A Florida historian who uncovered the secrets of the Cuban sandwich has died

Andrew “Andy” Huse sang loudly at dinner parties and cooked multi-course feasts for the people he loved. He could spend hours probing archives to uncover obscure Tampa history. He often popped into a hole-in-the-wall bakery or deli around Florida during his perpetual hunt for the perfect Cuban sandwich.

Huse was a bestselling author, historian and special collections librarian at the University of South Florida. He died in August at 52. His passion for Florida food and history lives on in the books he wrote and the friends who shared meals with him. “He ate, slept and breathed Tampa and didn’t look at it with any kind of rose-colored glasses,” said Jeff Houck, Huse’s friend and the vice president of marketing for the 1905 Family Of Restaurants. “He saw it very clearly but was fascinated by the food culture, especially in the food history that made it special.”

Huse became known for his books on Florida’s culinary icons, drawing national attention with “The Cuban Sandwich: A History in Layers,” which he wrote with Houck and Dr. Bárbara Cruz. He documented mobster hangouts in “From Saloons to Steak Houses: A History of Tampa.” His 2009 project “The Columbia Restaurant: Celebrating a Century of History, Culture, and Cuisine” is one of the University Press of Florida’s top 10 all-time bestsellers.

Huse was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. His family moved to Clearwater when he was 5, his mother said. Huse spent his childhood writing books with made-up characters. And he shared a fascination for history with his brother and father, a Chicago police officer.

Huse started at USF 27 years ago, double-majoring in history and English before getting his master’s degree in history, and then his master’s of library and information science.

He met Theresa Collington during a trip to Chinsegut Hill Retreat in Hernando County. There were no stoves in the cabins, so Huse plucked native oranges off the trees to make everyone freezer pies.

Collington and Huse would go on to prepare many Old Florida recipes together during weekly dinners. Huse planned the menus, often testing recipes to correspond with his research, and gave their guests jobs. On the nights he brought his acoustic guitar and giant songbook, Huse would assign parts “like it was music class,” said Collington, who became such a close friend that people compared them to siblings.

Huse torched ham in his backyard for Cuban sandwiches and celebrated birthdays with epic cakes and flaming desserts. Every Gasparilla at Collington’s house, she said, “we were cooking things out of the Junior League cookbook, and he would drink rum and talk about the myth of José Gaspar.”

“He was a go big or go home guy. He’s in the fabric of everything I do,” Collington said. “I am lucky for every second, even the bossy cooking and the loud singing and being way too stuffed.”

As globe-trotting celebrity chefs Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern reigned in the mid-2000s, Huse and Houck performed a similar kind of culinary exploration in Tampa. They delighted in vintage food advertisements and culinary oddities in the archives, from a bullfrog ranch on Florida Avenue to a rattlesnake cannery in Tampa.

“We would almost get history drunk,” Houck said. “It’s like he and I were investigators, and we would go find something that really lit each other up. ... Some guys talk about sports. We’d talk about food.”

After publishing the Cuban sandwich book, Houck and Huse gave talks at libraries, retirement homes and symposiums, Huse in his uniform of khaki pants and guayabera shirts buttoned low.

Author Jeff Klinkenberg, who profiled Huse in 2006 for the then-St. Petersburg Times, remembers his humor and fiery opinions.

“Andy Huse despairs at the thought, and the taste, of a poorly executed Cuban sandwich. Could anything be more depressing than a lackluster Cuban?” Klinkenberg wrote then. “Well, yes, but maybe not to Huse, who, if not a gourmet, is at least a lover of his city’s famously sturdy sandwich prepared in the proper manner.”

Later, Huse would go on to trace the sandwich’s origins to Cuba — dispelling the myth that it was created in Tampa.

“Prior to Andy, everyone assumed that there was this corny nostalgic idea that there was kind of a sit-down in Ybor City, with each of the ethnic groups — the Italians, the Cubans and the Spaniards — and each group contributed something,” said Gary Mormino, professor emeritus at USF. “And of course, that’s not the way food evolves.”

Mormino started as Huse’s professor and then became a friend and mentor. Huse oversaw the Florida Studies and University Archives collections at USF Libraries, gathering oral histories and helping to establish the Florida Environment and Natural History Collection. According to USF, Huse also led a charge to resume publication of Tampa Bay History, a journal that highlights work by faculty, graduate students and Florida history scholars.

“Andy was just undefeatable in terms of his curiosity to go back and read old newspapers and find any material relevant to the topic,” Mormino said. “He did not live life lightly.”

When Mormino’s wife, Lynne, was recovering from a knee replacement, Huse insisted on bringing food. He showed up, she remembered, with “not just one thing, but an entire menu, like five or six things he had cooked, including a great dessert.”

Huse adored Chicago-style hot dogs, trips to Rainbow River and movies, especially old films. His latest ongoing project was a book about the Tampa Theatre, which Gary Mormino helped edit, for the movie palace’s upcoming 100th year.

Some USF staffers said they’d been shocked by a recent announcement that Huse’s contract there was not being renewed and were left questioning why the university would fire one of its most prominent faces.

An Aug. 12 letter from libraries dean Todd Chavez to Huse said merely “it is no longer in the University’s best interest to continue your appointment.” Huse could work remotely for a year until his contract expired in 2026, but with no access to employees-only parts of campus.

One library employee, who asked not to be named because staffers had been instructed to not speak to the media about Huse, said speculation had run wild, but to them it seemed that Huse may have struggled to adapt to new technologies and procedures.

Eight days after he was told his contract would not be renewed, Huse resigned from USF with a one-sentence email. Huse’s mother said she believed he’d been excited to start a new job in the history field.

Huse died by suicide on Aug. 20. He requested that his mother post a statement on his Facebook page: “Andy suffered from depression and took his own life. He wishes love and happiness for all.”

On Sept. 12, friends will honor Huse at the Commodore, an Ybor City comedy club that hosted a night dedicated to the Cuban sandwich last year. Huse’s loved ones will hold a public celebration of life at the Columbia Restaurant on Sunday, Sept. 14, from noon to 3 p.m.

“It is just an incalculable loss,” Houck said. “I said, ‘Andy Huse?’ You couldn’t fathom it.”

Houck is honoring Huse how his friend would have wanted: by sharing a meal. When they were writing the Cuban sandwich book, Huse kept making references to a Cuban soup called ajiaco. Huse used it as a metaphor for the sandwich, “with a lot of disparate ingredients that all come together and make this wonderful thing.”

The weekend after Huse died, Houck found a recipe and got to work.

“I’m like, this is ‘Andy.’ It’s long and it’s detailed, and it takes a ton of hard work to make, and the end result is something you wouldn’t expect,” he said. “I’m like, of course he loved ajiaco. And it made me feel closer to him.”

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If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide or in a mental health crisis, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or chat with someone online at 988lifeline.org. You can also dial 211 to reach area nonprofits for information about and referrals to human service organizations.

This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 11:20 AM.