Did Indian Accent replace pricey morels with cheaper mushrooms? Top restaurant responds to surgeon's post
Dr Ambarish Satwik said the Indian Accent chef apologised and got the button mushrooms replaced with morels.
A top surgeon in Delhi has called out Indian Accent, the renowned fine-dining restaurant in the capital, for allegedly serving him the commonly available button mushrooms instead of the exquisite morel mushrooms that was promised in a particular dish.
Dr Ambarish Satwik took to X (formerly Twitter) on Monday to slam Indian Accent for what he described as a "deliberate act of chicanery" and a "culinary sleight of hand".
He recalled ordering the chef's tasting menu (vegetarian) - a set menu that included a dish named "masala morels water chestnut, asparagus, paper roast dosai".
Sharing two photos - one of the chef's tasting menu and the other of the said mushroom dish - Dr Satwik alleged that the dish had button mushrooms instead of the morel variety.
"What arrived under the dosa cone, was not the morel, but a drab cluster of the most ordinary button mushrooms, the kind one might expect in a roadside stir-fry, the fungal equivalent of a counterfeit handbag," Dr Satwik said.
“If you’re going to list morels on the menu, then there better be morels on the plate, not the fungal detritus scraped from the bottom of a vegetable box.”
He said when the chef was called to the table, he apologised, promising to make amends in just two minutes.
"When summoned, the chef performed the customary song-and-dance of apology, claiming he would ‘fix it in under two minutes.’ And he did. Miraculously. Brought in a new plate, flush with morels," Dr Satwik, who is the director of hybrid vascular suites at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi, said.
The vegetarian version of the chef's tasting menu at Indian Accent costs ₹5,400 per person, plus taxes. The set menu that Dr Satwik shared had several dishes such as whole wheat and semolina puchkas, goji berry makhani and the famous kulfi sorbet.
In his tirade on X, the surgeon accused Indian Accent of “outright theft” by swapping what he called the “Rolls-Royce of fungi” with the much cheaper button mushrooms.
Take a look at the viral post:
Indian Accent responds
Indian Accent took to X on Tuesday afternoon to respond to the surgeon's post, saying there was no attempt was cost cutting and termed the episode as a case of “simple misunderstanding”.
“This is a simple misunderstanding over the 'morel masala' term. It also always includes sliced morels (as opposed to whole) and other mushrooms (oyster, shimeji, button) besides sliced morels in our recipe and that's what makes the masala tastier. The descriptor of the composition of our dish was lifted from our 2009 menu, hence may have led to the confusion,” Indian Accent said in a statement.
The famous restaurant said apart from replacing the dish, it also offered the customer extra desserts.
(Also Read: Man pays bill with coins at fine dining restaurant, records his experience)
What are morel mushrooms?
The much sought-after morel mushrooms (guchhi) grow mainly in the foothills of the Himalayas.
They grow in conifer forests across temperate regions, and the cool Himalayan foothills, in Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Jammu & Kashmir, are an ideal territory for them.
As edible as button mushrooms, the gucchi variety has immense health benefits, with its immunostimulatory and anti-tumour properties. Their production usually goes up in the Kashmir Valley when it rains.