Hidden Gems: Meet Jose Padilla of Paella1513

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

Hi Jose, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Paella 1513 is a family business. The name comes from our main product, and the year a written recipe was published in Valencia, Spain. Our paellas are a family recipe, passed to me from my mother, and to her from her mother, and to her from her father, etc. Each generation adds a contribution to the legacy; in my case, my contribution has been to make paellas the preferred catering food for any event in North Texas and beyond. 

When I started to consider making out of paellas a family business, I engaged in designing a process that could be cost-effective, and that will allow me to guarantee premium quality. I tested the workflow with friends and relatives before launching the business; this allowed me to make certain adjustments. At that moment, I knew I had a solid process, so I brought my mom to help me adapt the recipe to the local products; that was crucial. Otherwise, I would have started with a product too rigid and difficult to adapt. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It was not easy to grow a business so specialized, but it wasn’t horribly hard either; our product and services are appealing to most people, and even for those that frown at seafood, we created a Texan paella to please them; this dish is parallel in popularity to the mixed-family-recipe paella that started all this tale. 

I have learned many lessons; perhaps the most important one is to believe in yourself. There were moments when we had fierce competition that was taking a lot of our market share, but we persevered, we evolved, we thrive, and we are still here; others are long gone. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I want the word to know that paella is a food to share; from the moment our clients contact us, we start sharing, the planning, the setting, the special days, the smiles, and the yummy comments; it all happens because paella is magnetic to people, or is it us who are magnetic? 

Paella1513 is well known in Far North Dallas, the northern metroplex suburbs, and we venture, say, North Texas; we accommodate to small parties and large parties as well, from 2 to 300 hundred people. Our distinctive catering business speaks for itself; we only make paellas, fideuas, and “arroces.” 

Our brand is a family business, is history and legacy too. My wife was the marketing person at the beginning, and as a trained chef herself, she is my right arm for everything in the kitchen; our children also work in Paella1513, especially during the summer when they are less busy with school and extra-curricular activities. And every time my parents come to visit from Spain, my mom and I try new recipes adapted to this region; in fact, in two months, we will test our latest recipes, which at the moment are only in plans, they will be a surprise and a treat from our customers, we are very much looking forward to it. 

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I really like that this region is very diverse and open to different cultures, which makes my work highly appreciated by clients from all over the world who have chosen this region as their home. 

Probable the thing I like least about the suburbs is our absolute lack of public transportation; I am thinking about how hard it will be for my parents when they come to visit next time; they are older but active. I guess I would have to slow down the business to drive them around or take them with me, which maybe they might not mind; after all, I always run into nice chatty people during our events. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.paella1513.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paella1513/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paella1513