50 free Paella trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Paella is the dish Valencians guard most fiercely, and the one the rest of the world most cheerfully gets wrong. It began as a farm-workers' lunch cooked over orange-wood fires beside the Albufera lagoon, took its name from the wide steel pan rather than anything in it, and was first called paella in print in 1840. Today a Valencian will tell you that only two recipes are authentic, that chorizo is a crime, and that the scorched rice at the bottom is the best part. These 50 questions cover the three versions of paella and what goes in each; the word's journey from Latin patella through Old French; bomba and senia rice; saffron, the world's most labour-intensive spice; the socarrat, the Thursday tradition and the rule about eating from the pan; the cousins arros negre, fideua, arros a banda and the Filipino paelya; Hemingway's 1959 visit; the 1992 and 2001 record paellas; the Jamie Oliver chorizo row and the emoji Apple had to redraw. Easy questions cover ingredients and origins; the hardest ask about etymologists, novelists and dates. Every answer is cited to the page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Paella originally comes from which Spanish region?
Valencian Community
It is regarded as one of the region's identifying symbols.
Q 02Paella takes its name from what?
Its cooking pan
The word simply means frying pan in Catalan and Valencian.
Q 03How many classic versions of paella are usually distinguished?
Three
Valenciana, mixta and de marisco; Valencians say only the first is the real thing.
Q 04Which of these is a traditional meat in paella valenciana?
Rabbit
Chicken, duck and snails round out the original recipe.
Q 05Which mollusc is a traditional ingredient of paella valenciana?
Snails
Poorer Valencians sometimes used snails as the only meat.
Q 06Which lagoon near Valencia is the traditional birthplace of paella?
Albufera
Rice farmers are thought to have cooked the first one-pot paellas in its paddies.
Q 07On which day of the week is paella traditionally on Spanish restaurant menus?
Thursday
The custom holds across Spain, not just in Valencia.
Q 08Which people began rice cultivation in Al-Andalus around the 10th century?
Arabs
Rice had become a staple in Spain by the 15th century.
Q 09What is the Latin root of the word paella?
Patella
It reached Catalan via Old French paelle, and also gave Italian padella and French poele.
Q 10What is the traditional paella pan called in many Spanish-speaking regions outside Valencia?
Paellera
Valencian speakers use paella for the pan and the dish alike.
Q 11Which etymologist argued paella comes from Old French paelle rather than directly from Latin?
Joan Coromines
He reasoned that a direct Latin descent would have produced 'padella'.
Q 12A disputed theory derives paella from an Arabic word meaning what?
Leftovers
The problem is that the word is not attested until six centuries after James I took Valencia.
Q 13What rice variety do most paella cooks use?
Bomba
A Valencian cultivar called senia is the main alternative.
Q 14Which flat green bean is a traditional paella valenciana ingredient?
Q 21Mixed paella is sometimes nicknamed what, for its riot of ingredients?
Baroque preparation
It was invented by Spaniards outside Valencia who combined seafood with land meat.
Q 22Which American author's 1959 writing after a Valencia visit helped popularise paella worldwide?
Ernest Hemingway
Recipes abroad soon ballooned to include sausage and many more seasonings.
Q 23What pejorative name do Valencians give paellas with chorizo and other 'wrong' ingredients?
Arroz con cosas
It translates as 'rice with things'.
Ferradura
Artichoke hearts stand in for beans in winter.
Q 15Which herb is sometimes added to paella in whole branches?
Rosemary
Valencians say it should not be used if the snails in the pan have already been eating it.
Q 16What rodent was a main ingredient of early Valencian paellas?
Water vole
Eel and butter beans were the other staples of the 18th-century pot.
Q 17Which novelist described Valencians eating water voles in the 1902 novel Canas y barro?
Vicente Blasco Ibanez
The realist novel is set among the fishermen and peasants of the Albufera.
Q 18In what year did a local newspaper first use 'paella' to mean the recipe rather than the pan?
1840
Food historian Lynne Olver traced the usage.
Q 19Which ingredients do Valencians call 'absolutely out of the question' in paella valenciana?
Fish and shellfish
Seafood belongs to paella de marisco, a separate recipe.
Q 20What does paella de marisco omit that paella valenciana includes?
Beans and green vegetables
The seafood is traditionally served in the shell.
Q 24Which British chef's chorizo paella recipe became a famous 'rice with things' controversy?
Jamie Oliver
Gordon Ramsay's recipe drew similar complaints.
Q 25Which food writer showed in El Pais that old Valencian paella did include chorizo?
Ana Vega
Writing as 'Biscayenne', she quipped that Jamie would have to be invited to the Falles.
Q 26Which wood traditionally fuels the open fire under a Valencian paella?
Orange tree branches
Pine branches and cones are added for aromatic smoke.
Q 27How do diners traditionally eat paella in Valencia?
Straight from the pan
Some recipes also call for the pan to rest, covered, for five to ten minutes first.
Q 28What is the prized layer of scorched rice at the bottom of the pan called?
Socarrat
It is considered a good thing as long as it is not actually burnt.
Q 29Which restaurateur claims the 2001 paella that fed about 110,000 people?
Juan Galbis
His 1992 paella for about 100,000 is the one listed in Guinness World Records.
Q 30About how many people did Galbis's Guinness-listed 1992 paella feed?
100,000
Giant paellas are a fixture of Valencian festivals, campaigns and protests.