Court proceedings will settle the dispute over who created the dish, which consists of tandoor-cooked chicken pieces combined with dollops of cream and butter in a tomato gravy.
The owners of the renowned Delhi restaurant Moti Mahal have sued rival chain Daryaganj, alleging that the latter falsely claimed to be the creator of both the dish and the well-known lentil dish dal makhani, which is also heavy on butter and cream.
Moti Mahal asserts that its founder, Kundan Lal Gujral, invented butter chicken prior to the division of India and Pakistan. Among its guests have been former US President Richard Nixon and India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
The dish, which consists of pieces of chicken cooked in a tandoor and combined with cream and butter in a tomato gravy, is said to have been created in the 1930s when the restaurant first opened in Peshawar, Pakistan, and later moved to Delhi.
The 2019-founded Daryaganj claims that the dish was created there when Kundan Lal Jaggi, a member of the founding family, collaborated with Moti Mahal’s Gujral to open the Delhi restaurant in 1947.
It asserts that this gives it the authority to assert that the dish was created.
In addition to demanding $240,000 (£188,000) in damages, the Gujral family claims that Daryaganj has imitated “the look and feel” of Moti Mahal’s restaurants as well as the website’s layout.
The managing director of Moti Mahal, Monish Gujral, declared, “You cannot take away somebody’s legacy.”
The controversy has drawn national attention, with social media debates and segments on the dish’s history airing on Indian TV networks.
It’s a peculiar and unusual case. It’s really unclear who invented the original butter chicken dish. The court will have to rely on circumstantial evidence and will face significant challenges,” said Ameet Datta, an intellectual property attorney with Saikrishna & Associates in India.
