Culinary appropriation! Gordon Ramsay is slammed by Puerto Ricans for making ‘staple island dish’ pegao that is just the word locals use for rice that’s stuck to the bottom of the pot
- Ramsay filmed the video in Puerto Rico for his YouTube series Scrambled
- He said he was making a ‘local, beautiful dish’ called pegao
- Ramsay called it a ‘crispy rice’ dish – he used ingredients including chicken, eggs, local sausage and onions
- Locals responded by telling him pegao isn’t actually a dish but the word they use for when rice gets stuck to the bottom of the pan
- They skewered him for trying to pass off the dish as something tourists might actually find on the island
Gordon Ramsay has been slammed for making what he called a ‘staple local dish’ that is actually just what natives describe as rice being stuck to the bottom of a pot.
The British chef made what he thought was a dish called pegao – or crispy rice – as part of his YouTube series Scrambled.
Filming on a Puerto Rican cliff top, he told the camera: ‘I’ll show you a local , beautiful dish made with left over rice it’s called pegao.
‘The beauty of this dish is that it’s a staple – nothing fancy but the flavor profile is unique.’
Puerto Rican chefs and others slammed his effort, saying pegao is not a dish itself but the word that’s used for rice that sticks to the bottom of a pan and goes crispy.
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The British chef made what he thought was a dish called pegao – or crispy rice – as part of his YouTube series Scrambled. Filming on a Puerto Rican cliff top, he told the camera: ‘I’ll show you a local , beautiful dish made with left over rice it’s called pegao
This is what Ramsay made – he called it the ‘beautiful, local dish pegao’ and he added eggs, chicken and sausage to it
This is what locals say pegao is – the sticky part of rice that’s often at the bottom of the pot after it has burned onto it
‘This is not pegao. This is a hate crime,’ one Twitter user said.
Another said: ‘This is not a thing. Pegao is literally the crispy part stuck to the pot after making rice.’
Others fumed that Ramsay didn’t seem to have consulted local chefs.
‘Did you even bother to consult with Puerto Rican chefs about this recipe?’ one said.
In his video, Ramsay first fried all of the ingredients in a pan, then added the rice and flipped it all over onto a plate almost like a frittata.
‘It’s going to be done, almost like a sticky rice in a cast iron. The secret is beautiful sausage. I’ve got some cooked chicken in here first.
Puerto Ricans slammed Ramsay for his effort, saying pegao isn’t ‘a thing’ and asking if he even consulted any locals before he made the video
‘Now, this is about how do you elevate that?’ he said at the start of the video.
He first called the plate an ‘elevated’ version of a dish in the YouTube caption, but it has since been changed.
Now, the footage is titled: ‘Can Gordon Ramsay Make a Puerto Rican Crispy Rice Dish? | Scrambled’.
On YouTube, the comments were slightly more forgiving.
‘I’m puertorrican and even I dunno what this dish is. Appreciate the love though,’ one commentator said.
He hasn’t responded to the criticism of his efforts yet.