Latest news with #MotiMahal
The Hindu
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Music all the way
The historic Daryaganj market does not shy away from chaos. Amid the uproar of traffic, hawkers, and everything characteristically Old Delhi, a store in Daryaganj hums the soothing sound of musical Music House (LMH) carries a legacy of 115 years of dealing in musical instruments, from a folk dilruba to a rock guitar. Randheer and Jaspal Singh are the fourth generation owners of the store, which was originally established in 1910 in Anarkali Bazaar of Lahore, present-day Pakistan. After the Partition, the store moved to its current location beside the iconic Moti Mahal restaurant in 1948. A 'Daryaganj Music Street' was established soon, flanked with music shops dime a dozen. 'Daryaganj was half of what it is now when we started. It became a trend to start a music dealership here, and even for those with no knowledge of music set up shops ,' says Jaspal Singh. The storeis modest in appearance and the only one without any other branch. Qawwals and classical musicians from all over the world source from us. We don't get much footfall in the store, but our dealers and exports keep us busy,' says Jaspal. Exports are sustained by countries with strong Indian communities abroad including Mauritius, Suriname, Fiji, and Trinidad. Jaspal says a culture of Indian traditional music runs in these countries. Recalling the fad for Indian music during the 1970s to 1990s hippie culture, he says, 'Foreigners visiting Delhi during those years would stop by Moti Mahal for a meal, and take home a tabla from Lahore Music House on their way back!' Though over the years guitars and synthesisers flooded the market, LMH did not bury its specialisation in traditional instruments. 'Earlier schools used to teach students to play the sitar. Not many bother to explore other traditional instruments such as the santoor, sarod, sarangi or esraj. A guitar to showcase is all they seek now,' bemoans Jaspal. The legacy of LMH did not go unnoticed by legends of music from the subcontinent. Ghulam Ali, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and Mehdi Hassan were regulars. 'Begum Akhtar used to treat us like a service station. She would come to drop a baja off, and take another one with her,' says Jaspal, who would return from school to find musical legends at his father's desk. Once in the 1960s, English rock band The Beatles visited LMH. 'Neither me nor my father knew who they were. A huge crowd had gathered outside the store. The members requested for a sitar at their hotel and later even offered my father to move to London to teach them the sitar,' reminisces Jaspal. LMH stands out not just for quality but also for the city it represents. 'We get asked by people why we retain the name. Following the Partition, the production of instruments split to Amritsar, Patiala and Delhi but his family did not forget their birthplace. 'Even today in our labels, we write with pride, Lahore Flutes, Made in India.'
Courier-Mail
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Courier-Mail
Matt Preston risks riling haters to name No.1 butter chicken
Don't miss out on the headlines from Lifestyle. Followed categories will be added to My News. It seemed such a simple assignment. Australia loves no other curry like it does butter chicken. It's the only curry to turn up regularly on lists of the country's most-cooked dishes. So why not go to India and eat the best butter chicken? It all started with my understanding – backed by extensive research – that butter chicken was invented as a way to sell last night's tandoori chicken that was now a little dried out. The orthodoxy (challenged by some) is that a young chef, Kundan Lal Jaggi, cooking in the Gora Bazaar in Peshawar had invented the dish. When Partition came in 1947, he and two mates from the restaurant, Kundan Lal Gujral and Thakur Das Mago, moved to Delhi and opened a restaurant, the Moti Mahal. Here this delicious smoky chicken in a sauce singing with tomato, yoghurt, garlic and butter became a hit. I tracked down what was purported to be an original recipe when little was used to spice the dish other than chilli and cumin. And that's where the problems started. You see, Indians take their butter chicken very seriously. An internet storm erupted when I said dried fenugreek leaves weren't used in the original recipe – hundreds posted that I was an idiot for even suggesting it. Some questioned the role of Peshawar in this epic culinary success. Butter