Gauri Khan-Owned Restaurant’s Chef Says Fake Paneer Controversy Boosted Business: ‘Everything We Serve Is Top-Notch’

Gauri Khan-Owned Restaurant’s Chef Says Fake Paneer Controversy Boosted Business: Earlier this year, in the month of April, Gauri Khan's restaurant in Mumbai Torii found itself in hot water after a content creator claimed that the establishment was using iodine-stained, dark paneer (cottage cheese) in their dishes.

At the time, the restaurant had denied and shut down the rumors. Now, in an interview with Screen, Torii's head chef Stefan Gadit revealed that the detractors had a reverse effect on the restaurant, as it brought more 'impact' to the restaurant.

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Additionally, he was asked whether the backlash and controversy at all affected the restaurant, and said, "It increased our business and I got more than 20-30 followers on Instagram, so that was a blessing in disguise, I would say.”

During the interaction, the head chef said, "It makes an impact when we point fingers at something baseless. The quality, the ingredients, everything we provide is top-notch; we had nothing to worry about. We issued the statement so that people could know what is happening and how things are done. There is a lot of stuff going on with food chemistry and food science, it takes four years, just pouring something on something was just…don’t get me wrong. He did that with his pure intentions, just wanted to check.”

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YouTuber Sarthak Sachdeva subsequently took the video down, claiming 'fake paneer' existed at Torii. Torii had also responded to the now-deleted video in the comments. “The iodine test reflects the presence of starch, not the authenticity of the paneer. As the dish contains soy-based ingredients, this reaction is expected. We stand by the purity of our paneer and the integrity of our ingredients at Torii,” read the comment.

Gauri Khan's restaurant Torii, previously opened a year ago on Valentine's Day. Sussanne Khan, Maheep Kapoor, Bhavana Pandey, Neelam Kothari and Seema Sajdeh had attended the launch.

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