The coronavirus pandemic also threatens the future of paella

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  @ndelatower

  Valencia

Sunday, 20 September 2020 - 07:58

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  Manual for eating paella

Before you continue reading, we warn you that here we are going to raise the possibility (seriously) that the invention of arroz con chorizo ​​is paella (yes, we will talk about Jamie Oliver and not to insult him) or that it is even rice Alicante (no, this is not about facing Valencians and Alicante).

This clarified, each one is free to move on.

Because let's go to the important thing.

Now that the pandemic extends to each and every one of the areas of our life,

What's more, is the most international Valencian dish threatened by the pandemic?

The question is pertinent because the Valencian paella is not just a recipe or a dish, something that should be remembered on the occasion of the celebration this September 20 of

.

As Cruz M. Rosillo, an expert in food culture and professor of the degree in Gastronomic Sciences at the University of Valencia, points out, the Valencian paella "is much more."

To begin with,

.

The journalist Paco Alonso, founder of Wikipaella -a project that seeks to praise the authentic paella-, sums it up in a more graphic way: «There is no paella for one person, except that of a sad menu of the day that you eat it in a corner.

”.

Have you ever noticed that in good restaurants paella is ordered for a minimum of two people?

As the Valencians would say, "without

there is no paella."

And

comes to be something like the joy of getting together to celebrate whatever.

Get together.

Therein lies the problem in this context of pandemic and sanitary restrictions of all kinds that limit large gatherings or prohibit sharing food rations.

And what is paella if not that?

"Paella is a festive Sunday dish, since its preparation requires a long time and invites you to be shared with family and friends," says Rosillo.

.

Do

, wow.

There is no paella for one person.

The defining element of paella is that it is shared

Paco Alonso

But it's more.

The authentic way to eat paella is not from the individual plate, but

or container in which it is made.

In other words, from the center, where all the diners bring their cutlery to serve themselves.

From paella to mouth.

And from the mouth again to the paella.

Sharing, in short, although it is so frowned upon - and discouraged - now.

So paella is "a dish devastated by the pandemic", in the words of Rosillo.

"In the short term it has affected him drastically."

The ritual that surrounds the paella is totally questioned by the coronavirus.

"In restoration many things have come to stay", warns Alonso.

Another thing is what continues to be done in the private family environment.

Rosillo also believes that the pandemic has made

.

The big gatherings -especially in restaurants- around a paella are over.

Even when?

"Just as the restriction of liquids in airports ended up being permanent, if in the future we continue to limit capacity, it may be unlikely that we will see groups of 30 or 40 people staying in a restaurant to eat paella".

It is too early to know, although Rosillo even suggests that paella could lose its status as a weekend dish.

"Depending on how long this crisis lasts,

, just as we don't eat seafood every day."

PHOTOGRAPH: SERGIO ENRÍQUEZ NISTAL

That is why the way in which this health crisis is conditioning everything that surrounds paella is important, which, as Alonso defines it, is still "the love of a mother or father, the family liturgy every Sunday."

All this also served to support the candidacy of the Valencian paella for

, in which it has been working for two years and the Valencian teacher is part of the committee of experts.

"What we want is to protect a dish that goes much further by being linked to our hedonistic personality, our vision of life that has nothing to do with that of other areas."

In short, that Mediterranean character that implies gathering around a table to share a dish and that has nothing to do with the culture of northern countries, for example.

After the paella there is no plan.

The plan is to make the paella

Cruz M. Rosillo

The Mediterranean seal obviously has to do with the ingredients as well.

For Alonso, paella is not only "the paradigm of the Mediterranean diet", but also "the snapshot of each territory in the Valencian Community, each with its different products" that determine the final recipe.

Before going into the thorny issue of the ingredient list, it should be made clear, as Alonso emphasizes, that

.

A parenthesis: this is the explanation of why Alicante rice dishes can also be included under the category of paella.

And, beware, we say it without any intention of confronting.

But if they are made in paella, they are paella.

Going back to the ingredients, there is no closed list.

To the point that with the recipes of the

, a statistic of the ingredients of the authentic paellas was generated that allows us to observe that the list is long ... and disparate.

