‘Paellagate’ – Jamie Oliver defends use of chorizo in classic Spanish dish

Last Friday, the British chef appeared on the BBC’s The Graham Norton Show, with the presenter inviting him to respond to some of the Spanish tweets that had appeared in response to his recipe.

“You did one simple recipe and it caused an international incident. Turns out Spanish people are quite fussy about their food,” said Norton, who introduced the segment by referring to chef’s social media post that kicked off the controversy.

He then brought up on screen some of the tweets about the Oliver-style paella.

And here is Graham Norton’s favorite tweet:

“They went medieval on me man. It was serious,” said the chef on the Friday night broadcast. “It trended for weeks. And I had death threats and all sorts because of a bit of sausage,” added Oliver, to the obvious surprise of fellow guests Christopher Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, on a promotional tour for the movie Passengers.

“Hello @jamieoliver this is not paella, this is terrorism, you'd be better off making nuggets out of your fingers”

The tweets followed the chef to Canada, where he had met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the fight against childhood obesity.

“As I went out of the British Airways lounge, they went ‘Oh, you’re in the paper today,’ and I went ‘Brilliant, good solid work,’ and she said: ‘Yeah. Chorizo: Spanish don’t like it.’ Whatever I did that month was overtaken by the chorizo.”

The last of the tweets Norton flashed up was perhaps taken a little literally. “That is Spanish for I shit on your ancestors,” Norton helpfully explained.

“Screw your ancestors!”

Here is how Jennifer Lawrence looked when Norton translated the message:

The actress then took sides with the chef, saying: “Chorizo sounds delicious right now.”

“By the way, just FYI, it tastes better with chorizo. Trust me or don’t trust me,” said an unrepentant Oliver to a mixture of laughter and shock from the audience.

English version by George Mills.