institutes), as well as the commercial kitchen (cafeterias and other stalls), in addition to survival and resilience exercises in times of crisis and uncertainty.

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Cooking is a central activity in Cuban culture, which traditionally has two hot dishes a day, in addition to mostly slow cooking.However, in the current national energy crisis, the different ways of preparing food in the Cuban family have been seriously affected.Already since 2016 Cuba had problems in the availability of oil that demanded "strict savings and efficient use of energy and fuels" (Granma, 07.08.2016). In the summer of this year, of an installed capacity of 6,558 MW, the availability was only about 2,500 MW. This figure represented 38% of the programmed capacity, and was similar to that which was available in 1994 during the Special Period. Currently, energy insecurity in Cuba causes effects that involve up to four weekly power outages in the residential sector, during the day or night, lasting from four to eight hours in each case. As a result of these blackouts, which often coincide with peak hours, families, especially in remote districts of provinces such as Mayabeque, Cienfuegos, Las Tunas, Holguín and Granma, have seen their ability to cook limited, and have resorted to alternatives such as cooking in advance. and preserve, or cook with firewood or charcoal.

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From revolution to insecurity in energy 

 

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Access to energy is closely linked to social justice, access to food and water as conditions for raising the standard of living and reducing gender inequalities.In its absence, energy insecurity is understood as the lack of access to adequate, affordable and reliable sources of energy for a healthy and sustainable livelihood, and is a challenge above all for subgroups such as women and children, who are particularly vulnerable.

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 Food insecurity may have a more serious perception in cases such as Cuba, where households had already adopted modern cooking energies for decades and therefore have less capacity for improvisation, experience, resources o space for the usability of alternative solutions in the face of power outages or “blackouts”.

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The adoption of household appliances was carried out in Cuba in an almost mechanical way twenty-two years ago, during the so-called "Energy Revolution". This was an ad hoc program in response to the effects suffered by the National Electro-energy System through which it was decided to replace the old thermoelectric plants with more efficient electric generators. But the most remembered aspect in Cuban homes was the exchange of old refrigerators for more modern Chinese appliances, as well as the delivery of electric cooking modules. Since then, traditional foods in your kitchen, such as rice or beans, have required a greater dependence on electricity in a good part of the country, with the use of electrical appliances such as rice cookers, queen pots, and electric or induction cookers, among other household items delivered under state supervision. The main consequence of the program within Cuban homes was the transition from liquefied gas to electric power. 

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Whereas, until the beginning of 2006, the vast majority of households cooked with liquefied gas and polluting fuels such as kerosene, in a few months some three million households, just under a third of the country, converted almost entirely to electric cooking. . The homes were equipped with electric burners, a rice cooker (electric), a pressure cooker (electric), as well as immersion heaters among other items. 

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This change modernized the way of cooking, reducing and optimizing times. Family kitchens abandoned the old pressure cookers and began to depend on new electrical appliances, especially those homes with regulated distribution of manufactured gas.As a result, an increase in peak electricity demand was created with two pronounced points in the day during meal times. Three years later, the total demand for electricity had increased by 33%.