‘There’s no such thing as a veg biryani!’ M&S faces calls to pull its new vegan biryani wrap amid fury the traditional Indian dish is ‘supposed to be served with meat’ (and they spelt it wrong too)
- Marks and Spencer has been accused of cultural appropriation by a top chef
- Maunika Gowardhan tweeted a photo of the wrap, which is labelled as ‘biriyani’
- Critics pointed to the exclusion of meat and using sweet potato as a ingredient
- Top restaurant Darjeeling Express called for M&S to ‘rethink’ the ‘exotic’ wrap
Marks and Spencer has been accused of cultural appropriation by a top chef over a new vegan biryani wrap which includes no meat.
Critics slammed the British high street giant for taking meat out of the recipe and replacing it with sweet potato, as well as adding rice and lettuce inside the wrap.
The popular curry all-in-one dish is traditionally made with a mixture of a meat such as chicken or mutton with rice and spices.
Customers have now called for the £2.80 vegan wrap – which many pointed had been labelled incorrectly as ‘biriyani’ and not ‘biryani’ – to be taken off the shelves.
Marks and Spencer has been accused of cultural appropriation by a top chef over a new vegan biryani wrap which includes no meat
Top restaurant Darjeeling Express accused the retailer of failing to research the product properly
Maunika Gowardhan, author of Indian Kitchen, tweeted a photo of the wrap which is part of the retailers Plant Kitchen line.
On Twitter, she wrote: ‘Thanks but I like my Biryani with rice in a bowl not a wrap. Seriously M&S!?’
In comments underneath, she added: ‘Just to put it in perspective, in India firstly there is no such thing as a veg Biryani.
‘Most places will serve mutton or chicken or even fish.’
‘It’s wrong on many levels when people will assume this is what a Biryani looks like!’
And top restaurant Darjeeling Express accused the retailer of failing to research the product properly.
The Soho haunt is ran by chef Asma Khan, who is the first British chef to be featured in Netflix hit Chef’s Table.
Maunika Gowardhan, author of Indian Kitchen, tweeted a photo of the wrap which is part of the retailers Plant Kitchen line
Critics slammed the British high street giant for taking meat out of the recipe and replacing it with sweet potato, as well as adding lettuce inside the wrap
It opened in 2016 with an all women-workforce and amateur chefs turned professional in the kitchen.
On Twitter, the restaurant said: ‘This is so wrong at so many levels – who are you paying to design your wraps Marks and Spencer?
‘You seriously need to rethink your “exotic” wrap selection.
‘That is not Biryani -you do not appropriate names from a cuisine without even bothering to do any research on that dish.’
Ashley John Ó Gallchobhair added: ‘Biryani – how is this a biryani?
‘How have @marksandspencer managed not only to mess up the spelling, but make a biryani without rice and meat?
‘IT NEEDS MEAT! Just because you put a sauce in it that maybe tastes like a ‘generic curry’, doesn’t mean you can call it what you like!’
An M&S spokeswoman said: ‘M&S is famous for its food innovation and our developers use a fusion of different flavours and ingredients to create an exciting range of products to appeal to customers’ tastes.’
Customers have now called for the £2.80 vegan wrap – spelt ‘biriyani’ by M&S – to be taken off the shelves