Paella La Flamenca: Spanish paella cooked live at your party in Vancouver

Picture an office holiday party where, instead of a buffet line, the cooking is the thing everyone drifts toward. A pan almost a metre wide over a flame, saffron rice going orange, a cook in a black apron turning shrimp with a spoon, and a group of coworkers with a glass in hand, asking when it's ready.

If a friend asked us who could bring that to a party in Vancouver, we'd send them to Paella La Flamenca. What drew us to them is that they don't just deliver the food. They set up, cook in front of your guests and serve straight from the pan, so the party has something to gather around.

Paella La Flamenca is Eva Lavilla, from Barcelona, and Michael Willems, its chefs and owners. They cook Spanish paella and tapas for family gatherings, corporate events, weddings and birthdays across Vancouver and the surrounding areas, and they also do pickup and delivery for a smaller table.

It started at Mercedes' table

Eva grew up in Barcelona, where, as she writes on their site, the Mediterranean meets the northeast of Spain. Her mother, Mercedes, cooked for a family of six, dinner at nine was the norm, and Eva was often her sous chef, especially on paella days. Her mother's paella, as Eva writes on their site, was "seriously, dangerously delicious."

The family came to Canada in the mid-seventies, and in 1978 Eva's father and uncle opened Los Españoles, the first Spanish restaurant in Manitoba. The same year, Mercedes painted an oil painting called La Flamenca, which hung in the family restaurant and later at home. That painting is where the business got its name: a tribute, Eva says, to her mother's paellas and to the painting.

Most of the family eventually went back to Barcelona, and Eva stayed there for twenty-six years before returning to Canada in 2015. Vancouver became her stop from 2016, and the place she and Michael now cook from. A former flamenco and classical Spanish dancer with an Andalusian grandfather, she describes herself as deeply passionate about the folklore of Spain. It shows in the name, and in the way the pan arrives at a party.

Their most asked-for paella carries the name too. "Our most popular Paella is named after my mother, 'Paella Mercedes'," Eva told us. "It's mixed seafood and meat and as beautiful as she was."

The pan is the party

What they call the Spanish Experience is simple to describe and hard to forget: the paella is cooked entirely on site, in front of the guests. For a group of twenty to sixty people, Eva says, they plan a four-hour event. That covers arriving, setting up the live cooking station, preparing, and cooking.

The paella itself takes about sixty to ninety minutes, and it's served the way it is in Spain, from the pan. On their site they put it this way: in Spain, paella is not just a dish, it's an event, where people gather around the pan to share and celebrate.

What a host needs to have ready

Not much, it turns out. "All we require from the host is access to an electrical outlet and a minimum 10 x 10-foot space," Eva says, "although we can adapt to smaller spaces depending on the number of guests." Everything else comes with them. "We are fully self-sufficient, bringing everything needed for the experience so the host can relax and enjoy the celebration with their guests."

The on-site experience is for groups of fifteen or more. For a smaller table, or an office lunch, they deliver. Alongside the paellas there's a selection of Spanish tapas, and their chicken croquetas have a life of their own: made in Vancouver from Mercedes' recipe, packaged under the name Tapas La Flamenca, in the red bags in the freezer aisle at both Bosa Foods locations.

Their homepage says the fall and holiday season is open, and Eva confirms it: they're already taking December dates for corporate events, staff holiday gatherings and private celebrations. If a December party is on your list, this is the month to reach out.

Which brings us back to that party. Ninety minutes in, the rice has gone from pale to deep orange, the shrimp are on top, and the people who were asking when it would be ready are the ones holding out their plates, for a Paella Mercedes, served from the pan.

Or, as Eva signed off her note to us: “Gracias y olé”.

Photos: Paella La Flamenca.

The Spotlight is where the Journal writes about the Vancouver Event Pros we'd send a friend to, like Eva and Michael.