While Gordon Ramsay's creation may be tasty, lots of viewers pointed out that it bears little resemblance to the actual Puerto Rican dish. Traditional pegao is the slightly burned, crisped rice remaining at the bottom of the pan – typically aluminum, not cast-iron – after cooking arroz con gandules ("pegao" comes from a Spanish word meaning "stuck"). The scorched part is scraped out and added to the softer rice; it's considered "the buried treasure" because the crunchy bites are meant to be a savory surprise, not the entire meal. And getting the rice just right requires a finesse that can take years to perfect.
Comments on the video included many references to the dish not resembling their grandmothers' meals at all. "I'm Puerto Rican and even I dunno what that dish is," wrote one YouTube subscriber. Another added, "Gordon we love you, but what the hell was that?" One critic laughed, "So Puerto Ricans did the impossible: They made Gordon Ramsay eat leftovers and he actually liked it." Another raised eyebrows over Ramsay's mentions of adding "heat" to the dish, writing, "I think it's a common misperception that Puerto Rican food is spicy. I imagine because many people assume that anywhere Spanish is spoken, the food will be spicy. Nonetheless, great to see this!"
There was also quite a bit of snarking over the chef's overuse of olive oil and butter, his repetition of "beautiful," and his pronunciation of the dish itself.
