Castilleja de la Cuesta (Seville) is the birthplace of two women whose names cross borders and evoke passions full of nostalgia and flavor. One of them is Gilda, the film starring Rita Hayworth or Margarita Cansino, daughter of a Castilian, and which identifies the famous pintxos of the same name. The other is Inés Rosales, a woman who in 1910 went down to neighboring Pañoleta, a crossroads of travelers leaving or returning to Andalusia, where she sold her oil cakes, a product that is 114 years old, exported to 37 countries and that has made its way not only in anonymous kitchens, where amateurs play with combining it with sweet and savory foods, but also in the menus of many restaurants and renowned chefs who They take advantage of its varieties of spices, orange or lemon for their own culinary creations. “The link with the world of restaurants does not respond to any organized plan. We started in 2010 through a project with Alimenta Cocina, in which a chef was given the opportunity to create a recipe from our products and other times he was guided by us. Every year, the brands published a book aiming to have visibility in haute cuisine,” explains Ana Moreno, daughter of the current owner of Inés Rosales, Juan Moreno, and its head of Institutional Relations and Sustainable Development. The house is also integrated into the Food of Spain portal of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and is a regular at international gastronomy congresses, such as Madrid Fusión or fairs such as Fitur, showcases through which it has interacted and interacted with others. chefs who are invited to visit their factory in Huévar del Aljarafe where 300,000 oil pancakes and other sweets are made every day. “The product defends itself very well, but quality is our main guarantee and they are also our ambassadors,” he adds. More information Inés Rosales recovered the family recipe—wheat flour, extra virgin olive oil, sugar and aromatic seeds—, which It is the base of their “legitimate and accredited” oil cakes and they continue to be flattened by the farmers, the women who hand-pave the sourdough, as they did almost 115 years ago. With the help of its current owner, Juan Moreno, who acquired the company in 1985, they expanded the flavors giving them a touch of orange, lemon, rosemary and thyme and for this Christmas it has been expanded to ginger and cinnamon, in a limited edition. From the accompaniment to coffee with snacks, they have come to be served hot and cold, such as the beef sobrasada or the cheese, amanita and hedgehog, which they serve at the Fino Bar restaurant in Barcelona; Mexican style with pibil tuna, pickled onion, poached egg, shichimi togarashi and sprouts, at La Vinografía de Javier, in Véjer de la Frontera (Cádiz); At La Berenjena de Chamberí, in Madrid, they use the rosemary and thyme base for their oxtail tapa and at Barlovento in Seville, they use the orange base for their tomato jam, smoked cod, tartufete and mint. But it can also be used as a seasoning to season other dishes, once shelled, as has been done in Puro Chup Chup, from Huelva. As for sweets, at La Merina authentic brasa, in Grazalema (Cádiz), they serve it with creamy yogurt, tocino de cielo, pine nuts from the breña and red fruit coolies and at Josefita Bar, in the center of Madrid, it is offered with cottage cheese and honey.Baking the cakes. PACO PUENTES One of the pioneers in including Inés Rosales' cakes in their menus were Gonzalo and Kike, founders of the Gorki Group, who incorporated cheese with rosemary and thyme and foie with orange. “They asked us for appetizers at a fair in Landaluz—a gastronomic cluster in Andalusia—when they started marketing the new cakes for export,” explains Gonzalo Ramírez. They did it in their premises in Seville, which has now changed hands and name, Alberto, but which continues to keep the cakes on its menu. These are some examples of the penetration into professional kitchens of the artisan recipe for Inés oil cake Rosales and its versions. The house has managed to imprint the tradition of that flavor that goes back to grandmother's snacks, including the paper that covers its products – and which they also make in their factory in Huévar – in the presentation of the dishes. Its expansion also explains the diversification of its offer, such as the crackers that are sold in the United States “because of their love for cheese,” explains Ana Moreno. However, traditional cakes also reach there thanks to another exceptional ambassador, chef José Andrés, who includes them in the gift baskets of his Little Spain market in New York and who has also recommended a recipe with rosemary cake. and payoyo cheese.
Product size control lines, in the Inés Rosales factory. PACO PUENTESTue García did not need gastronomic and tourist showcases to incorporate Inés Rosales' cake into the menu of his restaurant 12 Tapas, precisely in Castilleja de la Cuesta, where the house's first factory was opened. It can be said that Inés Rosales sat at her table as a diner. “I knew Juan Moreno's son and almost when the restaurant opened, he told me that he was going to come eat with his father. I told him not to even think about it because we were only doing serranitos. I spent the whole night thinking about what to offer him and decided it had to be something related to cakes.” It was 2011, and from that dream, Inés was born, a foie tapa, which over the years has been transformed both in its presentation and in the quality of the foie, an evolution parallel to that of its cooking concept, which began by emulating the dishes that his mother made until it became a restaurant recognized as a Bib Gourmand establishment in the Michelin Guide and with a Sun from the Repsol Guide.
Tue García, the chef of 12 tapas, prepares his Inés cake, a tapa of Inés Rosales cake and foie, in his restaurant in Castilleja de la Cuesta (Seville). PACO PUENTES During this time he has used Inés Rosales products as a base for multiple recipes: the Cortadillo to make tiramisu; the cakes as a base to make guacamole dips, for hamburgers or for their pizzas. “We came to have a section called R&R, like R&D, but with Rosales' R and it worked very well, because they were fun things and easy to understand,” remembers Tue. Little by little he left these creations behind, as he delved into the preparation of more technical recipes, although he never completely abandoned the cake. Because his relationship with Inés Rosales has to do with his sentimental link with Castilleja, where he was born and resides, and with his concept of cuisine. “When you try to build a gastronomic concept you also need historical support,” and Inés Rosales is part of the history of this municipality of Aljarafe in Seville. That is why their menu, both the tasting and the daily menu, begins and ends with the Inés Rosales cake: the Inés as a starter—much more sophisticated than the one designed in 2011—and the oil cake custard, as a dessert, where the The flavor of the factory's flagship sweet is perceived not only in the physical base, but in the entire cream that also hides its ingredients.
Round trip recipes
Oil cake custard, one of the desserts on the 12 tapas menu, in Castilleja de la Cuesta (Seville). PACO PUENTES The fact that Inés Rosales has a presence in 37 countries means that customers who visit 12 tapas do not need any explanation about the cake because most of them know it. As in our country, where the house maintains an almost direct relationship with consumers through social networks. “With the Internet we had the opportunity to listen to people, who by tagging us made us participate in how they took the cake, with condensed milk and anchovies…. And that is one of our motivations, to see how they give us so many emotional stories,” says Ana. And that channel has become bidirectional, because since 2016, Inés Rosales has shared recipes on her website, which were previously prepared by the Hospitality School of Seville, and to which cooking blogs from professionals and individuals or video recipes on YouTube have been incorporated, in collaboration with chef Carlos de la Calle. “Sometimes we also go out to the street and at the door of some establishment we do 'street marketing' so that people on the street tell us their experiences,” explains Ana Moreno. The secret to the success of Inés Rosales' cakes lies not only in in the quality of its product made with natural ingredients, in the production of which almost 90% of women participate. The key lies in how the cake continues to be linked—whether accompanying coffee, as it was done in the times of its founder, in homemade snacks or in gourmet creations—to the relaxed enjoyment that takes us back to the flavors of grandmother. “That's what it's about, delighting in intimate moments,” emphasizes Ana Moreno.
The Gilda tapa, from the 12 tapas restaurant, in the Sevillian town of Castilleja de la Cuesta. PACO PUENTES