Paella Madness

So, one of the amazingly cool things I've gotten to do in the first three days of my new, awesome job is work with chefs and staff from Jaleo at Taste of Bethesda making paella in a 7 foot pan. Yes, you read that correctly. I could have rolled around easily in the thing if it weren't so darn unsanitary and hot.

Here's a couple pics of the ginormous thing. To put it in perspective, those paddles are 3-4' long. This is the second step - the chicken is pushed to the sides (where the burner is turned off - there are three total) and the squash and other veggies are in the middle getting caramelized.

Here we are cooking the sofrito and tomato paste, right before adding the stock and rice.

This is us using doubled up spoons to mix up and scoop the paella onto plates. It served about 600 portions each time (we made three rounds). The guys from Jaleo were awesome. So friendly and nice and patient when I had 7,000 questions. I have been dubbed "La Reina de la Paella" and I love it. I'm waiting for my sash and tiara.