Hampshire · England
Live paella catering in Oakley, Hampshire
Paella for every guest: meat, seafood, vegetarian and vegan pans side by side. Live paella catering, cooked fresh in giant pans at your event in Oakley.
- Anniversary celebrations
- Retirement and leaving parties
- Community events and fairs
Paella catering near Oakley
What paella catering costs
Every event is priced individually, based on a few main things:
- Crockery and cutlery, or disposables
- How long we are needed on site
- Staff: cooks, waiting staff and bar staff
- The paellas you choose
Seafood and premium ingredients cost more than chicken or vegetable paellas, so the menu you choose affects the price. We’ll suggest options to suit your budget.
What to tell us
To check availability and price, we need:
- Whether you want canapés, tapas or desserts
- Whether the venue has crockery or staff
- A picture of where we’d cook
- Approximate guest numbers, including children
A detailed enquiry gets a more accurate quote: venue, timings, courses and extras. To send your details, send us your details through our quote form.
Paella catering in Oakley, cooked live
Live paella works almost anywhere with a level, ventilated spot: a garden, marquee, barn, courtyard or field in and around Oakley. We cook mixed paella, vegetable paella and black rice, and typical bookings are for office lunches and staff parties and christenings and family gatherings.
For a place the size of Oakley, your own garden is often the best venue: no venue hire, and nobody stuck cooking. Let us know about access to the house. Everything is cooked from scratch at your event, not reheated, and served as soon as it’s ready.
Questions from Oakley
What’s the nearest station to Oakley for guests?
Overton station, about 3.7 miles west of the centre.
Is Oakley close to London?
Roughly 50 miles from the centre of London.
How do you work out quantities?
Pans are sized to your numbers and other courses. Tell us what else is being served. See how much paella per person.
Do you clear up afterwards?
Our cooking area is packed away and left clean. Ask us about table clearing if you need it.
Can the paella be cooked in a hall?
Indoors only where ventilation and the venue allow it. Most events have us cooking outside or in a doorway or courtyard.
Can you cook in the rain?
We need a covered spot, such as a gazebo, marquee or open-sided barn with good ventilation. We plan for rain with you in advance.
Where do you cater?
London and the South East: Kent, Surrey, East and West Sussex, Hampshire, Berkshire, Bucks, Oxfordshire and the Isle of Wight, including Oakley.
When do you arrive?
We arrive well before serving to set up and start the stock. Once the rice goes in, it takes about 20 minutes, timed around your event.
For event organisers in Oakley
Hosting a party at home? Send us a picture of the garden and tell us about access, and we’ll let you know if live paella is a good fit.
If you are organising for someone else, whether you are a planner, an office manager or an event organiser, we are happy to deal with you and the venue directly. It saves passing messages back and forth.
The menu, dish by dish
Paella Valenciana
Valencians take their paella seriously. The traditional pan has chicken, flat green beans and butter beans.
Vegetable and vegan paella
The vegetable pan is a dish in its own right: peppers, artichokes and beans with saffron, cooked in its own pan.
Should I cook it myself?
Hiring a pan and burner is one option, but there is shopping, prep and hours of cooking. We take care of all of it.
If you do cook yourself, test the pan and burner together beforehand, keep the stock hot, and don’t stir once the rice goes in. And keep children and pets well away from the burner.
Nearby places to Oakley
Also in Oakley
Events we cater in Oakley
It needs no kitchen, so it works in gardens, fields and marquees where plated meals are hard.
Almost any gathering can work with live paella. People in Oakley book us for occasions like:
- Retirement and leaving parties
- Birthday celebrations
- Community events and fairs
- Garden parties and summer barbecues
For guests coming by train, the nearest station is Overton station, about 3.7 miles west.
What your quote should include
- The wet-weather plan
- How each diet is kept separate
- How late numbers can change
- Any travel, parking or access charges
Live paella or other catering?
Vans serve one order at a time. A paella pan serves many portions quickly, which suits weddings and parties where everyone eats together. Compared with a plated meal, live paella is frequently good value, as there’s no kitchen to hire and fewer staff to pay. We will send you a quote.
Why book with us
- A quote that spells everything out
- Real theatre, not just catering
- Sangria, plus bar staff for your own drinks
- Everything cooked fresh at your event
Take a look at Our prices page Or Our guide to catering costs.
Oakley: venues, travel and local tips
Oakley is about 3 miles west of Basingstoke, in Hampshire. For paella catering in Oakley, we can cook in gardens, marquees, barns, courtyards and offices in and around Oakley. Oakley is one of 683 towns and villages in Hampshire we cover. You can also see our page for Reading, about 16 miles away.
For a christening or wedding at a church such as St John's, a paella lunch or reception nearby is an easy way to feed everyone. If you are organising a summer fair for a school like Oakley CE Junior School, a paella stall is a crowd-pleaser.
This part of Hampshire takes in RG23, so your event can be anywhere in it. Your event could be at a home on Station Road, Marlborough Gardens and Anton Close. Nearby, we also cater events in Newfound (1 mile north-east), Kempshott (2 miles east), Worting (2 miles north-east), Buckskin (2 miles east) and Ibworth (2 miles north). Within a short drive, we also cover Basingstoke (3 miles east), Winchester (15 miles south-west), Fleet (15 miles east), Andover (14 miles west), Alton (11 miles south-east) and Tadley (7 miles north).
Other landmarks nearby include Park Prewett Hospital (3.2 miles north-east) and Willis Museum (3.9 miles east). Open spaces near Oakley include Farleigh Hill.
- Nearby schools include Bishop Challoner Catholic Secondary School (2.3 miles east)
- Pubs nearby include Barley Mow pub (under half a mile south-west)
Planning the cooking area
The right spot keeps things safe and helps the paella cook evenly. We need:
- Good ventilation: outdoors, or an open-sided cover
- Clearance from fences, hedges, branches and anything flammable
- Parking close enough to carry equipment
If in doubt, send us a picture of the spot and we will advise before you book.
What we offer
- Black rice (arroz negro)
- Chicken & chorizo paella
- Seafood paella
- Vegan paella
- Paella Valenciana
- Vegetable paella
- Mixed paella
Step by step
Expect a friendly, organised team. Arrival and serving times are agreed beforehand, set up our cooking area, and get on with cooking and serving. In Oakley, the sun sets at about 9:25pm in late June and about 7:10pm in late September, so summer evening events are usually served in daylight. For winter events, when it is dark by about 4:00pm, we need lighting at the cooking spot.
- We start with a few details about your event.
- We suggest paellas and extras and send a clear quote.
- Timings, access and the cooking area are agreed in advance.
- We cook live on the day while guests watch.
- It’s served straight from the pan, and we clear our area afterwards.
How to prepare
- Let us know who to talk to on the day
- Get the venue’s permission for cooking
- Arrange a covered spot for wet weather
Getting a price
Every event is quoted individually, so the price fits what you actually want. To ask for one, use our quote form.
Planning help
- Cooked live in giant pans at your event
- Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and halal options
- Paella, tapas, canapés and desserts
- Sangria, bar staff, crockery and waiting staff