Jamie Oliver Put Sausage in Paella, Spain Freaked Out

Everyone knows not to put chorizo in traditional dish, right?
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 5, 2016 9:56 AM CDT
Jamie Oliver Slammed for 'Abomination' Paella Recipe
No chorizo, Jamie. NO CHORIZO.   (Photo by Arthur Mola/Invision/AP)

Jamie Oliver has managed to "offend a whole nation," Stuff.co.nz reports—and he did it with pork sausage. The celebrity chef posted on Twitter what the Telegraph calls an "unorthodox" recipe for paella—a hodgepodge of rice, meats, veggies, and spices—incurring the wrath of Spanish culinary experts across the Internet. "Good Spanish food doesn't get much better than paella. My version combines chicken thighs & chorizo," Oliver cheerfully tweeted Tuesday. The Naked Chef's crime: including the chorizo, which is apparently frowned upon by many who don't consider the sausage-leaning version an authentic Spanish dish. Reaction was spicier than the meat he threw into his inadvertently insulting concoction.

"Thanks for destroying our most famous recipe," one user commented, while another noted, "Your paella is an abomination," per the Telegraph. The BBC points readers to Wikipaella, a site dedicated to real-deal paella, whose founder once listed the dish's "golden rules" for the Independent, including using only Spanish rice and "No garlic. No peas. No potatoes. No stock. NO CHORIZO." (The rules also indicate that, for "ultra-authenticity," paella should only be cooked by men, specifically Spanish ones from Valencia, so take those rules for what they're worth.) MarketWatch notes that Oliver is something of a "serial offender": A couple of years back, his jollof rice recipe irritated West Africans. (The BBC offers a defense of chorizo-filled paella.)

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