Rafael Montero, creator of the dessert brand that sweetened several generations, has died this Tuesday in Málaga at the age of 93. The businessman was also a bullfighter in his youth.
The businessman from Málaga Rafael Montero, founder of Postres Montero, has passed away this Tuesday in Málaga at the age of 93, according to Diario Sur. His remains have been bid farewell by family and friends at the Parque Cementerio Parcemasa.
Born in Dos Hermanas (Sevilla) in 1933, Montero moved to Málaga in 1970. Before dedicating himself to desserts, he was a bullfighter under the name Rafalete, ran a fish shop, and worked as a salesman for a tile company. He debuted in the bullring in 1951 wearing a white suit embroidered with silver, but an injury broke the tibia of his right foot. After four years and 18 operations at the Madrid bullfighters' sanatorium, he lost half of his foot, although he returned to bullfighting in 1960 and shared the bill with El Cordobés, Curro Romero, and Juan Vázquez. He retired at the age of 29.
The idea for Postres Montero was born during his trips to Burgos as a tile salesman, where he tasted a curd with pine nuts and honey. "Coming back from Burgos on the train, knowing I was going to be unemployed, I was already thinking about how to make a curd with honey and pine nuts," the businessman recalled in an article published by this newspaper. Rafael experimented in the kitchen of his flat in Echevarría de El Palo until he found his recipe, which he served in glass jars.
With a beach cooler and twelve jars of curd, he headed to bar Luciano, on calle Trinidad Grund. "The owner told me, leave them and call me tonight." That night he ordered 24 and then 50. He charged thirty cents of a peseta for those first curds, and over time he reached a turnover of a billion a year.
The company was founded in 1978, although since 2007 it has belonged to the Reina group. Its first location was on calle Villafuerte, in El Palo; then he opened a factory in La Pelusa, where he employed up to 70 people, and finally moved to the Parque Tecnológico de Málaga, where it continues to operate under the new owners.
Rafael Montero started delivering desserts with his car full of coolers around La Carihuela, in Torremolinos ("None of them said no to me"), and ended up with a fleet of trucks distributing his products throughout Spain. Alongside his wife, Isabel, whom he met in Pozoblanco, he barely slept during those years: "I woke up early and stayed up late."
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