Celebrity Biographies
Elena Santónja
“Whenever you come home, you catch me in the kitchen…”. The image of Elena Santonja between the stoves will forever accompany a whole generation of Spaniards. The forerunner of cooking shows in Spain, she passed away on October 17, 2016, at the age of 84, she had a close relationship with cinema.
She was the granddaughter of the painter Eduardo Rosales. Born in Madrid on May 29, 1932, Elena Santonja Esquivias became fond of cooking ever since some aunts from San Sebastián instilled in her the basic principles of it. She later became one of the first presenters of the newly formed RTVE, since 1958, where she began hosting “Entre nosotras”.
She was married to the screenwriter and director Jaime de Armiñán , with whom she had three children. She managed to get him to work in the public entity, where she was hired. Thanks to that, she carried out series like Juncal. She herself made sporadic appearances as an actress in films such as El verdugo (1963) by Luis García Berlanga , Crimen de doble filo (1965) by José Luis Borau or the medium-length film Total (1985) by José Luis Cuerda .
In the famous program “Red-handed”, which he presented between 1984 and 1991, there was no shortage of personalities from Spanish cinema, such as Fernando Fernán Gómez , Pedro Almodóvar , Amparo Rivelles or Sara Montiel . Many of her contacts were provided by her husband.