Influencer claims paneer used at Gauri Khan’s Torii is fake as Virat Kohli, Shilpa Shetty’s outlets pass; restaurant responds, ‘We stand our ingredients’ purity’ | Bollywood News

When Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives new season released last year, the highlight of the show was Gauri Khan’s new restaurant Torii in Mumbai. The show captured the glam of the celebrity restaurant as the star wife inaugurated her new venture. Now, an influencer has accused the restaurant of using “fake paneer” and compromising with the food quality.
A 19-year-old influencer, Sarthak Sachdeva, with over 5 lakh followers on Instagram did the viral paneer check with iodine test in several celebrity restaurants including Virat Kohli’s One8 Commune.
At Virat’s restaurant, the influencer ordered their famous paneer chawal. Before eating the dish, the influencer did the iodine test on paneer to find out whether or not the paneer used is real. However, Virat’s restaurant passed the test.
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His next stop was Shilpa Shetty’s restaurant, Bastian. Here too, the paneer used in the dish passed the viral iodine test. The influencer then moved to Bob Deol’s Someplace Else, which too passed the test, suggesting the paneer used is not fake.

 
At the end, Sarthak headed to Gauri Khan’s newly opened restaurant Torii, where he ordered a fancy paneer dish. However, he claimed that the paneer used in the dish was fake. The video posted a day ago, garnered over 5.5 million views and attracted attention of many.
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One of the users commented, “Appreciate your honesty. Not everyone has courage to do this.” However, others defended Gauri and said, “Dude, don’t drag Shah Rukh Khan in between this as it is his wife’s restaurant. Also, it’s not like Gauri personally goes grocery shopping.” Other comments read, “The risk you have taken to say anything to Shahrukh’s restaurant 🙄let us know if u get any threats…fyi we wont be able to do anything.” “The paneer used in SRK’s retaurant was also real. Sometimes the starch gets stuck on paneer, which makes it fail the iodine test, get it checked in lab before claiming anything.” “Do u know they can file a complaint against u for unnecessary defaming their business?”Story continues below this ad
The video soon captured the attention of the restaurant’s official Instagram page, who in their defence said, “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 the purity of our paneer and the integrity of our ingredients at Torii.”
Replying to Torii’s comment, the influencer wrote, “So am I banned now? BTW your food is amazing.”
What is iodine test for paneer?
It is a quick way to check for starch adulteration in paneer. If paneer changes colour to blue or black when iodine is added, it means the presence of starch, suggesting it might be adulterated. Pure paneer is made from milk proteins and should not turn blue or black when treated with iodine. To do the test, add a few drops of iodine solution (tincture) to a piece of paneer. No colour change proves it is pure and changing colour to blue or black indicates it contains starch.