Cristina Comenge
(Madrid, 1981) is the
queen of croquettes
, a
title
that she is grateful for, but says she does not deserve.
"Queens are the supermothers and super-grandmothers who have been making them all their lives."
Okay, but then what do we call this cook and businesswoman who sells four million croquettes a year to restaurants, hotels and individuals and who has
corners
in two large shopping centers in Spain?
Let's park titles and rhetorical questions and get into flour with Cristina Comenge and
Oído Cocina Gourmet
, the workshop that opened, in 2013, after closing its restaurant whose
star dish
was croquettes.
"Everyone asked for them, the clients for their family events, the neighboring dining rooms to alleviate their workload ... There was a huge demand that I could not meet. Every day, just to supply my restaurant I had a person dedicated exclusively to do them, "recalls Comenge.
And in these she was when Diego, who today is her husband, uttered a revealing phrase: "Cris, these croquettes are from another planet, they are spectacular and everyone asks for them ...".
The next thing was to roll the blanket over his head,
close Oven 180
and launch to sell them.
"We started with a cream cooker from the year 81 - come on, my age - with
very little means
because we didn't know if the adventure, which seemed like the idea of the century to us, would work. We went little by little, with a person who helped us. Diego distributed, I made the
cream cookers
... ", he explains.
Cristina Comenge in the facilities of her Madrid workshop.
And boy did it work.
First with four or five neighboring restaurants;
then they went up to 10;
later at 20, 40, 50 ...
El Corte Inglés
arrived
and then
Carrefour
and two years ago they began to export.
The expansion
"Now we sell to a distributor in England and another in Hong Kong, something that makes me very excited. It is the most exotic," he adds.
There, his clients are restaurants, but he does not rule out making the leap to
retail
.
"Maybe one day Oido Cocina will reach
Chinese supermarkets
. I intend to expand wherever they leave me, but with the pandemic, everything has stopped a bit."
And it is that the Covid has affected the business a lot.
"Our main clients come from the hospitality industry: hotels, restaurants, catering. Fortunately, by having
a foot in the distribution
, we have compensated a little, because a lot has been sold through the kiosks in El Corte Inglés and Carrefour ... AND To top it all, it coincided with the start-up of the
new 1,000 m² workshop
. But we have weathered the storm and we have endured, "acknowledges Cristina.
Constant and optimistic seem to be the adjectives that best define it.
"It is very sad to hear the testimonies of those hoteliers who have had to close ... However, I think we are reaching
the end
. Everything is more animated. This morning I received orders from three clients from outside Madrid who have
resumed their activity
, and that is a good sign, a good sign, "she says hopefully.
Assortment of Gourmet Kitchen Ear croquettes.
-With these data, how do you see the future of restoration?
-We live in a country with doors to the outside, we love being on the streets, going out to eat ... Little by little, things will return to their being.
That said, food
delivery
and restaurant
delivery
service
are here to stay, since the offer that we have just one click away is beastly.
And just one click away (in the Oido Cocina online store) there are also his croquettes, whose secret he reveals to us.
"First, they have to be
super creamy, not liquid
. How do you get it? Using very little flour and cooking it for a long time so that by evaporation that cream is made."
Second, be very generous with the main ingredient.
"It makes me very angry when I try one and I don't immediately know what it is."
Third, a
subtle
but very crunchy
batter
and "that is what the panko gives it. A Japanese bread more expensive than the traditional one, but perfect for the croquette because, in addition, it absorbs less oil," he explains.
Vocation for the kitchen
Cristina says that since she can
remember she
has been linked to cooking and that her family (the Barreiros, automotive entrepreneurs) had nothing to do with the world of cooking.
Although, curiosities of life, his vocation was
born
thanks to her.
"At home they have always eaten a lot and well. I remember those well
dressed
pulardas
that were prepared at
my grandparents' house
. My family gave great importance to cooking, so I imagine that my passion will come from there, that seeing so many recipes very good ".
