Jamie Oliver has still not recovered from incurring the wrath of Spain by tampering with the country's signature dish.
His addition of chorizo to paella was made at a time of political turbulence and division. Suddenly, Spaniards were united across the country - against him. Paella hails from the Valencia region and traditionally includes meat, fish, shellfish and vegetables. The rage was unprecedented and summarised in tweets such as, “this is an insult not only to our gastronomy but to our culture”.
“They went medieval on me,” the chef said during an appearance on the Graham Norton Show, where he was forced to relive the trauma.
Norton proceeded to read out a host of tweets mocking him, much to the amusement on Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt. Oliver, however, was less amused.
“By the way,” Oliver interjected, “it got so much darker than that. It trended. For weeks! I had death threats and all sorts because of a bit of sausage.
“Honestly, I was in Canada at the time, and I was talking to the President [sic]. We were doing whole things about great things about childhood obesity strategies in Canada because our one fell to pieces, and as I went out the BA lounge they went, 'Oh, you're in the paper today!’ And I went brilliant, good solid work, and she went, “yeah - chorizo. Spanish don’t like it.
“Whatever I did that month was overtaken by the chorizo.”
Oliver then climbed back into the frying pan, out of it, and into the fire once again.
“By the way, just FYI, it tastes better with chorizo.”
