José Valentino brings the flavors of his native Spain to the Machado

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Sunday mornings in the Plaza Machado are a quiet time. Gone is the cacophony of music and bustle of the nighttime crowds, replaced instead by the hushed murmur of quiet conversation, shush-shush of sweeping and birds chirping and chattering. At the Altazor Café, José Valentino arrives to set up his big paella pan outside on the cobblestone sidewalk, and soon a bed of fluffy saffron rice is covered with the succulent treasures that make this traditional Spanish dish such a treat: whole shrimp and clams, crab sections, chicken (cooked bone-in for added flavor), pork, spicy chorizo espanol, green bits of bell pepper and peas. When you order, your plate comes with a simple basket of sliced baguette. If you like, add a glass of robust red wine or a chilly michelada.

All his life, José loved good food and wanted to be a cook. Below his childhood home in Asturias, Spain, was a restaurant, and his days and nights were filled with the luscious aromas that wafted up. “I learned how to cook by the smell,” he recalls. His mother, with six boys to feed, was constantly in the kitchen and was thrilled at young José’s interest. She happily taught him to love to eat as well as cook. His father, however, discouraged him – cooking, he declared, was women’s work, and José would be a lawyer like his grandfather.

Ahh, but fate has a way of taking charge, and after numerous trips back and forth across the Atlantic (during which time he married a Mazatleca, had children and now grandchildren, beat a diagnosis of cancer and worked numerous other jobs) José finally ended up where he really wanted to be: sharing his love of cooking – and expertise at said skill - with others.

In the four years he’s been making his authentic paella here in the Machado, he’s developed quite a following of regulars, and there’s a warm camaraderie at the red-clothed tables outside Altazor as two o’clock approaches. His little grandson arrives with a happy shriek, questioning his abuelo, pulling on his blue apron: Is the paella ready? José picks him up and together they lean over the big round paella pan, lift the foil, inhale the fragrant aromas and check to see if indeed, it needs just a few more minutes.

Sundays from 2 p.m.on. Café Altazor, in the Plaza Machado next to Pedro & Lola, Centro. 981-5559. Delivery available in the Centro area.