chicken is a favourite for Australians - but in India, it's serious business. I was also berated when we had Saransh Goila on MasterChef back in the day – he'd done a pop-up with his butter chicken as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and I had the temerity to say I enjoyed it. Again with the angry emojis. The almost religious fervour butter chicken seems to inspire fuelled my desire to get to Delhi. I arrived to be told by my local expert that the Moti Mahal had been sold to new owners and was now a pale imitation of the original that created not just butter chicken but also the wonderfully rich lentil dish dahl makhani and the tandoori-roasted lamb chop barra kebab. The trouble was a massive legal stoush had erupted between descendants of two of the original partners at the Moti Mahal. They'd both started butter chicken businesses, Moti Mahal Delux and Daryaganj, and had turned to the Delhi High Court – and I'll simplify things here – to decide who had the right to claim their butter chicken was the original (the case drags on as far as I know). So I thought it'd be fun to taste both of the bitter butter chicken rivals on camera with my ol' mate Gary Mehigan and then ask viewers on Instagram to vote for which they liked best. An astonishing 26,439 people voted, but more amazing was that 23 per cent nominated a 'better' butter chicken. Two names were the most suggested: Havemore and Gulati. It was supposed to be simple – go to the place where butter chicken was invented and write about it. Now I had due diligence to do. Next time I was in India, the chef at the restaurant where I was doing a couple of dinners organised couriers to collect 10 of Delhi's most notable versions, including from Moti Mahal Delux (nice cardamom hit) and Daryaganj ('chunky, onions, traditional' are my notes). They were all pretty good – some sweeter, some more tomato forward. The smoky one the chef made was up the top along with the buttery version from Havemore. Gulati was recovering from a fire so it wasn't represented. Yes, this is a saga. India's greatest chef Sanjeev Kapoor described butter chicken to me as 'a restaurant dish' so I felt I needed to taste the favourites in situ. This search continued over the next year when I visited India four more times. Whenever I met someone from Delhi, I'd ask them for the best butter chicken. Gulati and Havemore almost always popped up. Conveniently, the two restaurants are no more than 20m apart in a small neon-lit market off the Pandara Road. On my next visit I went to Havemore and was blown away. Not just by the butter chicken but also the breads and the murgh malai (creamy marinated tandoori chicken that's gnarly at the edges from the oven's heat but still incredibly juicy). None of the six of us dining had ever had butter chicken as good. I ate at the renovated Gulati on my next visit and it too was wonderful – slightly sweeter and more tomatoey. It was too close to call with just the one visit to Havemore so I went back this April. How could I have predicted the looming disaster? Delhi was in the middle of the Navaratri festival when it's typical to adopt the sattvic diet. Meat and grains were off the menu so Havemore was only serving a vegetarian menu. No murgh malai. No garlic naan. No butter chicken. I was crestfallen. Does 15 months on this journey end here? Without the confirmation I crave? If this was a doco we'd cut to an ad break here – and you'd be left holding your breath at the drama of it all. The butter chicken at Havemore restaurant rates as Matt Preston's No.1. As I wandered back to the car one of the waiters rushed out to say they have another Havemore on the other side of the road in Bikaner House, an old mansion that's now a cultural centre. I was elated. The dining room was pumping and the bread and murgh malai were on the menu and as good as at its sister restaurant. And the butter chicken? With two mouthfuls it was confirmed. Even better. I can happily say the butter chicken at the Havemore on Pandara Road is the best I've ever tasted – and when the miffed fans of Gulati and the other great butter chicken versions of Delhi come at me I'll say, 'You do you! But I'm happiest eating the butter chicken at Havemore.' And, boy, will they come! Originally published as Matt Preston fires shot in bitter butter chicken battle
Hindustan Times
13-06-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
Why UNESCO should grant Lucknow the Creative City tag under the Gastronomy category for its iconic Awadhi cuisine?
