Eight years ago,
Elena Campal was engaged in other tasks
.
Today (well, since Monday) she is the
maker
of the Best Artisan Roscón de Reyes de Madrid 2022-2023, a contest that has been won
by Panod
,
temple of artisan bread and pastries with which Norman Pérez and Amparo Parra have conquered Madrid since 2017
and where Elena arrived three years ago.
Grateful and surprised by the award and its impact, this woman from Madrid (1977) does not break her routine:
going to the workshop on Calle Prim, 1 to make pastry snacks, including the almost countless roscones
that she will have to make this Christmas season.
Tasks that have nothing to do with a previous life.
For many years she worked as a nutritionist until, due to her personal needs, she had to reinvent herself
and decided to do it in the world of bread, a universe she didn't know much about.
"I did some research and entered a bakery where they opened the doors for me and helped me train as a baker," explains Elena.
Elena places the trays of mini-roscones.
After five years in Panic,
he landed in Panod.
"I arrived to make bread and in January of this year I went to pastry, of which I already had notions"
.
The whys?
"In this profession there are always things to learn. For example, technical aspects that, by doing the same thing, allow you to change the development or the result of a product."
More reasons:
"The restlessness and the desire to learn,"
acknowledges Elena, whose first
pastry work
was cinnamon buns.
And between those sweets and the Best Artisan Roscón in Madrid not even a year has passed.
The question, obligatory.
How is it achieved?
Well, "with a lot" of everything: "Care, team, enthusiasm. And also thinking about it, and giving it to them again.
Any artisan work requires perseverance and maximum involvement."
And in the winning roscón (which sells for 24.95 euros per half kilo) "a
wonderful team that has worked for a long time
so that together we have hit the key" has turned.
The workshop on Calle Prim has a shop and a tasting area.
In Panod everything is done by hand every day and in the workshop itself.
From the 12 types of bread that they now sell to the filling of the salty snacks, going through two varieties of roscón -classic and with cream- that "have no secret.
Only raw materials of the highest quality; well-balanced processes, looked at, changed and verified with care, and a lot of dedication and love
".
And it is that the
best roscón
is the result of many trial and error.
As are
"the 50 or 60 sweet references we make"
.
The star?
"Uff, there is none in particular. We touch so many products... For example,
the French toast is delicious; just like the puff pastry or the croissants
, which you take to your mouth and a burst of rich butter hits you... Or the cakes -we make very few and they rotate- in which
we look closely at the percentages of each ingredient so that they are not heavy
. There are biscuits, cupcakes... Everything studied, everything verified", insists this discreet woman and little given to public exposure for whom, if "being among the finalists was an enormous joy, winning was a surprise".
In this artisan bakery they make a dozen breads with sourdough.
"I was not going with the idea of 'my product is the best', far from it.
On a personal level I am super happy because I knew many of the finalists and the bar was very high
."
Take a look: Isabel Maestre (second place), Doble Uve (third), Cientotreintaº, El Riojano, Marea Bread, Balbisiana...
And now that? The madness father?
"Ha ha," Elena replies before resuming her routine.
Although
Amparo Parra -co-owner of this brand
with five establishments in Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Majadahonda and La Moraleja- adds: "These days we plan to launch between 600 and 800 roscones a day
(they are not reserved)
and for
the key Christmas dates some 1,500 or more if we can
. Apart from hundreds of mini-roscones".
It is clear that these days in Panod there is a star.
Panod addresses:
Prim, 1;
Plaza de la Moraleja, s/n (Alcobendas);
Manuel de Falla, 3 (Majadahonda) and Avenida de Europa, 23 and Aquilán, 2 (Pozuelo de Alarcón).
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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