A Chicken Fight Wings Its Way to High Court
NEW DELHI—Butter chicken is among India’s most famous culinary exports. The fragrant, creamy curry has been adapted into pizzas in the U.S., a poutine topping in Canada and a pie filling in Australia. There is a “World Butter Chicken Day." Now butter chicken is at the center of a saucy real-life drama roiling India.
The bone of contention: Who invented the dish? Rival restaurant chains are in a legal chicken fight over who created butter chicken. The culinary clash has risen to the Delhi High Court and is transfixing the nation, with debates rocketing through social media and TV stations keeping a rapt public abreast of the squabble. “Who stole my butter chicken?" blared one local headline.
Another dubbed it “a delicious dispute." The showdown has roots in a storied New Delhi restaurant called Moti Mahal. It was founded in 1947, and known for serving the first butter chicken, which features tandoori chicken cooked in a tomato-based sauce with butter and cream. The watering hole became a favorite with power brokers and starlets.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Richard Nixon dined there. (Not together!) Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, was a regular, and Nikita Khrushchev used to fly Moti Mahal’s chefs and platters of chicken to Moscow for state banquets. The dueling restaurateurs are the adult grandsons of the original partners of Moti Mahal.
Read more on livemint.com