According to Wikipaella data, 100% of Valencian paella recipes incorporate

.

From there, 82% include paprika;

48% rosemary;

42%, duck ... There can also be garlic, artichokes, pork ribs ... And we didn't even go into the ingredients with less than 5% use.

By the way, this means that we are facing

according to Rosillo.

There is no shortage of olive oil, cereal, white meat, legumes ... Indeed, paella is still an energetic and caloric dish, because «it was born in the open, improvised by farmers with what they found in the Albufera de Valencia ”, as described by this specialist.

Let no one ask a farmer to prepare a dish that is not strong.

To understand each other, "it is a gastronomic joke to pretend to make a

or low calorie

paella

".

What is sought precisely with the candidacy for a World Heritage Site or initiatives such as World Paella Day is "to value the origin of this humble and subsistence, community and social dish," says Alonso.

Recognize their traditional recipe "to see where everything begins and who the parents are" (the answer is the Valencians, in case someone is lost by now).

The success of paella has been such that today it is an international dish.

Who does not know paella (or what they think is paella)?

Alonso relates that «its fame came with the tourism boom in the 60s. For the English or the Germans, it was a colored dish, which had no end - you start throwing things on it and you don't finish - linked to the sun and holidays ... ».

Assured success.

It can even be said that tourism has shaped some of today's most famous recipes.

As the specialized journalist recalls,

.

However, the arrival of wealthy Russians in the capital of the Turia led luxury hotels to incorporate these expensive ingredients into their rice dishes.

To Valencians, Jamie Oliver's paella with chorizo ​​makes us jump to explain our speech

Paco Alonso

Not to mention the so-called honeyed rice dishes (halfway between the dry ones and the soupy ones), which "are beginning to enter the mid-range restaurants in the city center because they are easy to make."

"Anyone makes a creamy covered rice, while paella has a lot of technique and not just anyone".

We get to the heart of the matter.

Does protecting the traditional recipe go through the veto of innovation?

According to Alonso, "the door is not closed to creative rice dishes", but having clear "the birth certificate" of paella.

So what do we do with the chorizo?

Do we allow octopus as a pet?

The World Paella Day wants to put everyone to make a paella.

And if for Oliver it takes chorizo ​​... In Alonso's opinion, "everyone is free to do what they want, but the goal is that in the end they know where the paella comes from."

.

And this is the positive too.

It is still an opportunity, as Rosillo insists, to "be able to position that there is a traditional recipe."

In fact, “we have done something well and that is why we are copied all over the world.

Why not let them?

Of course, making it clear that they do something else.

The key is in that assignment of the paella name.

«The name is Valencian paella.

Apart from that, they are paellas of different things: chorizo, sausage ... ».

We have already said it: chorizo ​​paella.

«That is an insult to traditional gastronomy.

».

Who says it is not exactly a Valencian, but a chef from Teruel who last year won the first prize in the International Competition of Paella Valenciana de Sueca.

Indeed, the best paella in the world is made in Teruel (and it continues to be made until the pandemic allows the contest to be resumed, canceled this year).

Its creator is

, a staunch defender of the traditional recipe: «I follow it strictly.

Paella is not a dish that is the object of innovation or nonsense.

You have to do it the way those who know do it, period.

In his case, he learned the technique in a self-taught way, although looking at the best Valencian cooks.

Your secret?

"Do it with love and tranquility."

To be fair, the biggest aberrations don't come from the English chorizo.

In Valencia there are quite a few.

«There used to be a place in the center that served paella with fried eggs and pieces of lemon as if it were a gin and tonic.

This is not creativity, but a total ignorance of Valencian gastronomy and a lack of respect, ”laments Alonso.

The paradox is that, as he says, paella "is a tremendously recent dish."

From the late nineteenth century, "when steel reaches user level and all houses can afford to have a paella."

Until then, what was made was

, but not paella.

Moreover, according to Alonso, "primordial rice" is rice with crust, which is the oldest baked rice and is even referenced in the poem

by Ausiàs March.

Yes, it is a rice covered by a crust (of egg, but crust), and for many people from Alicante it surpasses the Valencian paella.

But that is already another chapter in the controversy of Valencian gastronomy.

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