Paella is one of my favorite dishes because it is so versatile. For those of us who like to play with our food, it’s the perfect dish because you can endlessly combine ingredients while maintaining its basic integrity of a firm, medium-grain rice with sofrito and saffron. My favorite is duck paella made with medium-rare breast, duck legs confit, and cracklings.
Apparently I’m guilty of prostitution. There has long been a movement afoot to “police” the making of paella:
Horrified by chefs making paella with ingredients including poached eggs and avocados, three men from Spain‘s Valencian region have banded together to fight what they call the increasing “prostitution” of one of the country’s most emblematic dishes.
Wikipaella aims to help “police” paella around the world, said co-founder Guillermo Navarro. “It’s a dish that’s really trendy these days. And there’s lots of people taking advantage of it and selling what they call authentic, traditional or Spanish paella.”
I’m fine with traditionalists insisting that the modern versions are not “authentic” if what they mean by that troubled word is something like “historically accurate”. I think we should strive to preserve historical tastes, as best we can, just as we preserve other historical artifacts. As far as I know the traditional paella was “hunter’s food” and included snails, rabbit and artichokes cooked over an open fire. No seafood. That’s tourist food. But there are many different versions from a variety of regions in Spain that claim theirs is authentic, and establishing a pure origin is impossible, especially since the dish was likely imported from North Africa in any case.
But cuisines cannot remain static and unchanging if they are to survive and flourish, and it’s those tourists who encourage an interest in a region’s indigenous cuisine. It’s ridiculous to suggest that modifications to traditional ingredients are improper.
If this group is merely insisting that we not call modern concoctions authentic, I’m fine with that. The word “authentic” is virtually meaningless anyway. But if they want to insist that traditions should not change and grow, they are guilty of prostituting the idea of a living tradition. They should be celebrating Spain’s emergence as an internationally respected cuisine which can be sustained only if creativity is allowed to flourish.
So on the charge of prostitution, I’m happy to plead guilty.
Exploring the Philosophy of Food and Wine 
How do you feel about authenticity and regional wines? It seems to be a similar topic. Should Burgundy be allowed to add Syrah to the reds? And if so, should it still be called Burgundy. Of course, under current regulations that would be impossible. How is food different from wine? Don’t regional associations of chefs have the right to “copyright” their regional dishes to protect them from adulteration? Next thing you know, we’ll have an “authentic, Tuscan-style spaghetti Bolognese with added chiles and Seschuan peppers.” Uh huh. Go ahead, adapt any recipe you want, but why the need to borrow names from traditional regional dishes to sell them? Isn’t that what DOP laws are all intended to prevent?
Paul,
I have no problem if chefs from Valencia want to codify the recipe for traditional Valencian paella. What I object to is the idea that only traditional Valencian paella can be called paella or Spanish paella. There are many regional versions of paella in Spain that differ from the Valencian version. The fact that they may have been modifications of an original Valencian version doesn’t give them any special claim to authenticity. Authenticity surely can’t be reducible to being first.
I also think food is different from wine in that recipes are made and modified by countless independent individuals, professional and non-professional, who make decisions based on preferences, whims, and the availability of ingredients, and who are continuously moving from place to place. Wine is a commercial product made by a relatively small number of producers who, according to AOC or AOP regulations, must use grapes from a designated geographical location. Thus the “recipe” can be more easily controlled by regulatory agencies.