Jamie Oliver sparks diplomatic incident

[Janet]

Well, not quite a "diplomatic incident" but tempers are raised, and the UK's ambassador to Spain has been drawn into the argument ... over paella.

It all started when Jamie Oliver posted "Good Spanish food doesn't get much better than paella. My version combines chicken thighs & chorizo" ...  linking to his recipe HERE for Chicken & chorizo paella.

Now I don't much like paella, mainly because the normal recipe includes fish, and I just don't have a taste for fish with rice. But I couldn't eat it anyway because it also often has shellfish in it, and I have an allergy.

But paella is one of those recipes which varies throughout Spain, and although the traditional Valencian one has fish and shellfish, others from other regions have meat in them ...

So why the fuss over Jamie's paella? Why the hand on brow collapsing into a chair at the mere suggestion that chorizo might make an appearance? Spanish foodie sites have called on the British Government to take Jamie to task over his "attack" on Spanish food ... notwithstanding that he started by saying "Good Spanish food doesn't get much better " ...

The offenderati are at it again with "cultural appropriation", it seems to me, but surely if you can have a meat paella, you can have a bit of chorizo in it. Can't you?

[TOTO 99]

Sounds like a PR stunt to me.....

[Janet]

It's in El Pais now too!

[Nova]

So if he'd started by saying "Spanish food is crap that usually consists of unidentifiable lumps drowned in sauce..." would that have been better?

FFS the world's gone mad... 

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

I just don't know....   

[Prof]

So why the fuss over Jamie's paella?

.
Apart from the fact that it doesn't look anything like a paella . . . putting chorizo in a paella is like . . . wrong.

Cauliflower in a scotch egg? Pilchards in a toad-in-the-hole? Mature farmhouse cheddar in apple pie?

@TOTO 99 probably the only thing he's ever done that isn't a publicity stunt

[TOTO 99]

.
Apart from the fact that it doesn't look anything like a paella . . . putting chorizo in a paella is like . . . wrong.

Cauliflower in a scotch egg? Pilchards in a toad-in-the-hole? Mature farmhouse cheddar in apple pie?

@TOTO 99 probably the only thing he's ever done that isn't a publicity stunt

Perhaps I'm just an old cynic Prof...........I personally see this as the cheeky chappie using the old "no such thing as bad publicity" trick for some Spanish deal that will no doubt come to light in the coming months.......

Edit:  *young cynic*.......

[Janet]

.
Apart from the fact that it doesn't look anything like a paella . . . putting chorizo in a paella is like . . . wrong.

Cauliflower in a scotch egg? Pilchards in a toad-in-the-hole? Mature farmhouse cheddar in apple pie?

Disagree ... look at Heston Blumenthal. Mixes everything up and puts things together that you'd never ever consider, or never consider "right", and is considered a top chef!

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

.
Apart from the fact that it doesn't look anything like a paella . . . putting chorizo in a paella is like . . . wrong.

Cauliflower in a scotch egg? Pilchards in a toad-in-the-hole? Mature farmhouse cheddar in apple pie?

@TOTO 99 probably the only thing he's ever done that isn't a publicity stunt

In the USA mature farmhouse cheddar is eaten alongside apple pie.

[Janet]

and not just in the US ... in the north of England too, and in Ireland. Cheese always goes with apple pie ...