<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Butter chicken, one of India’s most loved dishes, is at the centre of a culinary storm with two competing restaurant chains claiming to be the inventors of the lip-smacking preparation.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The marinated chicken dish bathed in a velvety red sauce with dollops of butter and cream is a favourite across continents, popping up on menus in London, New York and Sydney.</div><div><br></div><div>But the dish is now the subject of a lawsuit filed in the Delhi high court by Moti Mahal, one of the city’s oldest restaurant chains, against rivals Daryaganj.</div><div><br></div><div>It is a story that dates back a century to pre-independence India and a furious feud between families.</div><div><br></div><div>The lawsuit, running to over 2,000 pages, claims that Moti Mahal’s founder first crafted the dish by adding a rich tomato-based gravy to leftover chicken to keep the pieces moist.</div><div><br></div><div>Moti Mahal has accused Daryaganj of falsely taking credit for inventing butter chicken, as well as dal makhani, which is prepared by slow-cooking black lentils in a tomato and cream gravy.</div><div><br></div><div>The restaurant is seeking 20 million rupees in damages, and wants the court to bar Daryaganj from claiming its family pioneered the recipes.</div><div><br></div><div>Daryaganj’s owners said they were studying the petition before filing their reply, with the next court hearing due in May.</div><div><br></div><div>Too many cooks</div><div><br></div><div>Monish Gujral, the owner of Moti Mahal, said he had submitted documentary proof that his grandfather was the creator of butter chicken.</div><div><br></div><div>“It’s a well-documented fact globally that we are the inventors of butter chicken and dal makhani,” Monish, 57, told AFP on a busy afternoon at one of his outlets in Delhi.</div><div><br></div><div>“We are not claiming that you can’t serve butter chicken in your restaurant,” Monish added.</div><div><br></div><div>“But don’t say you invented the dish. I would not allow anyone to take our legacy away.”</div><div><br></div><div>According to Monish, his grandfather Kundan Lal Gujral learned to cook in a sweet and sherbet shop in Peshawar, in today’s Pakistan, before opening a restaurant in 1920.</div><div><br></div><div>He experimented with various dishes, including, according to Moti Mahal, adding a creamy sauce to “bits of tandoori chicken that were in danger of drying out”.</div><div><br></div><div>In 1947, in the chaos as the subcontinent was partitioned between India and Pakistan, Kundan Lal Gujral left for Delhi.</div><div><br></div><div>There, the dramatically mustachioed chef opened the first Moti Mahal restaurant and built it into a culinary institution.</div><div><br></div><div>Regular customers included former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru – always greeted with a traditional cardamom garland – and independence activist Maulana Azad.</div><div><br></div><div>Other guests have reportedly included former US president Richard Nixon and former first lady Jackie Kennedy.</div><div><br></div><div>But it was Kundan Lal Gujral’s appointment of his cousin Kundan Lal Jaggi as a partner that would lead to acrimony decades later.</div><div><br></div><div>The latter’s heirs – who would later found the Daryaganj chain – insist it was he who invented butter chicken in 1947 to serve a table of customers who turned up just as the kitchen was closing.</div><div><br></div><div>As Daryaganj tells the story, Jaggi had only a few pieces of tandoori chicken left, so one diner suggested he add a gravy “so that everyone could have a hearty meal”.</div><div><br></div><div>Monish insists his rivals just ripped off his family’s story.</div><div><br></div><div>“We have been in the business for 100 years,” he said, showing black and white photos of dignitaries on the restaurant’s walls.</div><div><br></div><div>“They have copied our feel and look.” - AFP&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>