“Her paella will live (digitally) forever.”
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?
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.”
u201cNo wonder the WhatsApp paella tastes better than your average paella,u201d someoneu00a0joked. u200bTwitter/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.
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.
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. u200bTwitter/X (@alfongi)
From Alfonso Gómez-Jordana’s Twitter/X:
Valencia paella (Alfonso’s grandma)
Serving size: 5 people
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!
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. u200bTwitter/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.
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