40th Birthday Paella Catering in London for 75 Guests

There is something particularly satisfying about being booked because somebody has already experienced our food at another event. This birthday paella catering in London booking came about in exactly that way, after a recommendation from a party we catered around two years earlier.

This time, the occasion was a 40th birthday party for 75 guests in SW17, South West London, with a garden transformed for an evening of food, drinks and celebrations.

The booking had been in the diary for several months. Everything was organised.

Or at least I thought it was…

“What Time Are You Serving the Canapés?”

A couple of days before the party, an email arrived from the host.

She asked:

“What time are you serving the canapés?”

There was just one small problem.

We didn’t have any canapés on the order.

For a few moments, my heart sank.

The booking had been made months earlier, and with only a couple of days until the party, my immediate thought was that I’d made a mistake. Had we discussed canapés and I’d somehow forgotten to add them to the booking?

This wasn’t exactly the sort of surprise I wanted two days before catering for 75 people!

I went straight back through the original booking details. Thankfully, there it was. The host had mentioned that she was interested in our canapés when making the enquiry, but she hadn’t actually added them to the final order.

Phew – It Wasn’t on the Order!

I phoned her and rather nervously explained that I couldn’t see any canapés on her booking.

“Oh, it’s OK,” she said. “I forgot to tell you. Don’t worry, I’ll sort something out.”

I told her she’d nearly given me a heart attack because I thought I’d made a mistake with her booking. She apologised, we both laughed, and that little crisis was over.

And when we arrived at the party, it turned out she’d certainly managed to “sort something out”.

There were beautiful platters of meats, cheeses, olives and other nibbles waiting for the guests.

And, importantly, these weren’t supplied by Your Paella. They were the host’s own solution after our slightly alarming canapés conversation!

We do offer Spanish starters and canapés alongside our paella catering, but on this occasion the host took care of the pre-paella food herself.

Birthday Paella Catering in London – Setting Up in the Garden

The party was being held in a lovely private garden in SW17, and there was plenty of room for the celebrations.

SW17 includes Tooting, one of South London’s best-known neighbourhoods, with the area particularly noted for its diverse food scene and green spaces. Visit London’s guide to Tooting gives a flavour of the area.

We set up our professional gazebo at one end of the garden, with our two large paella pans and preparation area beneath it.

This is one of the advantages of live paella catering for private parties. We bring the cooking setup with us and prepare the paella at the event, so guests get to see their food being cooked rather than having it arrive hidden away in catering trays.

Two Huge Pans for 75 Guests

The final order for the evening was:

50 portions of Chicken & Chorizo Paella and 25 portions of Vegan Paella.

Cooking two different paellas simultaneously works particularly well for events like this. Rather than treating the vegan option as an afterthought, we cook it separately in its own pan.

Our Vegan Paella is prepared as a dish in its own right, so guests choosing the plant-based option still get the same live-cooking experience.

Once everything was prepared, it was time to get both pans cooking.

And that’s when the garden really began to change.

From Garden Party to Evening Celebration

As daylight disappeared, the atmosphere became completely different.

The garden had been decorated with lighting, including coloured uplighters illuminating the trees. By the time the paella was cooking away, the whole setting had taken on a fantastic evening-party feel.

That’s one of my favourite parts of catering events like this.

We can arrive when the garden is relatively quiet, set everything up and start preparing the food. A few hours later, the same space can be full of people, music and conversation – with two enormous pans of paella bubbling away in the middle of it all.

Chicken & Chorizo Paella – Ready to Serve

Eventually the liquid reduces, the rice takes on all those flavours, and what started as a pan full of individual ingredients becomes the finished paella.

For this party, our Chicken & Chorizo was the most popular choice, with 50 portions ordered.

Guests could come over, collect their food and head straight back to the party.

For anyone considering something similar, our full selection of paellas, starters and extras can be found on the Your Paella menu.

A Recommendation That Led to Another Party

What I particularly like about this event is how the booking came about in the first place.

There was no complicated sales pitch.

The birthday host’s sister had previously booked us for a larger party around two years earlier. She remembered the experience, recommended us to her sister, and two years later we found ourselves cooking for another celebration in the family.

For a catering business, recommendations like that mean a lot.

Someone has already seen us arrive, set up, cook and serve a large number of guests. They’ve tasted the food and watched how we work. When they subsequently recommend us to somebody they know, they’re putting their own reputation behind that recommendation too.

After more than a decade of providing paella catering for weddings, parties and corporate events, a significant part of what we do comes from people who have either booked us before or experienced Your Paella as a guest.

And that’s exactly what happened here.

From a slightly heart-stopping email about some nonexistent canapés to two enormous pans of paella cooking beneath illuminated trees, it turned into a cracking evening.

Most importantly, the birthday girl and her guests had a great time.

Planning a Birthday Party or Private Event?

If you’re looking for birthday paella catering in London, or planning a 40th, 50th, 60th – or frankly any birthday worth getting 75 people together for – live paella is a relaxed way of feeding a large group without turning the event into a formal sit-down meal.

We provide paella catering throughout the UK, including London and the South East, for private parties, weddings and corporate events.

You can see our paella catering prices, or get in touch with Your Paella if you’d like to discuss your event.

Just one small request…

If you’re expecting canapés, make sure they’re on the order. You might save me a heart attack. 😂