May 17, 2017

Meet Jose Cavaliere of Paella Chef in North Loop West

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jose Cavaliere.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Jose. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was introduced to Spanish food in the early 1990’s, when I married a Spanish woman. Being an avid chef, I started to experiment with Spanish cuisine and a Spanish family friend showed me how to properly prepare Paella and several Tapas (appetizers). Paella is a communal dish which has many ingredients, so it is best prepared for at least 10 to 15 people. I began to invite people to my house to enjoy my Paellas and everyone seemed to love it. My friends began asking me to prepare Paellas at their houses and through word of mouth it eventually turned into a service business. Today most of our customers are repeat customers which came from referrals and call us several times per year.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Nothing is ever smooth, but we took it one step at a time. We had to solve a lot of problems along the way, such as the fact that most people call us for an event to take place on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. So, it is near impossible to have full time employees. Instead, we have a great group of people that help us when we need it, especially for large events.

Paella Chef – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Paella Chef is a Houston Metropolitan Area catering service that specializes in various variations of Paella, the national dish of Spain. We come to the customer’s location — be it home or business — and prepare our paellas to order using fresh ingredients. The quality of our Paellas is unmatched, because we only use the best ingredients and prepare everything just before and during their event, just the way they desire. In the alternative, we are now offering the delivery of our Paellas and Tapas directly to your home or business in the Houston Metropolitan area and surrounding communities.

We are equally comfortable with a small event at the customer’s home for perhaps ten guests — in which we only supply one chef — to large events, such as weddings or corporate events, where we may provide several chefs as well as waiters.

We would be happy to provide a chef to prepare just one large Paella for ten guests, or we can prepare an entire meal with appetizers (Tapas), salad, Paella and desserts.

Everything is prepared fresh at the customer’s location, just the way they want it!

The food at our events are delicious, generous and unique. The guests will be talking about it for years to come!

We are most proud to offer fresh, authentic, delicious food which is not available anywhere in Houston.

When one orders a Paella at a restaurant, they are served in 15 minutes. This restaurant Paella cannot be fresh, it is re-heated. It takes about one hour to prepare one of our Paellas, so what our customers experience cannot be duplicated in a restaurant. The flavors in our fresh Paellas are in a class by themselves.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
We are not trying to be another McDonald’s or any chain for that matter. For us success is to have happy customers and enjoy our work. Think about it, we go from one party to another. What could be better than that?

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