That paella arouses passions is nothing new, and not only culinary, but also at other levels that have little to do with the stomach (or don't you remember, for example, how half of Spain fell on Jamie Oliver when he shared with the world its "paella" with chorizo?).
No other dish in our recipe book has sparked so many controversies, debates and scandals like this one, which is now back in the spotlight after the writer, presenter and hotelier Alberto Fernández Bombín dared to question its origin a few days ago in El Ana Rosa program. "Paella is Basque," he said, possibly knowing that with these words he was going to assemble the marimorena.
And what if it was armed. In a few minutes, a legion of Twitter users wasted no time in reminding him, even between insults, of the Valencian origin of this preparation, supposedly born between the 15th and 16th centuries due to the need of farmers and shepherds for an easy meal to prepare and with the ingredients that were on hand in the field. But, what if Fernández Bombín is right?
The argument that casts doubt on the Valencian origin of paella is the following: according to many historians, paella could not have been invented without the instrument that gives it its name, the paellera. And where were the first ones in history made? In Euskadi, at the beginning of the 20th century, taking advantage of the barrels of tar that were used for the construction of the Cantabrian railway lines.
The writer Emili Piera tells, for example, in his book La cocina de la Albufera y las marjales (2016) that "paella cannot exist as a popular dish until the Basque steel industry was able to manufacture paella pans at an affordable price. It may be that Previously, families of the high bourgeoisie and the nobility made paella, but an ordinary, poor family could not afford a paella pan made by a blacksmith with hammer blows".
However, it seems that this theory is not valid either to be able to affirm the Basque origin of paella, since the Basque writer Ana Vega ('Biscayenne'), National Gastronomy Award and specialist in historical documentation of the kitchen, has explained this same tomorrow to EFE that we must not confuse the name of the utensil in which paella is made, "what in Valencia they call paella and in almost the rest of the world we call paellera", with the dish itself.
According to the expert, no document is yet known, among the catalogs of manufacturers of pots and pans of the time, that proves that this utensil was called "paella" in the Basque Country. "It is true that the manufacture of utensils became cheaper after the third Carlist war (1874-1875), with the improvement of the steel industry and blast furnaces, but I have not found any specific manufacturer".
What is documented is that the term 'paella' is included for the first time in a book published in Madrid in 1857, where the first written recipe for paella also appears and where the container in which it is made is referred to as a "frying pan". Valencian style (Paella)".
Another book, The Valencians painted by themselves (1859), describes for the first time the trade of "paellero" as the professional dedicated to preparing it, since in those days the paellas were very large and scarce, not everyone could have one at home. "In normal houses, containers were used that were neither so flat nor so large, more similar to a normal frying pan, but higher, as can be seen in numerous photographs of the time," Ana Vega has detailed to EFE.
