Martinez Patrick Escobar

**Fast Facts**
Type of person	Individual
Place of birth	Spain

Patrick Escobar Martinez

Paellas South Australia

"...If i had a club it would be the three P's. Paella and Padel by Patrick!" Living in Australia since 2017, Patrick creates amazing Paellas using traditional, Spanish-sourced ingredients (one of only a few!). Having an Australian partner with all of her family over there they decided to move to Australia to have lots of family support. They met in Spain during St. Patrick's day and soon found themselves living together in Spain being well established leading good lives and running several business's like tax agencies and real estate.

"....quality of life there was pretty good. But we came here for holidays at Christmas, and in the end we just packed up and came here. What with Covid etc, it seems like we made the good choice! Leaving Spain during the height of the Catalonian Independence movement there were times when he thought moving to Australia just wouldn't happen. Moving from Vila-real was relatively easy and Gawler was a great choice as his partner has family close by, it all just fell into place. Life in Vila-real was vastly different to Gawler and they lived on the 5th floor of an apartment block on a street that was always alive with cafes and bars and carnival.

"...it was a big big change" He sometimes misses Spain, at least the, "romantic" idea of Spain that he has in his head but understands that things are very different in Spain now than when they left in 2017. With family over there being caught up in Covid (especially hard with a family member dying as a result), it has been hard but he understands just how amazingly lucky we are here in South Australia. "....a Paella never has Chorizo!" A friends birthday arrived, and as a present to them Patrick cooked a huge Paella as a present for them, and then the seed was sewn and he decided to turn it into a business. The business is steadily growing with more followers and a bigger audience and also Patrick has been able to source bigger pans enabling him to cook for up to 300 people! And he does all of this from his van. Taking up to an hour and a half to cook he really enjoys paella as it brings family together, to cook and to eat. Everything is prepared and loaded into the van and taken to the various markets and events and cooked right there on the spot so you can guarantee freshness.

"You always want variety... Not many people cook or eat Paella, so its always something different." Ever heard of Padel? Patrick loves it and would love to see more of a scene here in South Australia. Padel is a mix between Tennis and Squash. It's usually played in doubles on an enclosed court surrounded by walls of glass and metallic mash. The court is one third of the size of a tennis court. The ball can bounce of any wall but can only hit the turf once before being returned.

"There is just ONE Padel court here in South Australia. I was lucky enough to be invited there one day, Its 65km away, but i did not care, i drove there, played the game, and loved it...." He'd one day LOVE to be a Padel coach,maybe at the Playford City Tennis Centre... He loves a good coffee, loves a good hike, and loves teaching his children Spanish, loves reading his books, and just generally keeping fit and healthy. And one day he would like to cook the biggest Paella in Australia right here in Gawler!

"....I was in charge of cooking when we lived in Spain, when we were together with our friends....I was always the one who volunteered to do the cooking. It was a kind of natural thing" Want to be involved in the Humans Of Gawler project? Just comment here or send me a message. You dont have to be rich, successful, well known. Maybe you're new to area? Maybe you want to spruik your business? Maybe you just want your face plastered over Facebook. Everyone has a story to tell.... whats yours?

First shared on Gawler in Photographs ‘Humans of Gawler’ series 7 July 2021.

Photographs by Daniel James Down. Please click here to visit the Gawler in Photographs Facebook page.

Gawler History Team Inc thanks Daniel James Down (Gawler in Photographs) and the subjects of ‘Humans of Gawler’ for allowing us to preserve their profiles and photographs for future generations of Gawlerites to enjoy.

Please click here to view photos of Patrick Escobar Martinez.

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