Rob Horgan
A SPANISH food critic has pulled no punches in a brutal assessment of some of the world’s top chefs.
In a hilariously damning review, Ana Vega has slammed Brits Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and Marco Pierre White as well as having a dig at many internationally-acclaimed chefs.
Dismissing Ramsay’s 14 Michelin-starred past, Vega labels his take on Paella as ‘something that does not even deserve to fall into the category of rice with stuff in it’.
The host of Kitchen Nightmares is then lambasted for confusing Mexican ingredients and Spanish cuisine.
Next up, pukka-chef Oliver receives a pasting from the El Pais critic for his ‘Spanglish paella’ and his ‘sad hue’-coloured gazpacho.
Meanwhile, Pierre White is damned for labelling the ‘best paella in Spain is from the north’.
And Australian celebrity-chef John Torode is mocked for ‘cooking to the sound of Spanish guitar chords, while attempting to find his inner-Spaniard’.
Making up Vega’s hit list are David Chang for his noddle-based Fideuá and Sanjeev Kapoor for his psychedelic tortilla.
Damning reviews
On Gordon Ramsay:
“In best Kitchen Nightmares style, Ramsay strikes his perfect “I-know-what-I’m-doing” pose. Then he launches into making a “paella” with (what else?) chorizo, chicken, shrimp, squid and clams. He then jazzes it up with a generous squirt of sherry, as well as a few chili peppers – because it’s never too late to confuse Spain with Mexico.”
On Jamie Oliver:
“Jamie Oliver has made Spanglish food something of a personal trademark. He enthusiastically adds chorizo to pretty much everything, and his odd “Made in Spain” combinations make for a good laugh for any Spaniard watching his program.”
On John Torode:
“Then, when the rice is done, he shakes it up passionately one more time, because he knows that a good paella needs to be mushy and that the rice grains should be crushed so that it is an unappetizing eyesore.”
The word ‘traditional’ does cover both the good and the bad, and tradition doesn’t like change, especially, when it comes to British cooking. The non-Spanish variations aren’t pure tradition, but do seem a bit healthier than popular Spanish fare revolving around (as one chef put it) “salt, burned meat, cholesterol and over-cooked fish” (in an oily tomato sauce, an Asturian specialty).
Along the Northern coast there are really good healthy foods in, especially, Galicia and Pais Vasco, less in Cantabria and Asturias. But often a lot of salt and fat.
But never mind, these ‘experts’: British, American and Spanish alike will drop dead from cardiac arrest and high blood pressure soon from their unhealthy ‘comfort’ foods soon enough.
I’m sure that these successful, millionaire chefs are devastated that their cooking has be attacked by Ana Vega. Hang on a second, Ana who???
Classic North African Arab dishes – like paella, gazpacho introduced into the Iberian peninsular during the time of the great civilisation – Al-Andaluz, nothing Spanish about them at all. I’ll accept criticism by Arab chefs not a Spanish one.
Chas, favourites of mine when I lived I lived in Galicia – merluza a la plancha, cooked in olive oil and with garlic ( I never cook white fish without garlic now) served with excellent Galician yellow steamed (not boiled) potatoes and sweated red pepper or Caldo Gallego, impossible outside Galicia as soft water, grellos, a specific Galician green, Galician potatoes, a ham bone, wonderful winter or summer.