Laughing stock! Michelin chef is accused
of using Knorr chicken cubes to
flavour his acclaimed dishes…even
in vegetarian meals
Daily Mail (UK),
by
Michael Powell
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
6/22/2019 10:58:15 PM
His haute cuisine curries have delighted David Beckham and Charlize Theron, but Michelin-starred chef Karunesh Khanna has admitted using shop-bought chicken stock to flavour his acclaimed dishes. The executive chef of the upmarket Tamarind chain of Indian restaurants also allegedly used the Knorr cubes in vegetarian and vegan meals but failed to tell customers that they contained meat, according to legal papers. After six staff members complained, Mr Khanna – who trained at The Dorchester, Four Seasons, The Ritz and Claridge's hotels – told one manager: 'Guests don't need to know.'
Reply 1 - Posted by:
jntsrgn 6/22/2019 11:19:09 PM (No. 104472)
Celebrity chef is perhaps the only person more annoying than a vegan.
49 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
smcchk 6/22/2019 11:25:03 PM (No. 104474)
At one dinner, a very strict vegetarian guest went on and on about my friend’s pie crust. We all had to be quiet because we knew her secret ingredient was lard. She didn’t intentionally try to deceive the guest; none of us had thought to mention it before we began eating the pie. It was delicious.
42 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
GEM1400 6/22/2019 11:28:31 PM (No. 104477)
So what? If it works, it works.
32 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 6/22/2019 11:31:09 PM (No. 104478)
LOL. And that $20/glass French wine? What's the word - Thunderbird!
20 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
ladydawgfan 6/23/2019 12:11:00 AM (No. 104510)
Big deal. I use powdered beef and chicken boullion to enhance the flavor of whatever I am cooking, along with the appropriate stock in place of water in recipes. I made a gluten-free "Hamburger Helper" knockoff tonight for dinner. It called for a cup of water. I used 1/8C of burgundy, two tbsp of Worcestershire sauce and beef stock with 1-1/2 tsp of powdered beef bouillion for the rest of the cup in place of the water. It enhances the flavor and nutrition of the meal and I don't need as much salt and pepper with the meat.
Next time you make tacos, toss a spoonful of powdered beef stock to the taco seasoning mix. It's amazing how much flavor simple tacos have when you do this.
30 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
DVC 6/23/2019 12:23:54 AM (No. 104511)
Hmmm. I can't see why using chicken bullion cubes is any sort of an issue at all. How is this
different than using Gold Medal flour or Land o'Lakes Butter?
Is he supposed to make his own bullion cubes? Or always use chicken stock that he has
boiled down from a carcass? An extra many hours for a little chickeh flavor?
I don't watch those shows, but I do cook. The only one I watched was Alton Brown, and I loved
finding out later that he rides motorcycles and shoots AR15s.
24 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
happywarrior 6/23/2019 12:26:37 AM (No. 104512)
Hahaha, who doesn't use the cubes?
18 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
HoraceR 6/23/2019 3:10:23 AM (No. 104533)
Silly. Marco Pierre White is a Knorr spokesperson. He's the youngest chef to attain 3 Michelin stars. His cooking videos using Knorr products are all over YouTube. They're excellent for cooking. Khanna probably did the vegetarians some good.
14 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
RenoVet68 6/23/2019 3:17:55 AM (No. 104534)
Have you seen all those skinny vegan Indians? They could use a little more protein in their diet. It's not like they have cows walking the streets. They do? oh, oh.
14 people like this.
In some ways that's funny unless it's you. I am allergic to a very common ingredient in any form. It's pretty ugly so I always asking if the chef used it. They may respond "No" because they didn't put it in but it might be in a tomato sauce or stock.
A vegan should notice the taste difference right away.
7 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
anniebc 6/23/2019 7:14:01 AM (No. 104601)
My grandmother was known to be one of the best cooks in the small town where I grew up. People paid money for her cakes, pies, fried chicken, chicken salad, and apple jacks. She used box mixes for her cakes and added her own special stuff to make her cakes taste magical. She also used store bought pie crusts and canned biscuits for her apple jacks. She used lard/Crisco to fry her chicken and store bought mayo for her chicken salad. I write all this to ask, so what? The man uses flavoring made by someone else. Do they think he grows his own goats and chicken? If vegetarians want to "eat pure" vegetables, they should stick to raw or something. Or make their own food at home. Veggies are good, but come on, man! A lawsuit?!
22 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Donna M 6/23/2019 7:20:50 AM (No. 104606)
#10 is right, many of these cubes and flavoring mixes have MSG or sulfites in them. Some of us have to be careful with other common ingredients lest we wind up with migraines or allergic reactions. Take a look at what is in them and you might be unpleasantly surprised or even appalled.
10 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Nevadadad46 6/23/2019 7:43:48 AM (No. 104613)
Of course, this hilarious event brings out the militant and very "Oh-so-superior" vegans to lambaste us meat-eaters about this dishonest Indian (Hindi kind) for his rude con on all those superior humans who supposedly reject all things to do with exploitation of animal protein. What a golden opportunity for them to exercise their perpetually buffed virtue signaling urges. To think someone would cheat the filthy rich in their exclusive dining establishments. Come to find out, reality bites them the same as everyone else. Chef KK is just another exploiting dude making a living even thought he has been artificially raised to near "God" level hash slinger.
