The empress of croquettes that she sells even in Hong Kong

• Metropolis The best croquettes in Spain

As someone who says out of nowhere, Cristina Comenge (Madrid, 1981)

.

A more than 30-year-old cream cooker was enough for her, which she managed while her husband, Diego, distributed the orders that were coming out.

It was 2013, and this couple had just inaugurated their workshop Oido Cocina Gourmet.

"

. How were we going to open a ham croquettes workshop? But from the start the numbers were good."

In eight years, their numbers have gone from good to extraordinary: they currently

. And not only do they do it in Spain (both on their website, oidococinagourmet.com, and in Carrefour or El Corte Inglés), they have also made the leap exporting them to England, Germany, France ...

(thanks to the advice of the Community of Madrid through its Single Internalization Window).

"One of our secrets is that we do not skimp on raw materials.

, a fifth of the croquette ... We want that when someone bites it, they know what they are eating, it makes me very angry when I take one

, reveals a smiling Comenge, who continues to reveal another of the

of his success: the batter.

Oido Cocina Gourmet uses

, Japanese breadcrumbs ("it costs a lot, about three euros per kilo"), which absorbs less oil, makes its croquettes

2-46 employees

Recently, given the

that surrounds them, they have moved to a larger workshop,

, in Villaverde.

There they employ 12 people, and they add 34 more in their points of sale ... "

... It's amazing," explains Comenge, who is surprised to mentally retrace the road traveled to get there. here.

"Nowadays I see it everywhere: cooking is very fashionable and

... But before it was not so well seen. At home they told me that it was a good hobby, but to study other things. And I, who was always a good daughter, paid attention to them. "

The Madrid chef Cristina Comenge with a plate of her famous croquettes.BERNARDO DÍAZ

Thus he graduated in Law.

And later he got a master's degree in Journalism.

But during those years, he says, he volunteered after his classes to restaurants to

"I wanted to learn. That was a turning point at home for them to support me," recalls this chef, who would later study cooking in both Paris and London ... Until her time came in Madrid.

In 2007 he opened his restaurant Oven 180 on Jorge Juan Street, where, unexpectedly, his

adventure begins

.

The success of their croquettes became such that

.

"They were very famous, everyone asked us for them: neighboring restaurants, clients who had a wedding ...".

The idea that changed everything

It was then that her husband came up with his idea: "

with them ... there is a lot of demand."

They shut down Oven 180 in 2012 and jumped into the void.

They started selling to five restaurants, then to 10. Then to 20. Then to 100 ... Until today, they

already

thanks to their portfolio of more than 16 different types of croquettes.

His latest invention? A vegan cauliflower with coconut milk and curry that joins the leek ones, the black truffle ... "I try to get

. I also develop some that are commissioned by very specific clients," she reels this Madrid chef, who during confinement, to avoid writing one by one to her friends what they could cook to get out of typical meals, opened the Instagram profile @saboresdemisamores, where she

. The account, a great success, brings together "easy and attractive" dishes.

It is more difficult for him to quantify the number of croquettes he has tried in his life, but, he says, "I ask for them wherever I go."

"It's an obsession, whether it's a restaurant or a roadside bar. There are many good ones, I think

We have a great level in this country, it is very difficult to eat badly."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

See links of interest

• La Palma news

• Last News

• What

• Holidays 2021

• Holidays Madrid

• 2022 business calendar

• Home THE WORLD TODAY

• Cadiz - Majorca

• Bordeaux - Reims

• Montpellier - Nantes

• Strasbourg - Lorient

• Troyes - Rennes