internet culture

Here's a question that probably never crossed your mind: While you text away and send that paella emoji 🥘, whose grandmother's recipe are you actually sharing?

If you're like most people, you've likely sent hundreds—if not thousands—of emojis without thinking twice about who designed them or what stories might be hidden behind those tiny digital images. But what if I told you that one former tech executive has been keeping a glorious secret for years—and his recent confession is breaking the Internet in the best possible way?

How an Easter egg became the internet's new tech obsession

Alfonso Gómez-Jordana never set out to become the main character online.

But after participating in the viral Twitter/X trend, “Share a piece of lore about yourself,” the co-founder of Crossmint (an all-in-one platform that helps developers integrate stablecoins, wallets, and more into their businesses) found himself as the star of everyone's feel-good story of the week. The University of California at Berkeley graduate is a certified technology wizard, with impressive stints at Silicon Valley giants like Facebook and Google. At Google, he created the “I'm not a robot” reCAPTCHA security measure—a button virtually everyone online has clicked countless times. (On his founder profile, he playfully apologizes for this invention.) At Facebook, he worked directly under Mark Zuckerberg, developing a “technologically complex feature for the Facebook Android app” from scratch. And if that weren't impressive enough, he was also a national math Olympiad, taking home the top gold prize.

Having made tech decisions that affected billions of users worldwide, Gómez-Jordana was accustomed to operating at the highest level. But as the third-ever product manager at WhatsApp, the international messaging juggernaut, he likely never imagined that a single Tweet would touch so many hearts.

“When I was at WhatsApp, I changed the ingredients in the paella emoji to match my grandma’s recipe,” Alfonso revealed in a post that has since gone viral across multiple platforms. “She’s no longer with us, but her paella will live on (digitally) forever.”

  “No wonder the WhatsApp paella tastes better than your average paella,” someone joked. Twitter/X (@alfongi)  

On Twitter/X, Gómez-Jordana's original post has accumulated 11,000 retweets and over 272,000 likes, along with an outpouring of heartfelt responses.

“I love paella!” commented one user. “I think it's really sweet of you to remember her legacy in this way.”

“WAIT, STOP, THIS IS PRECIOUS,” cheered another.

Many declared Alfonso the winner of the viral “lore trend,” with one person writing, “Ok, this is some top lore.” Another replied, “Of all the versions of this trend, this one is my favorite.”

“No wonder the WhatsApp paella tastes better than your average paella,” someone else joked.

And just like that, with a click of a button—something Gómez-Jordana had done countless times throughout his career—a simple confession about a secret tech Easter egg became something more powerful: a touching story about a grandson honoring his grandmother, and the unexpected ways our digital lives can preserve the memory of those who shaped us.

Makeover time!

Before Alonso’s intervention, the paella emoji on WhatsApp was… slightly pitiful. Much like its 2016 Apple equivalent (an emoji so grossly inaccurate, that it sparked a social campaign), the platform’s digital paella icon was quite plain: nothing but a shallow, two-handed pan featuring a blur of orange, peas, and a bone-in chicken leg, plus a few shrimp scattered throughout.

Fortunately, Gómez-Jordana came to the rescue. In 2019, he had the opportunity to update the WhatsApp emoji and secretly modeled the new design after his grandmother's recipe—a variant of the traditional Valencian rice dish. Suddenly, individual grains of rice became visible, burnt-orange gems loaded with warm, aromatic saffron. Green beans entered the pixelated picture, joined by a slice of lemon and a second drumstick.

  The beautiful streets of Alicante, Spain.   Photo by Joseph Corl on Unsplash  

Crafted in the style of Alicante, a picturesque port city in Spain, the paella Alfonso's grandmother made (and its corresponding emoji) featured a distinctive ingredient: red bell pepper. This charming update not only enhanced the emoji's appearance but also reached Android and PC users worldwide. Now, whenever someone sends that paella emoji, they're unknowingly sharing a piece of Alfonso's family legacy.

