Who invented butter chicken? A court in India will decide
One restaurant is suing another over who originated the globally loved curry in a case that has captured national attention.
Butter chicken, a rich tomato-based Indian curry that makes mouths water around the world, was invented by a man named Kundan - the question is which one.
In 1947, during the bloody partition that carved the new nation of Pakistan out of the former British colony of India, both men fled the city of Peshawar to the Indian capital, New Delhi, where they started a restaurant that became famed for the dish.
The restaurant, Moti Mahal, was hugely successful, drawing the likes of President Richard Nixon, Jacqueline Kennedy and India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, before it closed in 1992.
That much their descendants can agree on. But the story diverges as each man’s grandchildren claim it was their Kundan who was butter chicken’s rightful inventor.
Daryaganj, an upscale restaurant chain established in 2019 and run by the descendants of Kundan Lal Jaggi, is being sued in the Delhi High Court by the family of Kundan Lal Gujral, which established an offshoot restaurant also called Moti Mahal in 1976.
At the flagship branch next to the capital’s airport, a team of 16 seasoned chefs closely guards Daryaganj’s crown jewel, serving as many as two dozen portions in shimmery golden bowls during lunch each day.
“Butter chicken itself has a great mix of flavors, from sourness to sweetness to smokiness, all in the right balance together,” said Amit Bagga, chief executive of Daryaganj, who co-founded the restaurant with Raghav Jaggi, Jaggi’s grandson.
“It’s comfort food of India,” he added.
Bagga’s culinary crew still chops fresh tomatoes by hand, just like Jaggi used to in the pre-grinder era, giving Daryaganj’s butter chicken a unique texture that its customers relish. “We told our team that imagine you’re in 1947 and you don’t have any of the blenders, the equipment or anything to help you out,” he said.
Even though Daryaganj was established after Jaggi died in 2018, Bagga said, Jaggi had passed down the recipe to his grandson.
According to Bagga, the story goes that Jaggi added a buttery sauce, or “makhani,” to tandoori chicken to increase the portion size on a day when Moti Mahal had a lot of customers and the chicken was running out.
The Gujral family says Daryaganj is “misleading the public,” and that Kundan Lal Gujral, who died in 1997, invented the dish back in Peshawar, before he and Jaggi even left for New Delhi. By their account, Gujral came up with the buttery makhani and added it to leftover cooked chicken to keep it from drying out.
Moti Mahal declined NBC News’ repeated requests for comment.
Bagga said Daryaganj applied for the butter chicken trademark in 2018, which kicked off the dispute with Moti Mahal. He said he was “surprised” when Moti Mahal filed the suit in January, which he dismissed as “baseless.”
“They knew about us five years back, as well that we are running this restaurant,” he added.
The second hearing in the case, which had been scheduled for Wednesday, has been adjourned until September.
In a country like India, where business deals and marriages are often cemented over food, the legal tussle has become a national conversation, with news broadcasters running segments on both restaurants and debates raging online.
It has also meant booming business for Daryaganj. “There’s people who want to come and try the food now,” Bagga said. “It’s good publicity for us.”
First-time customer Satyam Kumar came to Daryaganj for lunch on Thursday. A clip of Bagga’s appearance on “Shark Tank India” was playing in the dimly lit restaurant, where pictures of the Jaggi family and Kennedy adorn the walls.
For Kumar, 24, butter chicken is his comfort dish and he came with high expectations. “It’s your go-to dish if you don’t know what to order,” he said.
The lawsuit offers insight into Delhi’s storied culinary history, which was shaped by centuries of Mughal and British rule. During the deadly partition, which took place largely along religious lines, seasoned tandoori cooks who were mostly Hindus like Jaggi and Gujral fled Pakistan and set up shops in Delhi.
“One of the easiest skills that they could make money from was cooking,” said Rana Safvi, a historian based in the capital region. “So many dishes came with them. It was these entrepreneurs who transformed the scene in the blink of an eye.”
When Moti Mahal opened, it was one of a kind in a sea of British and Mughlai restaurants. Instead of frying meat on the stove, the restaurant’s chefs baked it in a clay oven, or tandoor, that was dug into the ground, the source of its iconic smoky flavor and the name, tandoori chicken.
Immersed in a creamy sauce that tempered its spiciness, the resulting butter chicken was a massive success, even among foreigners. “It became very easy for anyone to eat, even for those who are not used to spicy food,” Safvi said.
At Daryaganj, the clay tandoor isn’t dug into the ground anymore but instead is modernized and more efficient. The restaurant also offers a creamier and even less spicy version, but the original one is still the most popular, Bagga said, with the head chef having spent weeks perfecting the recipes for both.
Kumar tried both versions, but the original one was his favorite. “It’s definitely one of the best butter chicken I have ever had,” he said.
Daryaganj looks nothing like the original Moti Mahal restaurant, an open-air spot in Old Delhi where customers could watch their food being cooked in the kitchen. That restaurant was sold off in 1992 and the two Kundans parted ways.
Now, neither Moti Mahal nor Daryaganj has restaurants in the area, but it still flourishes as one of the country’s most famous food districts.
“I would like to try the butter chicken in both the places,” Kumar said. He added: “But who invented it doesn’t matter.”
Source: NBC News
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