Chef Vikas Khanna defends Gauri Khan’s restaurant amid 'Fake Paneer' claims

Chef Vikas Khanna defends Torii restaurant, Torii, after a YouTuber accused it of serving ‘fake paneer.’
Khanna tagged the restaurant and Sachdeva, who had made the allegations.
The restaurant clarified that the iodine test reflects the presence of starch, not the authenticity of the paneer.

Gauri Khan, wife of Shah Rukh Khan, owns the luxurious restaurant Torii in Mumbai, which recently made headlines after a YouTuber accused it of serving ‘fake paneer.’ Now, Chef Vikas Khanna has defended the restaurant, expressing concern over how unqualified individuals are often trusted.

On April 18, 2025, Chef Vikas Khanna defended Gauri Khan’s restaurant Torii through his Instagram Stories after a YouTuber questioned the quality of their paneer. He wrote that, in his decades of experience working with the science of food, he had never seen such terrible misinformation as that shared by the YouTuber claiming to be a food scientist.

Chef Vikas continued, “IODINE changes color with reaction under presence of ingredients: Potatoes, Rice, Bread, Cornstarch, Flour, Unripe bananas. The use of these ingredients (thus reaction) could also happen in cross-contamination. It’s scary that unqualified people are taken seriously.”

He also tagged the restaurant Torii and the YouTuber Sarthak Sachdeva, who had made the allegations.

Have a look at Vikas Khanna’s story!

Earlier, influencer Sarthak Sachdeva shared a video on Instagram, visiting several celebrity-owned restaurants, including Virat Kohli’s One8 Commune, Shilpa Shetty’s Bastian, and Bobby Deol’s Someplace Else. He conducted an iodine tincture test on the paneer served at each location. At Gauri Khan’s restaurant, the paneer turned black and blue during the test, indicating the presence of starch.

Reacting to this, Sarthak stated, “Shah Rukh Khan ke restaurant mein paneer nakli tha. Ye dekh ke mere toh hosh udd gaye the (Shah Rukh Khan’s restaurant served fake paneer. I was shocked to see this).”

The video quickly went viral on the internet, prompting a response from the official Instagram handle of the restaurant Torii. Addressing the situation, the restaurant clarified that the iodine test reflects the presence of starch, not the authenticity of the paneer. They explained that the dish contains soy-based ingredients, which naturally trigger this reaction, and reaffirmed their commitment to the purity of their paneer and the integrity of their ingredients at Torii.