This Guy Did The Unthinkable To Spain’s Most Iconic Dish, And You Can Guess What Happened Next
âIâve become an unintentional enemy of the paella,” joked Canadian Adriano Paonessa, whose wild food remixes are going viral in his adopted home country.
Canadian Adriano Paonessa is stirring the pot in his adopted home of Spain, literally and culturally.
Known online as Dre Pao, the Toronto native has found viral success, and no shortage of controversy, by blending Spanish culinary tradition with fast food and candy.
Think Big Mac tortilla.
Or KitKat paella.
Yes, really.
The wild food fusions that he shares with his hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok have spectacularly split opinion in the comments.
He’s been invited to recreate them on TV chat shows and says at least one of the presenters always appears to express “genuine” displeasure at what he’s doing.
“There is anger. People think it’s a joke,” Paonessa admitted to HuffPost this week. But he is unfazed. “I’ve been doing content for 10 years and negative comments come with the territory. I love the sarcastic ones, saying, ‘Oh yeah, this is how I remember my grandma making it.’ In person, everyone is super nice. Sometimes the digital world brings out the worst in us.”
Paonessa moved to Murcia, in southeast Spain, on a digital nomad visa two years ago. “Life in Canada is tough these days for someone in their 30s. It’s expensive; it’s cold,” he said. He hopes to secure permanent residency.
“I want this to be my home. I love it here,” he explained. “No one really knows it exists so I feel like I found this hidden gem that no one’s really heard of. I’m telling people. But at the same time, I almost want to keep this for myself. I don’t want it to get too busy,” he said, noting the overtourism that has blighted other areas of Spain in recent years.
By day, Paonessa runs the food-focused marketing agency Xrozs.
In his free time, he creates content that deliberately pushes the boundaries of culinary tradition. He aims to merge his history of promoting North American snacks with takes on Spanish classics, and spark conversations and create a community while doing it.
“Before I came to Spain I was doing fast-food reviews, working with candy brands, chips. I always had a love for that kind of content,” Paonessa recalled. “When I got here, I wanted to adapt and be part of the culture. I thought, ‘What’s the most Spanish dish I can think of?’ My favorite thing is paella and this is a great place to start.”
And so, KitKat paella ― and a whole host of other remixed dishes ― have since been born.
Despite the frequent online backlash, Paonessa insists he doesn’t want to mock Spanish cuisine. And he pointed out a double standard when it comes to culinary creativity.
“If a Spanish chef was doing this, a lot of people would say, ‘This is genius,’” he said, citing a Spanish food influencer whose chocolate paella was met with great fanfare. “I was like, ‘What the hell is this? I did this a couple of months ago and everyone was angry.’ I think there’s some hypocrisy,” he added with a laugh.
“I’ve become an unintentional enemy of the paella,” Paonessa admitted. “But I genuinely am trying to find combinations that taste good. Of course, they’re different, but … if it actually tastes good, I’m thinking this could be something that catches on and it’s something people are eating across Spain.”
And if one of his creations turned out to taste awful? “I’d still post it” and say it’s bad, he insisted. “I want to be honest,” especially if people are potentially curious about making it themselves at home, he told HuffPost.
What if a Spanish chef reinvented a Canadian classic? “It wouldn’t outrage me. I would be very excited,” he replied. “The ultimate one would be poutine. It’s very widely accepted in Canada that chefs try to do their own interpretation.”
As for his dishes themselves, Paonessa said most “are created in one go.”
“Once I have the concept, I just get rolling in the kitchen. I’m literally feeling it out in the moment and the way it looks like in the end is something I just came up with on the spot,” he said, noting there’s no “big planning process” and “some turn out better than others but I always try to take pride in making something people will enjoy.”
Paonessa is already seeing opportunities beyond social media with collaborations with local restaurants on limited-edition dishes.
And for the future?
“No dish is too sacred” to be reinvented, he warned. “It’s meant to be fun and creative. The more conservative a dish is, the more it excites me to try something different with it.”
