It’s World Paella Day. Don’t mention the chorizo

An Irish chef made the final 10 in the World Paella Day Cup, taking place in Valencia today. Rob Curley, who has worked at L’Ecrivain and Shanahans on the Green, was one of 36 chefs from 20 countries who took part in the competition.

Curley, who is from Northern Ireland, lost out to Vicente Aguilar, the chef representing Costa Rica, in the semi final of the event, held at Valencia’s marina. He previously represented Ireland at the World Tapas Championship in Valladolid in 2018. The other finalists were from Uruguay, Argentina, the US, South Korea, China, Belgium, Czech Republic and Spain. The competieion was won by the Spanish entrant, Noelia Pascual, chef at the Alicante restaurant, Cachito de Elche.

There were no restrictions around the ingredients that could be used in the paella, and Curley’s creation, Paella Guinness and Oysters, included crispy oysters and oyster foam, pickled Rathlin island sea lettuce, as well as stout. Curley’s sous chef for the competition was Gorka Arrieta, a Spanish chef living in Kerry.

Sara Rivero Lopez, media manager for the Spanish Tourism Office in Dublin, said: “It is a great achievement for a country the size of Ireland to get to the semi final. The Irish team was competing against many countries with Spanish culinary traditions.”

The organisers of the competition allowed for a broad interpretation of the dish, describing World Paella Day as “a day in which Valencians share our great dish with the rest of the world to celebrate, beyond recipes and ingredients, the internationality of paella.”

In the past, the inclusion of chorizo in the paella mix got Jamie Oliver into hot water and stirred up a cross-cultural cullinary furore. But the Irish palate approves, and it appears in most recipes for paella in the Irish Times recipe archive. Paul Flynn and Lilly Higgins both include it in their easy paella recipes, but for something a bit more traditional, Higgins has also written a recipe for an Irish seafood paella.