Saransh Goila in Hyderabad
| Photo Credit: Prabalika M Borah
Saransh Goila the man behind Goila Butter Chicken loves to say ‘goodbye sweet butter chicken’ when he is asked to describe his chicken curry. He might be making people lick their fingers with his butter chicken but reveals his family is vegetarian and he took his family’s approval before finalising the gravy recipe. Saransh who hails from Delhi says coming from the butter chicken capital (Delhi has some of the most popular butter chicken outlets) getting the basics about the gravy wasn’t the biggest hurdle. “The biggest hurdle was to alter that taste, still be called butter chicken and be able to make food lovers accept it.”
Saransh became popular as India’s ‘butter chicken guy’ when the #goilabutterchicken became viral after he showed off his skill as a part of Masterchef Australia in 2018. He says his friends were responsible for creating the #goilabutterchicken that trended on Twitter during the same time. He couldn’t think of any other name when he decided to set up the cloud kitchen.
Saransh had his butter chicken recipe ready while he was in college. He says he wanted to make the ‘concentrate robust and gravy, a bouquet of spices.’
When he moved to Mumbai in 2012 to work with Sanjeev Kapoor on the Food Food channel show as a trained chef (IIHM Aurangabad) he says he couldn’t have asked for a better platform to get noticed. He also worked at the Leela previously. “I was on the Food Food show, people started recognising me in the streets and for a 24-year-old me, it was a thrilling experience. I was at the right place at the right time and I will always be grateful for the time at the show. This is when I started wanting to connect with people over food. I had already fixed my basic recipe but I wanted people (apart from my family) to try it.” This led to him launching Goila Butter Chicken in 2016 as a cloud kitchen in Mumbai.
Saransh Goila
When he started pop-ups at his home in 2012 the concept had to be explained to people who were not aware of it. Saransh decided to take that chance and was happy with the turnout. “It worked and it was the best place to connect with people, over food, getting feedback and learning. Everyone who tasted my butter chicken was kind to it. The one major change I made in my gravy is I reduced the dairy. Added cashew paste and altered the classic recipe (classroom method) tomato-dairy ratio of 60-40 to 80-20. To this I infused smoke, limited the use of butter, and shied away from artificial colour,” he explained.
As someone in the food business, Saransh says he welcomes criticism and is open to feedback because the idea is to make people happy with the food and not disappoint.
