Created in 2019, this Pamplona-based firm focuses on culinary advice; the development of menus, recipes, drinks and cocktails; and the design of business plans for establishments around the world. Its director, the Argentinean chef Christian Sala, tells Navarra Capital about one of his next star projects: the start-up of an R&D workshop for confectionery. A line of work that has led him to collaborate with Coffing.
He is an electromechanical technician, has a degree in Advertising Communication and a master’s degree in Marketing. But it has been the kitchen that has taken Christian Sala to unimaginable places: luxury resorts in the Caribbean, the buoyant commercial center of Saudi Arabia, the cold streets of many Russian cities?
His grandparents taught him to cook in his native Buenos Aires. And, since then, that vocation was gaining strength until he decided to become a professional in the classrooms of the Buenos Aires academy The BUE Trainers. After working in several hotels in the Argentine capital, in 2005 he won second place on the podium of the Cucharón de Oro, an international contest organized by Unilever that attracted more than 1,000 candidates from his country, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile.
The prize included a stay at the Culinary Institute of America, which he attended a year later and complemented in 2008 with a master’s degree in Food and Beverage Management from the School of Hotel Management and Tourism of Valencia. Thus, after gaining experience in various Valencian caterings and hotels, he returned to the United States to relaunch the two restaurants of the Maison Dupuy Hotel in New Orleans, where he also participated as a guest of the French Quarter Wine Festival. “I learned English as I went along,” laughs the 48-year-old chef.
These projects opened the doors to a world that, at the time, he had not yet tackled: culinary consulting. A line of business that soon brought him numerous opportunities to collaborate with various restaurants, chains and hotels throughout the Americas, Europe, Russia and Saudi Arabia: “I’m an accidental tourist”.
So deciding where to put down roots proved to be a real headache for him and his partner, Valeria Schumacher. He had been offered a job in the United States. But, in 2016, they wanted to try their luck in Spain, whose geography they traversed in eight months to find a home. Of all the locations, Pamplona was the one that caught their attention the most.The reason?
“We now have a one-year-old girl. And we wanted her to grow up in a place with a great quality of life, as well as good educational offerings. We also saw that we didn’t mind the winter cold so much,” he explains to Navarra Capital.
In the region, Christian has collaborated in the development of products made by Isanatur and the Coffing coffee shop chain, which recently opened its third establishment in the capital of Navarre. He has also worked with “a Michelin-starred establishment”.
Since his landing in the Navarrese capital, this culinary expert continued to take on major international projects in the following years, while maturing an idea that would crystallize his twelve-year consulting career. Thus, in November 2019, he launched Coolinary Lab alongside Schumacher and chef Leonardo Villalba.
The Pamplona-based company is dedicated to “consulting in the gastronomic and culinary field, as well as the development of menus, recipes for dishes, drinks, cocktails and business plans.” She does this in a wide range of establishments, from quick service restaurants to fine dine. “In retrospect, what I have studied and traveled has helped me cover the entire process of starting up a business: from branding according to the market to team building, even going through the design of the kitchen wiring,” he reflects.
NEW HORIZONS
For the time being, the company continues to focus its activities abroad, especially in Europe, the Caribbean and Saudi Arabia: “A year ago, for example, we advised Bartali, a new pizzeria in Girona. Now I am going to take on an initiative in Los Cabos (Mexico), promoted by a U.S. company that will develop a luxury resort on the sea, and I will go with my family for a while. We also have many projects in Arabia, where we have already collaborated in the opening of more than fourteen restaurants, as well as proposals for five-star hotels and resorts.”
At the same time, the company is developing a project to create an R&D center for the development of culinary products, especially for pastries. “We want to have a bakery to be able to show customers who visit us from abroad and have the latest equipment,” says Christian. In this sense, Coolinary Lab has contacted several firms to have its technology, among which is the Italian Agugiaro & Figna.
This space will combine offices, a classroom for working with chocolate, the bakery itself (with refrigeration chambers) and a customer service area, where a cafeteria is also planned. “It is a project with a fairly large investment for a small company like ours. We do a lot of research on all kinds of foods and, for that reason, I think that focusing a line of business on pastries can be very positive to increase our creativity. Besides, when you have a child, you try to reconcile and that is what we are also looking for when we come to the region,” he concludes.