Gauri Khan‘s Mumbai restaurant Torii has quashed all claims of adulterated items being used in their dishes. This comes after a video went viral, showing iodine-stained, dark paneer (cottage cheese) at the restaurant.
YouTuber finds fake paneer at Torii
On Wednesday, YouTuber Sarthak Sachdeva visited multiple celebrity-owned joints in Mumbai to check which ones were selling quality paneer and which ones were using the cheap, impure variety. He visited Virat Kohli’s One8 Commune, Shilpa Shetty’s Bastian, Bobby Deol’s Someplace Else with a vial of iodine tincture. He’d remove the fried layer from the paneer, wash it in a bowl of water and put iodine drops on it. No paneer piece turned black in any of these restaurants, which Sarthak assumed to be a marker of quality ingredients being used.
However, at Torii, the paneer turned dark when introduced to iodine. “Shah Rukh Khan ke restaurant mein paneer nakli tha. Ye dekh ke mere toh hosh udd gaye the (Shah Rukh Khan’s restaurant is selling fake paneer. I lost my mind on seeing this)!” he said in the video.
Restaurant responds to claims
Soon, Torii responded to the 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,” they wrote. Sarthak joked, “So am I banned now?😵💫 btw ur food is amazing 👀”
What is this iodine test for paneer?
Earlier, in an interview with HT Lifestyle, Dr Kiran Soni, head of the Department of Nutrition and Health, Yatharth Hospital Greater Noida, also responded to the viral iodine check videos on paneer. “The iodine tincture test is a commonly used method to detect the presence of starch in food. When iodine comes into contact with starch, it turns dark blue or black. Since pure paneer is made from milk proteins and does not naturally contain starch, an iodine test that results in a colour change could indicate the presence of synthetic or adulterated paneer.”
While the iodine test can reveal the presence of starch, it ‘does not necessarily confirm’ whether the paneer is fake, according to Dr Soni. She says, “Some commercial paneer manufacturers may add starch to improve texture or increase weight. Additionally, if the vendor coats the paneer in batter before frying, residual starch from the outer layer could influence the test results. Therefore, a dark colour reaction does not automatically mean the paneer is entirely artificial — it could simply be mixed with starch.”
