含羞草社区

How a trademark dispute over the invention of an iconic north Indian dish descended into a food fight. By Vandana Chatlani

On a balmy summer’s day in South Mumbai, I stood in a kitchen with my aunt’s cook, Ghanshyam. Carefully arranged on a chopping board in front of us were a few cloves of garlic, some fragrant grated ginger, bright red, juicy tomatoes cut into quarters, a handful of cashew nuts and a few fiery green chillies.

The perfect butter chicken should be “thoda theeka, thoda meetha aur thoda khatta” (a little spicy, a little sweet and a little sour), he explained. Ghanshyam’s recipe is now a staple in my home and constantly requested by my family and friends. How close this version comes to the original recipe, currently being fought over by two restaurant chains – Moti Mahal and Daryaganj – is another question.

Restaurant owners Monish Gujral and Raghav Jaggi – grandsons of two gentlemen, Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi, credited with creating the original butter chicken recipe served in 1947 – will meet in Delhi High Court on 29 May to settle a dispute over who invented the much-beloved dish.

A shared history

But the story begins much earlier; in the 1920s at the original Moti Mahal restaurant run by Mokha Singh Lamba in Peshawar (then part of pre-partition India), where Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi both worked. When partition came in 1947, however, borders were carelessly drawn, Peshawar became part of Pakistan, and Gujral and Jaggi were forced to leave for Delhi.

Gujral and Jaggi struck a partnership with Thakur Das Mago, asking Lamba if they could use the Moti Mahal name to open a restaurant in Delhi. He agreed, and Moti Mahal began serving North Indian fare to patrons in Daryaganj, a neighbourhood in Old Delhi.

From its early days, Moti Mahal’s delicious dishes attracted an illustrious clientele including former Indian prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, Indian president Zakir Hussain, Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, US presidents Richard Nixon and John F Kennedy, and the Shah of Iran.

The restaurant gained fame for its tandoori delicacies, particularly its delectable butter chicken.

According to Monish Gujral, the managing director of Moti Mahal Delux, it was his grandfather, Kundan Lal Gujral, who first created this dish back in Peshawar, in the 1920s or 1930s.