1. News
  2. People

Jamie Oliver's paella recipe blasted by Spaniards over inclusion of chorizo

'Adding chorizo to a paella should be an offence!'

jamie-oliver.jpg
Jamie Oliver Getty

Spaniards are outraged with Jamie Oliver over his decision to re-vamp a paella recipe by adding chorizo and chicken to the mix.

Oliver shared a recipe to his paella on Tuesday evening on Twitter and saw his post attract much more attention than he was anticipating.

“Great Spanish food doesn’t get much better than paella. My version combines chicken thighs and chorizo,” the Naked Chef wrote to his 5.6 million followers

The rich dish, which hails from the Valencia region, traditionally includes meat, fish, shellfish and vegetables - but not chorizo, and the inclusion of the Spanish sausage saw Oliver bearing the brunt of much outrage. 

People were quick to suggest the dish is no longer worthy of the name paella and instead should be called “rice with stuff”.

Others suggested that since Oliver made some tweaks on a Spanish traditional dish, they would do the same with British recipes… and former Prime Ministers.

The rage continued:

A quick scroll of the recipe’s webpage on jamieoliver.com shows that Oliver’s tweet reignited an existing furore. Over the last year, comments below the recipe have included: “Oh no… Adding chorizo to a paella should be an offence!”, “This is not a paella. Please, don’t misuse the world paella for a dish of rice with something” and “Not everything with rice is a paella”. 

People news in pictures

People news in pictures

  • 1/30 30 September 2016

    Singer Rihanna makes her way through reporters as she arrives to Christian Dior's Spring-Summer 2017 ready-to-wear fashion collection presented in Paris

    AP

  • 2/30 30 September 2016

    U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the funeral service of former Israeli President Shimon Peres at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem

    REUTERS

  • 3/30 29 September 2016

    Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton takes a selfie during an Iowa Democratic party early vote rally in Des Moines, Iowa

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 4/30 29 September 2016

    Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian and Kris Jenner attend the Off-white 2017 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris

    AFP/Getty

  • 5/30 29 September 2016

    French printing company's director Michel Catalano (R) and former employee Lilan Lepere (L), who were both held hostage by the two brothers who killed 12 people in an attack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on January 2015, pose with French President Francois Hollande (C) after been awarded of the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) during a visit for the inauguration of Michel Catalono group's refurbished premises in Dammartin-en-Goele. Elite French police stormed a printworks and a Jewish supermarket on 9 January, killing two brothers wanted for the Charlie Hebdo attack and an apparent accomplice who had taken hostages in two separate sieges that traumatised France

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 6/30 29 September 2016

    Former US president, Bill Clinton pays his respect in front of the coffin of former Israeli president Shimon Peres at a plaza outside the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, in Jerusalem. Israeli leaders and crowds of mourners are gathering outside parliament to pay last respects to ex-president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres, whose body is lying in state. The former US president had helped usher in the Oslo peace accords of the 1990s, which resulted in the Nobel prize for Peres, who died on 28 September, aged 93

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 7/30 28 September 2016

    Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, walk through the steam of a steam train in Carcross, Yukon

    AP

  • 8/30 28 September 2016

    Former England national football team manager Sam Allardyce speaks to the press outside his home in Bolton. Sam Allardyce's reign as England manager came to a humiliating end as he departed after just 67 days in charge following his controversial comments in a newspaper sting

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 9/30 27 September 2016

    Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump leave the stage after the first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Polls declared Clinton the winner after she branded rival Trump a racist

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 10/30 26 September 2016

    US President Barack Obama wears a traditional blanket and hat given to him during the 2016 White House Tribal Nations Conference at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 11/30 26 September 2016

    French President Francois Hollande meets with officers of the French Gendarmerie during a visit to the Gendarmerie of Calais. Hollande said on a visit to the port of Calais that the sprawling "Jungle" migrant camp there would be "completely dismantled"

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 12/30 26 September 2016

    Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev casts his vote during a referendum on extending presidential terms in Baku, Azerbaijan

    REUTERS

  • 13/30 25 September 2016

    Prince Charles, Prince of Wales meets mounted police officers and their horses after the the National Police Memorial Service at St Paul's Cathedral in London

