Dishes

Paella

pah-EL-yah

Also Known As Paella Valenciana

Citation Formats

General Reference

Food and Drink Atlas. "Paella." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://food.interactiveatlas.org/dishes/paella.

APA Style

Food and Drink Atlas. (n.d.). Paella. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://food.interactiveatlas.org/dishes/paella

BibTeX

@misc{foodanddrinkatlas-paella,
  author = {Food and Drink Atlas},
  title = {Paella},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://food.interactiveatlas.org/dishes/paella},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Paella is a Spanish rice dish cooked slowly in a wide shallow pan, traditionally over an open fire. It began as a rural laborers' dish among rice farmers in the Albufera wetlands south of Valencia, made from whatever was on hand. Valencian tradition holds that authentic paella valenciana carries rabbit, chicken and local vegetables or beans, never seafood, and that the now common seafood paella, though popular worldwide, is a later variant that purists reject as inauthentic to the Valencian name. The exact year of the dish's origin is not fixed by the sources.

Facts

Disputed

Origin Period, From (Year)

from 1850 2

the subject's own accountMarks the mid-19th century, when paella in its modern form is traced to the rural area around the Albufera de Valencia lagoon; the dish may have older, undocumented antecedents.

Origin Region

The Albufera wetlands near Valencia, eastern Spain. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections