Indian Accent replaced pricey morels with cheaper mushrooms, claims top surgeon | Trending

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 shared the photo of the Indian Accent chef’s tasting menu. (X/@AmbarishSatwik) 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 l 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” swapping what he called the “Rolls-Royce of fungi” with the much cheaper button mushrooms. HT.com has reached out to Indian Accent for a comment. This report will be updated when they respond. 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.