    Getty Images

  • 14/30 24 September 2016

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, center, kneels to talk to Prince George as his father, Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge, speaks with Governor General David Johnston, right, and Kate, The Duchess of Cambridge, holds their daughter Princess Charlotte upon arrival in Victoria, British Columbia

    AP

  • 15/30 24 September 2016

    US actor Richard Gere and his girlfriend Spanish publicist Alejandra Silva, pose during a photocall after the screening the film "Time out of mind" at the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival, in the northern Spanish Basque city of San Sebastian

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 16/30 24 September 2016

    (L-R) Former US First Lady Laura Bush, former US President George W. Bush, First Lady Michelle Obama, and President Barack Obama attend the opening ceremony for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 17/30 24 September 2016

    British opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (C) waves following his speech after being announced as the winner of the party's leadership contest at the Labour Party Leadership Conference in Liverpool

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 18/30 23 September 2016

    A statue of the movie boxer Rocky stands near the stage entrance as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a rally with supporters in Aston, Pennsylvania

    REUTERS

  • 19/30 22 September 2016

    Priscilla Chan embraces her husband Mark Zuckerberg while announcing the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to "cure, prevent or manage all disease" by the end of the century during a news conference at UCSF Mission Bay in San Francisco

    REUTERS

  • 20/30 21 September 2016

    British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson reads before a meeting of the United Nations Security Council during the 71st session of the U.N. General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York

    REUTERS

  • 21/30 20 September 2016

    Britain's Prince William sits in the cockpit of his East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) H145 helicopter, in London

    REUTERS

  • 22/30 19 September 2016

    Model Cara Delevingne poses for photographers upon arrival at the Burberry Spring/Summer 2017 fashion show at London Fashion Week

    AP

  • 23/30 19 September 2016

    Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro, right, shakes hands with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, center, in Havana. Rouhani is on a one-day official visit to Cuba

    AP

  • 24/30 18 September 2016

    French far-right Front National (FN) party's President, Marine Le Pen, gestures as she delivers a speech on stage during the FN's summer congress in Frejus, southern France. Marine Le Pen's slogan reading "In the name of the [French] people" is seen on the rostrum

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 25/30 17 September 2016

    Pope Francis holding an infant during his visit to the neonatology ward of San Giovanni Hospital in Rome

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 26/30 16 September 2016

    Outgoinng leader Nigel Farage embraces new leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) Diane James as she is introduced at the UKIP Autumn Conference in Bournemouth Diane James was announced as UKIP's new leader on September 16 to replace charismatic figurehead Nigel Farage. Farage made the shock decision to quit as leader of the UK Independence Party following victory in the referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union. / AFP PHOTO / DANIEL LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 27/30 15 September 2016

    Musicians and members of the Beatles, Paul McCartney, right, and Ringo Starr pose for photographers upon arrival at the World premiere of the Beatles movie, Ron Howard's 'Eight days a week-the touring years' in London

    AP

  • 28/30 15 September 2016

    Hillary Clinton boards her plane to return to campaigning after her bout with pneumonia at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York

    AFP/Getty Images

  • 29/30 15 September 2016

    Japan's main opposition Democratic Party's new leader Renho (C) raises her fists with her party lawmakers after she was elected party leader at the party plenary meeting in Tokyo

    REUTERS

  • 30/30 15 September 2016

    Secretary of State John Kerry listens as actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio speaks at the Our Ocean, One Future conference at the State Department in Washington. The conferences focus on marine protected areas, sustainable fisheries, marine pollution, and climate-related impacts on the ocean

    AP

Others had more technical input, arguing paella should not be stirred as the 41-year-old suggests in his method.

Read more

Oliver is not the only British chef who has received a backlash over their take on the dish. Gordon Ramsay was blasted over his suggestion to add a few chilli peppers to the dish while Marco Pierre White was scorned for adding “more than generous helping of white wine […] and enough paprika to stop a moving train” in an article by Spanish newspaper El Pais earlier this year. 

A representative for Oliver did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Comments