Three Generations of Fire & Flavour
The Siles family. Ojen, Costa del Sol. Since 1972.
A Family Around the Fire
It started the way most good things do in southern Spain — around a fire, with family. In 1972, the Siles family began cooking paella for neighbours and friends at their finca in Ojen, a whitewashed village tucked into the foothills of the Sierra de las Nieves, fifteen minutes above Marbella. There was no business plan. No brand. Just a wide iron pan, good rice, and the kind of afternoon that stretches into evening because nobody wants to leave the table.
The recipes were passed down through the family — from grandparents who cooked over wood fires long before anyone called it artisanal. The pan got bigger. The guest list got longer. What started as Sunday lunch became the thing people talked about when they came back to the coast. "You have to eat at the Siles place," they'd say. And people did.
Three generations later, the fire still burns in the same village. The finca is still the home base. The rice is still cooked over orange and olive wood, the way it always has been. What's changed is the reach — Paco Siles, the third generation, now brings that same tradition to villas, terraces, and private events across the Costa del Sol. But the spirit is exactly where it started: around a fire, with people you care about, eating food that someone made with their hands.
Paco Siles — The Chef
Paco grew up in the kitchen — or more accurately, next to the fire. He watched his grandfather build the flame. He helped his father prep the sofrito. By the time he was a teenager, he could tell when the rice was ready by the sound it made in the pan. Not a skill you learn in culinary school. The kind you pick up over a thousand Sunday lunches.
He trained professionally, worked in restaurants, and travelled enough to know that what his family did at home was special. In 2023, he turned that family tradition into Si Catering — a business built on one simple idea: the best meal you'll have on the Costa del Sol shouldn't be in a restaurant. It should be wherever you are, cooked by someone who actually loves doing it.
Paco is the chef, the host, and the person you'll talk to when you book. He sets up the fire, selects the ingredients at the market that morning, and stays until the last plate is cleared. It's personal because it's meant to be. There's no kitchen brigade, no front-of-house script. Just a cook, a fire, and the meal he wants to make for you.
KM0 — From the Market to Your Plate
KM0 isn't a marketing label for us — it's how Paco's family has always cooked. The market in Ojen. The fish market in Fuengirola. The butcher down the road. The olive oil from the grove you can see from the finca terrace. Everything within thirty kilometres, everything selected that morning or the day before.
The rice comes from Valencia, because there's no better rice for paella — that's the one exception, and every Spanish cook will tell you it's non-negotiable. The saffron is from La Mancha. The prawns are from the Mediterranean. The vegetables are whatever looked best at the market that day. No frozen bags, no pre-prepped shortcuts, no industrial supply chain.
This matters because you can taste it. A tomato that was on a vine that morning behaves differently in a sofrito than one that's been in a cold room for a week. Paco is particular about this — sometimes frustratingly so — because the ingredients are the entire foundation. Get them right and the cooking almost takes care of itself.
The Finca — Where It All Happens
The finca sits in the hills above Marbella, surrounded by olive groves and pine forests, with views that reach down to the Mediterranean on clear days. It's where the family has always cooked, where Paco tests new recipes, and where the Cooking Classes take place. The air smells like rosemary and wood smoke. The terrace faces south. The dogs are friendly. It's the kind of place that makes you wonder why anyone eats indoors.
- Ojen, Sierra de las Nieves — 15 minutes from Marbella
- Surrounded by olive groves and Mediterranean pine forest
- Outdoor cooking station with wood-fired paellera and brasero
- Home of the Paella Cooking Class experience
- Views of the Sierra de las Nieves Natural Park
Want to Experience It Yourself?
Whether you want to learn how to make paella at our finca or have Paco bring the fire to your villa, the table is set. Come hungry.