The One Recipe Jamie Oliver Wishes We All Forgot
Jamie Oliver is a controversial guy who's had his celebrity chef spoon in a lot of soups. From attempting to revolutionize school lunches to feuding with Gordon Ramsay, his visage has been seemingly everywhere – though you don't see quite as many of his eateries around these days, seeing as his restaurant empire has been collapsing as of late.
While some people attest that he's one of those chefs who are sort of jerks in real life, the "Naked Chef" has been known to match his highly visible public profile with his skills in the kitchen. However, delicious as it may be, even the celebrity chef's cooking isn't safe from the controversies he seems to routinely attract. Though Oliver has made people angry a great many times, there's one particular recipe that actually managed to anger an entire nation. Let's take a look at the one recipe Jamie Oliver probably wishes that we all just forgot.
Jamie Oliver got death threats over a paella recipe
Sometimes, the wrong ingredient in the right recipe can earn you the ire of an entire nation. Per The Independent, Jamie Oliver found this out the hard way in 2016, when he decided to share his version of paella on Twitter. "Great Spanish food doesn't get much better than paella," the chef wrote. "My version combines chicken thighs and chorizo." There was just one little problem: The legendary rice dish from the Valencia region is a bit of an institution in Spain, and traditionally made with things like shellfish, fish, shrimp, vegetables, and meat. Chorizo is decidedly not a part of the recipe, and Spaniards were quick to bombard Oliver with messages that ranged from memes mocking his "rice with stuff" recipe to what seemed like genuine fury. As one tweet put it, "This is an insult not only to our gastronomy but to our culture."
In an appearance on The Graham Norton Show (via The Independent), Oliver revealed that the situation got so bad that he actually got death threats over his interpretation of the dish. However, he couldn't resist getting in one last word about the situation. "By the way, just FYI, it tastes better with chorizo," he doubled down on the show. Oof.