¡®Paellagate¡¯ ¨C 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.