How your order travels: the cold chain explained in 96 hours

It's your first time buying home-cooked food online and there's something nagging at you: will it stay cold the whole way? What if it's delayed and arrives spoiled? These are fair questions, especially when what you're ordering isn't a jumper, it's a stew. Here's exactly how your order travels, step by step, from the moment you confirm it to the moment you open the door.

We don't ship from a warehouse: we ship from the kitchen

At Abuelo Paquito there's no industrial plant, no stock waiting on a shelf. When you buy, that's the moment Paquito and Espe light the stove. It's cooked for you, not for a generic catalogue made weeks in advance.

That means your order doesn't spend days sitting around in a warehouse before it goes out. It leaves freshly cooked, straight into cold packaging.

Cooked to order, not in batches

Espe's carrilleras, Paquito's caldo, or the mejillones en escabeche that Chon taught him to make aren't prepared in batches to always have "something" sitting in a freezer. They're cooked when your order comes in, with the slow-cooking time each recipe needs.

How refrigerated food is shipped without breaking the cold chain

Once a dish is ready, it's chilled and packed for the journey in insulated packaging with cold packs, designed to keep the temperature steady for the whole trip, not just the first few hours.

That's the difference between ordering home-cooked food online and ordering anything else by post: here, the clock matters as much as the box.

How long it takes: a maximum of 96 hours from purchase

From the moment you place your order to the moment it's in your home, a maximum of 96 hours goes by. That window covers everything: cooking, chilling, packing and the shipping itself.

It's not a countdown that starts "once we ship it." It starts the moment you buy. That simple.

Where do we deliver?

We ship to mainland Spain only. For now we don't deliver to the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla: we'd rather not ship somewhere we can't guarantee the cold holds for the whole trip than promise something we can't keep.

Shipping costs

Shipping is free on orders over €60. Below that, it's €5. No surprises at checkout.

Home-cooked food delivered cold, with a name behind it

Behind every box there's no faceless brand: it's Paquito and Espe, with the recipes inherited from Chon, Paquito's mother, and with the help of people they trust, like the neighbouring baker who makes our empanadas. You can read the full story on our story.

If you want to see which Galician dishes you can order to your door, here's the full selection: Galician food delivered to your home.

What never changes

No factory, no warehouse, no hidden timelines. We cook when you buy, we ship cold, and it's in your home within a maximum of 96 hours. It's that simple, and it's staying that way.