CANTABRIA.The Cantabrian puff pastry that drives the Botín and Iker Jiménez crazy now you can order it at home
DESSERT.Miguicheese, the home delivery cheesecake that is sold as churros
Oriol Balaguer (49) can boast of almost everything as a pastry chef, but he does not go with him.
He has the label of 'the best ...' in almost everything he touches: in his croissants and panettones by contest and in the chocolate palms and roscones by popular acclaim.
Now is the season of Easter monkeys and once again he shows why his name is at the top of the guild.
"This year we hope to sell around 1,500 in Madrid alone," he explains at the Only You Atocha Hotel, where he presents this year's collection and, furthermore, has just opened his Breakery corner.
Since January they have been working with these creations, very typical in Catalonia - it is tradition that the godfather gives them to the godson - and increasingly in the capital, which the Catalan pastry chef turns into authentic works of art.
"The whole team proposes ideas and drawings. We also ask customers for their opinion, including the children. And from all this we make the selection."
This year it has a line of animals (with moving koalas, elephants, ducks and puffer fish) and another more conceptual and design inspired by nature and architecture.
"
With chocolate you can do almost everything. You work as in the fashion pattern, with templates,
" he explains while moving a bowl of chocolate.
They make about 20 monas a day.
"
They are made one by one by hand and take a lot of work. Of course, we sell them all,
" says who in 2018 received the award for Best Pastry Chef from the International Academy of Gastronomy - in his curriculum he has a few more.
For his creations - also for chocolates - he uses Cacao Grand Cru, chocolate from the cocoa plantations of Venezuela, Trinidad and Santo Tomé, as well as dark and white chocolate.
STRONG AGAINST PROBLEMS
The Catalan pastry chef opened his first store in Madrid in 2008. "He had invested everything here and the crisis came. It was tremendous."
The first place was Ortega y Gasset's somewhat futuristic chocolate shop.
"It was a dream" and for a few months it became almost a nightmare.
But he went ahead.
"I believe that I am strong and I grow before the problems".
With the pandemic, it has happened too.
"In the hardest moments, with everything closed, I would go to my workshop and play music to think."
Passionate about what he does, he has always claimed the role of the pastry chef.
When La Duquesita took the reins in 2015, an emblematic establishment in Madrid, he knew that the challenge was enormous.
"Stress activates me, I've always said it."
It has turned the space in the Salesas neighborhood into an essential visit to the capital.
"This year we have broken a record in sales of panettones. It has been the undisputed star," he explains.
But the palm tree, of which about 300 can be sold on a weekday - "on weekends I don't even know what comes out" - is always a safe bet.
"The secret? Per kilo of flour, kilo of butter. And both of the highest quality," he laughs.
There is no more secret.
Addresses
: The new collection will be exhibited during Easter at Only YOU Atocha (Madrid) and can be purchased on request at its boutiques in Madrid (Ortega y Gasset, 44, La Duquesita -Fernando VI, 2- and Breakery -Hotel Only You Atocha) and in Barcelona (Pl. Sant Gregori Taumaturg, 2; Travessera de les Corts, 340; Classic Line in Benet i Mateu, 62, C / Calàbria, 65 and Bake It in Major de Sarrià, 5).
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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