Oh, but the story gets even better (and more delicious)

In his viral post, Alfonso didn't just reveal the inspiration behind WhatsApp's paella emoji redesign. In a gesture of true generosity, he also shared his grandmother's complete traditional paella recipe with the world.

  Alfonso shares his grandma's recipe. Twitter/X (@alfongi)

From Alfonso Gómez-Jordana’s Twitter/X:

Valencia paella (Alfonso’s grandma)

Serving size: 5 people

Ingredients:

• 1 ñora pepper, with seeds and stem removed
• Olive oil
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped (clean but not dried)
• Chicken
• Thyme
• 10-12 green beans, chopped into 3–4 pieces each
• 1 tomato
• 2 peeled garlic cloves
• A handful of salt
• 2 1/2 cups of rice
• Saffron or food coloring
• 1 lemon

Steps:

1. Level the paella pan.
2. Add oil to just cover all the bottom and a little more. Add two pinches of salt.
3. When the oil is hot, flash-fry the ñora [pepper] for 5 seconds.
4. Then cook the red pepper with a pinch of salt. First, on one side (5-7 minutes), then the other (3 minutes), and set aside on a plate.
5. Do the same with the green beans (2 minutes per side).
6. Now add the chicken. Salt it well. Cook for about 5 minutes (while turning), until it’s no longer raw on the outside (but not fully cooked).
7. Add about 2 tablespoons of grated tomato (or 1 whole grated tomato) to the chicken and sauté until the tomato is half-dry (5-7 minutes).
8. In a blender: Add water, a handful of salt, a couple bits of ñora, the 2 garlic cloves, and the cooked ñora. Blend everything.
9. Add the blended mixture to the chicken, plus more water, until the chicken is just covered. Let it reduce while stirring the chicken so it cooks. Also, add back all the vegetables except the pepper. Let it simmer for approximately 30 minutes, until most of the water evaporates but not all (don’t let it burn).
10. Add 1/2 cup of rice per person, and 1 cup of water per person. Once all the water is added, add the red pepper and the saffron or food coloring. Cook on high heat for 5–7 minutes, then lower the heat for another 10 minutes. Stir occasionally and taste for salt.
11. When almost no broth remains, taste the rice. If it’s done, turn off the heat, remove from heat, and cover with paper towels for 7 minutes.
12. Uncover, stir, so the bottom comes to the top, and it’s ready to serve.

The garnish on top: a college roommate’s memory that will make you smile

As if Alfonso’s story wasn’t endearing enough, an unexpected voice chimed in online. It was Tomás Vega, Alfonso’s former college roommate, who jumped into the conversation with a memory that perfectly captures Alfonso’s love of his grandmother’s paella recipe.

“When I lived with Alfonso, he made paella every week, and we jokingly registered the house as 'Paella Patio,’” he reminisced on Twitter/X. “I used to wake up on Sundays to strangers knocking on the door asking if paella was happening.”

He shared a screenshot of the famed “Paella Patio” on Google Maps: a five-star “Spanish restaurant” with a whopping 53 reviews. “Alfonso and his team made my friends and I feel like personal guests in a backyard-like setting,” reads the top review. Someone alert the Michelin guide!

The beautiful family legacy lives on

Today, Alfonso's grandmother's culinary legacy extends far beyond the family kitchen, reaching millions through a tiny, meticulously designed digital icon—a wonderful tribute she never could have imagined. Unlike typical corporate changes driven by data, user research, and business metrics, this emoji update came from the heart. Who would have thought such a small digital symbol could evoke such emotion? 🥘

  Alfonso poses with his grandma's famous paella. Twitter/X (@alfongi)

This story reminds us that behind every app, feature, and emoji is a real person making decisions. While these choices are often guided by analytics and numbers, they can also be shaped by love, memory, and the desire to make our digital world more genuine and personal.

Next time you use the paella emoji, remember you're not just sending a food icon—you're sharing a piece of family history. Though Alfonso's grandmother is gone, her paella, and everything it represents, truly lives on digitally forever.