{"id":62334,"date":"2024-01-27T06:44:15","date_gmt":"2024-01-27T11:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=62334"},"modified":"2024-01-27T06:44:15","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T11:44:15","slug":"butter-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=62334","title":{"rendered":"Butter chicken"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who owns it?<\/p>\r\n

It's sort of like who owns kimchee, Koreans (of course!) or Chinese — we've been through that many times — except that the question of who has the rights to claim they invented butter chicken is ostensibly internecine \/ intranational rather than international (but maybe not [see below]), as is the case with kimchee.<\/p>\r\n

\"India\u2019s courts to rule on who invented butter chicken<\/a>:\u00a0 Two Delhi restaurants both claim to have the right to call themselves the home of the original butter chicken recipe\" by Hannah Ellis-Petersen, The Guardian (1\/25\/24)<\/p>\r\n

Judging from the account in The Guardian, the squabbling between the two Delhi restaurants is both picayune and misplaced:<\/p>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

…<\/p>\r\n

The lawsuit to decide the matter was brought by the family who run Moti Mahal, a storied Delhi restaurant that counted India\u2019s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, among its customers.<\/p>\r\n

According to the Gujral family, the dish was the creation of their grandfather Kundan Lal Gujral who founded the restaurant in Peshawar, in what is now Pakistan. After India was split during partition in 1947, they moved the restaurant to Delhi.<\/p>\r\n

They say the recipe, an indulgent curry that involves tender pieces of chicken cooked in a tandoor oven mixed into a rich tomato gravy laden with butter and cream, was invented by Gujral in the 1930s to use up leftover tandoor chicken.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou cannot take away somebody\u2019s legacy \u2026 The dish was invented when our grandfather was in Pakistan,\u201d Monish Gujral, the managing director at Moti Mahal, told Reuters.<\/p>\r\n

But rival restaurant Daryaganj has also staked its claim to butter chicken\u2019s origins. The restaurant owners say that their relative, Kundan Lal Jaggi, had worked with Gujral when he moved his restaurant to Delhi in 1947 and it was there that butter chicken was created. This, they say, gives them the right to call themselves home to the first serving of the dish, a claim they say they trademarked in 2018.<\/p>\r\n

As well as seeking rights to the title of butter chicken inventor, the Gujral family is seeking $240,000 in damages.<\/p>\r\n

Given the slow pace of India\u2019s courts, the pressing question of butter chicken\u2019s origins may not be solved for months or even years. The next hearing of the case will be in May.<\/p>\r\n

…<\/p>\r\n

After minimal investigation, I'm of the opinion that the case should be thrown out of the courts altogether.\u00a0 As Language Log reader AntC opines:\u00a0 \"I would have guessed Butter Chicken would be one of those pseudo-Indian dishes actually invented in Britain. I find it revoltingly sweet and over-rich.\"\u00a0 I must say that I've met many South Asians who think that butter chicken came to India from Great Britain.<\/p>\r\n

My beef (!) with the whole suit is that most people seem to be referring to this dish as \"butter chicken\" (ba\u1e6dar chikan \u092c\u091f\u0930 \u091a\u093f\u0915\u0928)<\/span><\/span><\/span>, whereas — if it really is an authentic Peshawar or Delhi dish — it should be murg makhan\u012b \u092e\u0941\u0930\u094d\u0917 \u092e\u0916\u0928\u0940 (murg [\"chicken\"] and makhan\u012b [\"butter\"]).\u00a0 Incidentally, the title of the Hindi Wikipedia article on this dish is chikan\u00a0makhan\u012b \u091a\u093f\u0915\u0928 \u092e\u0916\u093e\u0928\u0940!<\/a><\/p>\r\n

I think that Daryaganj should be enjoined from claiming they created butter chicken because it is clear that their relative, Kundan Lal Jaggi, was working with Monish Gujral when they moved from Peshawar and founded Moti Mahal in Delhi.\u00a0 It was there that butter chicken began to be served, though it already\u00a0 had its roots in Panjabi cuisine that came from a small Moti Mahal eatery in Peshawar with which this style of cooking was associated and that Monish Gujral initiated the dish before coming to Delhi.\u00a0 (See here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and the Guardian article.)<\/p>\r\n

Contrast the litigious\u00a0hullabaloo over butter chicken with the hallowed history of Philly cheesesteaks.\u00a0 Although shrouded in legend and served up to visiting potentates, politicians, and players by competing maestros \/ maestri, common opinion civilly credits brothers Pat and Harry Olivieri with its invention, even though its chief competitor, Geno's Steaks, is right down S. 9th St. less than a block away from Pat's.<\/p>\r\n

Selected readings<\/b><\/p>\r\n