6 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
jorgecito 6/23/2019 7:56:37 AM (No. 104617)
#2, thanks for reminding me of my Swedish grandma, who used lard to make the lightest, flakiest pie crust ever!
Though I'm Christian, I stay away from pork products as much as possible, just because pigs seem to be such intelligent animals and I hate the thought of killing them. I'd just as soon use whale blubber.
But there's nothing so good as the memory of Grandma's pie crust ... that she made, lovingly, with lard.
7 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Sam1 6/23/2019 8:40:32 AM (No. 104654)
Kudos to all the great Lucianne cooks... enjoyed reading the Thanksgiving recipe thread in the past altho never tried any of the recipes... we're not cooks.
We have a kitchen because it came with the house.. we store the fridge and microwave there.
15 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
clayusmcret 6/23/2019 8:41:15 AM (No. 104656)
Anyone with half a brain should have realized his vegetarian and vegan meals tasted good because they had meat or meat stock in them.
8 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 6/23/2019 8:41:59 AM (No. 104657)
Dear Poster #1, that was a neat trick reading my mind and the exact wording.
2 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 6/23/2019 8:47:55 AM (No. 104667)
This is a Must Read?
4 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
earlybird 6/23/2019 9:27:53 AM (No. 104697)
Re #11, Knorr has made tomato bouillion products for years. When I was in Mexico in the late 60s, I bought a jar of powdered Knorr tomato bouillion. It was a staple there...
1 person likes this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
red1066 6/23/2019 10:00:10 AM (No. 104728)
OH THE HORROR!!
2 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Skeptical1 6/23/2019 10:44:07 AM (No. 104761)
Some of the staff were upset because the restaurant was representing its product as vegetarian, when it wasn't. I don't think this is just moral preening. It seems more like basic integrity. If the chef was too lazy to keep his vegetarian dishes vegetarian, then he shouldn't have sold them as vegetarian. Personally, I don't care about vegetarian, or organic, or any of these trendy virtues. But if I were a waiter in that establishment, serving people who did care, I would not want to be complicit with a chef who casually deceived them.
9 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
darnright 6/23/2019 11:19:57 AM (No. 104798)
22 is abundantly correct. I'm sure his food is great the way it is prepared. Just stop telling the vegan tribe that it is meat free. Why would he do that?
7 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
LadyHen 6/23/2019 11:42:35 AM (No. 104811)
The real reason for the uproar fta: "He also raised concerns that the secret use of the Knorr cubes meant that the dishes would not be suitable for strict Muslims because the stock was not halal."
Not Ha!al. There you go.
I too use Knorr products. The stock gel tubs are particular!y good.
6 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
DynomiteThings 6/23/2019 12:07:19 PM (No. 104828)
I am a professional chef and think this is a question of integrity and honesty. It's true that some people really do have allergies that can be life-threatening and if the chef is not honest about what ingredients he or she is using, the result can be devastating. I'm not into being vegetarian, vegan, etc. but I respect my customers who are. After all, they are paying their hard-earned money in my establishment, placing their trust in me to serve them honestly. This is very dangerous.
7 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
Corndoggies 6/23/2019 12:37:51 PM (No. 104852)
#6, try and find Alton Browns series “Feasting on Asphalt”. He rides his motorcycle all over stopping at out of the way restaurants. It’s from 2008. It’s very entertaining.
0 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
Chuzzles 6/23/2019 1:57:51 PM (No. 104902)
All cooks and chefs have secrets, so I have no problem with his using a store bought stock base product. However, if he is slipping meat into the vegan meals, then we have a big problem. What I find amusing is the vegans could not tell the difference, that there was meat in their vegan curries. That is funny.
6 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
jschiraldi 6/23/2019 4:22:06 PM (No. 104993)
Wuz it organic
0 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
MuncsSister 6/23/2019 5:14:43 PM (No. 105023)
Thanks #25. I used to roll my eyes at stuff like this. But then, I became one of the weirdos with insane food requirements due to a serious health issue. Going out is an ordeal and it requires researching menus, calling ahead, and also discussing allergies with waiters. So yeah, having someone lie about ingredients in an expensive restaurant is a big deal to people who are trying to achieve some normalcy in activities other people take for granted, like going to a restaurant.
3 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
thewarden 6/23/2019 7:23:37 PM (No. 105080)
I make an insane white cheese (‘queso blanco’) dip that is a staple at a San Diego Mexican restaurant called Miguel’s Cocina. They give out the recipe. Look for it on Pinterest—you will love it! Anyway, I use Knorr chicken base in it. I do believe restaurants should be honest with ingredients. Food allergies are no joke. And if you wish to avoid any ingredient for whatever reason, that’s fine too.
2 people like this.
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Comments:
Too funny....I have used these for years!