From Ram Asrey (since 1805), Madhurima (1826) Radhey Lal (1926), Prakash Kulfi (1956) to the famous Chhappan Bhog and Moti Mahal, Lucknow's sweet shops are in institution. Signature delights like Malai Gilori (malai paan), Kulfi, Imarti-Rabri, Thandai and Motichoor Laddo have stood the test of times. 'The reason behind delicacies like malai gilori is the secretly guarded formula, unchanged inception. Despite being highly perishable, its demand is phenomenal,' says Matrika Gupta of Ram Asrey. The city's vibrant street food culture is unmatched. Rattilal's khastey, the chai-samosa and bun makkhan at Sharmaji Ki Chai, the queues at Bajpai Kachori, rush for basket chaat at Royal Cafe and Shukla Chaat House, morning mattha at Chanakya Laddo, GPO-wale Dahi Bara, makkhan malai and kali-gajar ka halwa in winter testify Lucknow's love affair with flavours. 'Street food main Lucknow ki jaan basti hai. Like the chaat we get here you don't get similar taste anywhere,' says Chef Ranveer Brar. From Akbari Gate to different parts of Lucknow to New Delhi and Dubai, the melt-in-mouth Tundey's kebabs have put Awadhi delicacy on the world map. 'Since 1905, when my grandfather Haji Murad Ali started, we've maintained unwavering quality—that's our secret,' says its owner Mohd Usman. Raheem's kulcha nihari in Old City (since 1890), Mubeens since 1970s, Lalla's Biryani, Idrees Biryani since 1968 and Dastarkhwan chain are the flagbearers of the non-vegetarian delights. 'My father, Mohd Idrees, believed in serving fresh biryani in small batches. We never expanded, prioritizing quality over quantity—that's the essence of Awadh,' says Abu Bakar of Idrees Biryani. Several traditional families and heritage homes—like Mehmudabad Palace, royal families in Old City, Kakori and Malihabad—offer authentic home-cooked meals. Madhavi Kuckreja, who every year organizes the Home Cooked Festival during Sanatkada Lucknow Festival, says, 'During our festival, foodies travel from afar just to taste these flavors. The queues are endless, and dishes sell out instantly. At our Naimatkhana restaurant homecooked food is the biggest draw.' World's softest Kakori Kababs, Seek Kebabs, Roasted Kaleji, several types of breads like Sheermal, Rumali Roti, Girda, Khameeri Roti, Pasanda Kebabs, Boti Kewabs, Chicken Samosa are just few of the treasures found in the Old City, Aminabad, City Station, Daliganj, Hazratganj and beyond.
Boston Globe
10-06-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
From physician to food entrepreneur: Meet Tarun Bhalla, cofounder of Meal Mantra
Food is a family tradition. Anu's grandfather, chef Kundan Lal Gujral, pioneered tandoori cuisine. He's credited with creating butter chicken and chicken tikka masala at his restaurant Moti Mahal, a landmark in Delhi. Someday, the couple aim to open a similar chain of Indian restaurants, building off their sauces and family recipes. Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up How did you get into the food business? Advertisement We leaned toward where our heart and passion were. And, also, we had a wonderful legacy in our family. I was an internal medical doctor in India, and we went down the entrepreneurial path in India as well. We started a pharmaceutical manufacturing operation that we ran for 20 years. What brought you to this country? We moved to the US rather late in our lives. We were both about to turn 50. Without a job in hand, nobody really makes that move — but we always felt that the US had something that we might want our children to grow up with. For us, the decision to move wasn't one of career or finances. We were doing quite well in our lives in India. It might sound just crazy to you, but it might not. As the years piled on, we found that strength to embark on another adventure. So far, we've been very happy with that choice. Advertisement This sounds like a huge switch, culturally and professionally. It was an idea that was germinating for a few years. When I was a kid in India, physicians would advise on lifestyle changes. When you went in with a chronic disease or something, they would delve a little deeper into your history, ask questions, and offer a few suggestions, which doesn't happen now. We felt that everything cannot be treated with a pill. Our food affects our moods, our health, our bodies. We wanted to be very deliberate. We were runners in our previous life; I'm sorry to admit we kind of let ourselves go after this move into the US. We did marathons and things, but that part of our life got neglected with the pressures of moving. But diet was something we celebrated. India has a slower-moving pace. With family, you often like to eat and celebrate together. Food is always a wonderful part of it. When we moved to the US, our intent was to start a restaurant. We'd often traveled to the US earlier before we made the move. My brother is an oncologist here. We'd visit him, and we always felt that every other cuisine is very well-represented by a chain of consistent restaurants. Advertisement But, with Indian restaurants, you never find that. In fact, it's sad to say that you