The ham ones, the house hit, and the vegan cauliflower ones, one of the latest additions.
At the age of five he made his first dish: some
truffles with orange
that he saw in the children's supplement of a newspaper.
"I remember perfectly how the chocolate melted and mixed with the orange peel. I loved it, it seemed like
the best
. That was my first contact with cooking."
And that innocent entanglement in the kitchen took root in Cristina as a child and, as she grew older, it became her vocation.
It was clear which was the yellow brick road to follow.
But sometimes the
paths
diverge and take us away from the chosen destination.
"I think they tried to divert me a bit and I ended up graduating in
Law
. I was clear about what I wanted to do, but not how to start my story with the stove."
He did not know how to do it, but he did know that he had to train.
During the day he studied and in the afternoons and nights he went into restaurant kitchens.
"Wherever they accepted me, I would go, to
peel potatoes
or whatever they left me ... I felt that I was in my element, that was what I really liked."
At the Ritz school
With the gift of the end of the degree - "a year at the
Escoffier School
, in Paris" - came the confirmation of his vocation.
"There he was immensely happy and I reaffirmed my idea of cooking."
He still did not give shape to his passion and he deviated from the path again: he signed up for a master's degree in Journalism.
But the doubts were beginning to dissipate.
She went to
London
to see first-hand a concept in which she saw herself: "a
pastry-bakery
with delicious dishes to take away."
He spent four months learning the business and, with the place in Madrid practically rented and the name decided -Oven 180, because almost everything in pastry is
baked at 180 degrees
- "we had to stop it because they put very high tolls on us: I I couldn't sell croissants for two euros! "
Sign for one of the Hong Kong restaurants serving their croquettes.
He said goodbye to the bakery-pastry shop, but not to the kitchen.
He changed the format and with the help of his brother Alberto opened his
own restaurant
in 2007. "When I opened it, I insisted on having the best hamburger and the best croquettes because everyone likes them. Norway lobster ravioli, and other delicious things, but those two dishes became the
stars of the house
, to the point that some critics said they were one of the best in Madrid ".
Oven 180
Cristina remembers that time "wonderful, super beautiful. It was a challenge. I was fascinated by the kitchen, the show ... I was immensely happy in those moments. But, of course, a restaurant is more things, management, suppliers, staff, being expensive to the public and, for me, with how shy I am, it was hard for me ... That part was
very hard
. "
At one point he realized that "my life was reduced to being in Oven," he recalls.
And then Diego said the
magic
phrase
: "Cris, these croquettes are from another planet, they are spectacular and everyone asks for them ...".
And Cristina took the cream cooker in 1981 and founded Oído Cocina.
Today it ships to
all of Spain
, offers
16 varieties
of gourmet artisan croquettes (from spectacular vegan cauliflower with coconut milk and curry to Iberian ham, the
hit
of the house) and has just added new products.
Every day he usually prepares different recipes for "Sabores de mis Amores", his Instagram account.
-With what croquette would you
celebrate the end of the Covid
?
-With one to
enjoy as a family
and it would be sweet, to take away the bitter drink that the pandemic has caused.
I would make a
fried milk one
, flavoring the milk with orange zest and cinnamon and a lot of sugar!
There he stays, thinking and cooking new croquettes recipes ... and other things, because these Covid times have also brought him a reunion with a part of the kitchen that he had forgotten: "Every day I take a little time to make a dish rich and upload it to
Sabores de mis amores
, the account that I opened on Instagram during the pandemic, "he concludes.
Their croquettes
are sold
in the online store of Oido Cocina, El Corte Inglés and Carrefour.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
The 11 new taverns you should visit this spring
DESSERT Miguicheese, the home delivery cheesecake that is sold as churros
NEW EDITORIAL The 238 most emblematic signature dishes of world gastronomy
See links of interest
Work calendar