When we first heard of the truffle biryani, we pictured a risotto-looking re-imagination of the dish that would be slightly bland and exorbitantly priced. After all, through all the passionate arguments we’ve witnessed about the biryani having originated in the Mughal courts, in Persia or even tales of how it travelled to Lucknow, Hyderabad or Kolkata, and how it gained and dropped a few ingredients, we didn’t quite imagine any sort of a European interlude.

Well, there wasn’t one until recently, when Mumbai-based Charcoal Eats launched a truffle biryani as part of their sixth anniversary celebrations that commence today. “I had worked extensively with truffles in my stint with Two One Two - Bar & Grill in Worli. This was in 2011-12 during which time, we were the only ones importing truffle and using it fresh, as part of the Italian menu, to make extravagant pasta, pizzas, and duck liver. However, in the last few years, I’ve focused more on Indian food, and when we were thinking of unique ways to approach the traditional biryani, I thought, why not experiment with truffle as a flavour, so we used mushrooms and truffle oil,”  says chef Mikhail Shahani, head of product development at Charcoal Eats.