might have the most wonderful meal today at an Indian restaurant, and you go back a week later, and it just doesn't feel the same. Anu's family has a chain of restaurants in India. Here, one of the primary challenges is finding chefs. Indian cuisine is very intricate, in the play of spices and balance of flavors. Chefs often change. It's hard to have consistency. With the sauces, we really wanted to put in the back end of our business correctly before we took on the challenge of [opening]. How did you get underway here in the US? When we moved here, we got talking to people, and one thing led to another. We found that there were commissaries and shared kitchens where we could test our recipes. Believe me: It took many, many months before that, in our home, where we tried to work on recipes that we could then scale up. This is where my prior experience with my pharmaceutical background helped. We became very good at operations. I'm a methodical person, and my wife is totally differently abled than me. She's the creative one. What was your first impression of Boston? I have a lot to say. In retrospect, we're so glad we chose Boston. For us, it was just [throwing] darts on a board. We didn't have any connections to Boston when we chose it. But my wife was very keen that we go to a place with good schools, since our son was still in school. It was kind of a global city where we could set up and hope for an Indian food business to find success. Advertisement We're so glad we made that choice. We've not felt out of place for a day. It seems we've lived here all our lives. We've just been very fortunate and lucky. Was the Boston Public Library your first public venue? Where else can we find your food now? It was the first. It was an experiment for us. I'm so grateful for whatever conspired. We had such a wonderful experience and success. We're still receiving letters — emails, really — from the staff at The Catered Affair saying what a wonderful success it was, that they're still hearing from people who visited during our takeover and wondering where we are. Now, we're at Whole Foods and local farms: Pemberton Farms and Volante and others. Boston Public Library was our first public-facing venue, but our sauces are served at Boston College and, of late, at the Boston Public Schools. We're looking for our next opportunity. We'd like to team with other people and maybe achieve that dream of opening a chain of restaurants. We can't do it by ourselves, but we've proved our concept with this takeover: We'd often run out of food. You know, you can get paid $800 or $900, on a good day. Maybe you don't make that. But what you make is far greater because people stop by. They take the time to call you to their table. They talk to you about the food. There was a couple who were celebrating an anniversary at the library, and they called for us from the kitchen to say what a wonderful meal they had and how memorable it was for them. It's kindness that sustains you far more than money can, and we'll carry it in our hearts. Advertisement How do you describe your food? We're bad at getting the word out. But, you know, it's our sauces: Some sauces have ingredients as starch. We don't use that, and neither would you, if you were an Indian cooking in your own kitchen. They're just to make commercial products. Our sauces are made with real ingredients. There are no artificial ingredients. They have a signature taste. People write to us who have used them, and it's so gratifying to hear from them. Our best-selling sauce is the tikka masala, which is essentially something my [wife's grandfather] invented. If you Google his name, you'll find him mentioned, even though he died many years before the internet. He started a restaurant [Moti Mahal] 100 years back. There are more than 200 of them globally; so far, none in the US. There are knockoffs, because nobody thought of trademarking the name of the restaurant. In fact, there's a wonderful story. Soon after independence, the Shah of Iran visited India. On his visit, he was told by the education minister who took him around: 'While in India, you have to make two visits. One is the Taj Mahal. The other is Moti Mahal.' It was just comfort food and good food, and at that time, there used to be entertainment and live performances. Where do you eat when you're not working? We love Thai. Our current favorite is a Thai restaurant in Brookline called Advertisement Do you ever use your medical experience in your cooking? Yes, in the sense that I'm very conversant with a lot of chemicals, which we used to use in pharmaceuticals. Sometimes, I'll tell my family not to consume too many over-the-counter medicines, when you know all the chemicals that have gone into it. When it came to deciding on the acid we use for our sauces, you have to have a certain pH for it to be shelf stable. We chose an acid, glucono-delta-lactone, which is non-GMO, plant-derived, found in honey, fruits, and other fermented products. Our sauces are really deliberate in that respect; it's a very mild acid that gets converted to sugar — a glucose precursor that's very nice. Your food is healthy. It's good for you. It is, I'm proud to say, with a little care and love. What's one snack that you can't live without? Food I'll never eat? I'm not sure. I'm happy to experiment. When I was a kid, for example, I never ate eggplant. I love it now. Our tastes evolve over time. If there's a food I don't like, maybe give it time, and I'll like it. What do you snack on? I snack on a lot of nuts every day: Trader Joe's toasted, unsalted almonds. Interview was edited and condensed. Kara Baskin can be reached at
Mint
04-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Daryaganj Hospitality aims to more than triple restaurant count to 50 by FY30
North Indian restaurant chain Daryaganj Hospitality Pvt. Ltd, which is locked in a legal battle with rival Moti Mahal over who invented the popular butter chicken dish, plans to expand from 15 outlets currently to 50 in three to five years, co-founder and chief executive officer Amit Bagga said. Also Read | Sake sips and elevated Japanese at this new restaurant in Mumbai The company has earmarked ₹60 crore for the expansion, which will be funded through a mix of internal accruals and private investments from family offices. 'We're profitable since the pandemic and could fund our growth internally as well, and will focus on the top eight cities in India to grow for now," Bagga told Mint. In FY25, the company registered a gross revenue of ₹100 crore. 'We expect to grow to ₹120 crore by the end of FY26 on the back of both same-store growth as well as some new outlets being added," he said. Also Read | Aloo tuk bravas and butter chicken romesco at Vicky Ratnani's new restaurant "Cuisine wise, the country's biggest eating-out cuisine is north Indian food and we wanted to primarily build restaurants which target families and wanted to go after the middle-of-the-range price point of ₹800-900 per person, which is a sweet spot where we did not see much competition," Bagga said. So far, the company is bootstrapped and self-funded. "We are now looking at funding from family offices," he said. The company's founder and promoter is Raghav Jaggi and all restaurants are owned and operated by the company and not franchised. By the end of the FY26, the company intends to increase its restaurant count to 20, including a few delivery kitchens, and has a strong presence in north Indian markets like Delhi-NCR. Next, it will target the top eight cites of the country to grow, including Mumbai and Bengaluru. Also Read | Profit squeeze drives Indian restaurants to seek new delivery paths The growth push comes even as Daryaganj remains locked in a legal battle with Moti Mahal over who owns the rights to inventing popular dishes like butter chicken and dal makhani. Owners of Daryaganj have contended that their ancestor, Kundan Lal Jaggi, was key to the founding of the original Moti Mahal in Peshawar in 1947 and also in the creation of the butter chicken recipe. Moti Mahal counters that by saying that its late founder, Kundan Lal Gujral, invented the dish and brought it to India from Peshawar post-Partition, and has filed a case against Daryaganj, alleging trademark infringement, passing off, and using a manipulated photograph of the original Peshawar restaurant. Daryaganj has emphasized that the photograph used by Moti Mahal is a joint property, as the restaurant was established by both Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi. Daryaganj registered the "Inventors of Butter Chicken & Dal Makhani" tagline as a trademark in 2023 without any objections. The matter is currently before the Delhi high court. Moti Mahal in Daryaganj, Delhi, was founded by Kundan Lal Gujral, Thakur Das Magu and Kundan Lal Jaggi. In 1992, all three partners of the Moti Mahal business exited and sold the business to a fourth person Vinod Chadha. Since the early 1990s, Chadha has overseen this restaurant. The overall food services market is projected to grow from ₹5.69 trillion in 2024 to ₹7.76 trillion by 2028, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 8.1%, according to a July 2024 report by the National Restaurant Association of India. In FY24, casual dining, the segment Daryaganj operates in, held the largest share in the organized food segment, accounting for 48.6%. Today, about 25% of the company's business comes from deliveries. "We pivoted to deliveries during covid, but have still seen a consistent demand in business in this segment. Delivery has eaten into the home cooking segment, but not the dining-out segment, so we don't feel there is any cannibalization," said Bagga. Earlier this year, the company also expanded to its first international location, in Bangkok, Thailand with a higher end, more modern restaurant version of Daryaganj Gold, with some modern fusion dishes. It also plans to enter other markets like the UK and the UAE. In future, it intends to add other divisions like fast casual dining in elevated or premium food courts as well as in the artisanal Indian sweets. It would also consider taking its Bangkok Gold concept to other five-star hotel locations in India as well.
