Tomorrow is World Paella Day!

Did you know that I helped create the Paella Emoji 🥘?

People of Substack, 

You all know how much I love paella…I shared here in the first weeks of Longer Tables about the paella that we created to launch into space, and I also talked about the 10 ingredients that make a true Valencian Paella. Now I want to share with you a sneak preview of a new series we are creating called The Secrets of Spanish Cooking. In this video, you will see my friend Chef Nico from Mercado Little Spain talking about how these simple ingredients make such a beautiful dish, and why you need to listen to the paella…use all your senses, people!…to hear when it’s done and when to remove it from the heat. (And stay tuned in the future for the next video, all about the amazing Tortilla Española).

Since tomorrow is World Paella Day, I thought I’d also share the story of the origin of the Paella Emoji. Are you ready?

Back in 2015, Guillermo Navarro, who is a great lover of paella and co-founder of the ad agency La Mujer del Presidente, was thinking of ways to promote one of his clients, the rice brand Arroz La Fallera. He thought of a paella emoji…the idea sort of started as a joke, but then it became Navarro’s dream. 

When he called and asked me if I knew anyone who could help bring his paella emoji to life, I immediately got in touch with Mark Davis and Vint Cerf, who are like the smartest guys in the world, and who are part of non-profit called the Unicode Consortium that decides which emojis get made.

Then we began a campaign on social media to support the application and show how much the world needed this emoji. In March 2015 #paellaemoji began trending with 20,000 tweets…and Unicode approved the application! Initially the emoji was not quite right because it included ingredients we didn’t put in our application (shrimp, peas, and mussels), but we got it corrected! Now when you are texting your friends tomorrow that you will be having for dinner (to celebrate Paella Day, of course!) you can use this 🥘!! 

What do you think, should we next try for a Gintonic emoji??

---

What emoji would you create?

---

If you want to make some paella to celebrate World Paella Day tomorrow, here is my recipe for a real Valencian paella. 

But you don’t have to cook your own, just go to one of my restaurants! We will be celebrating World Paella Day for two full weeks from September 19th through October 2nd at every Jaleo and at Spanish Diner with special dishes cooked in a paella pan like Arroz de Verduras de Temporada y Setas con Manchego (seasonal vegetables and mushroom rice with Manchego cheese): Fideuà Negra con Rape, Calamar y Mejillones (a short thin pasta cooked paella style with monkfish, squid, and mussels); Arroz Meloso de Costillas, Pollo, Conejo, y Butifarra (rice made with pork ribs, chicken, rabbit, and sausage), and more!

And in New York City at Little Spain we will be doing an outdoor paella party! It’s going to be an amazing day from 12pm-7pm, with real Valencian paella cooked under the sky in Hudson Yards! 

Happy World Paella Day! 🥘🥘🥘