- When we first moved here, and we started
to look for good Indian food, we noticed
that compared to a city like Toronto,
the presence of Indian culture is very bleak.
And so we thought we'd offer Los Angeles something
that they wouldn't be intimidated by,
and we wanted to make Indian food approachable,
not something that you're gonna have at, like, a $6.99 buffet.
Our father has been cooking for over 45 years,
so we grew up in a chef's home,
and surprise: we're Indian, (snorts) so there's that.
I guess Badmaash is just, you know,
a big mashup and ode to our upbringing
as Indo-Americans, or Indo-Canadians.
- My dad loved what he did, I saw my brother love
what he did, Nakul was given an opportunity
to start an Indian restaurant company
by another gentleman in Toronto,
my dad was like, yo, why don't we just do it together?
And then I came on board, and it's been great.
It's fun working with my dad, he's almost
just as wild as we are, (chuckles) so...
When designing the menu, we kinda chose the dishes
that we love, street food items,
our traditional items, our items that we choose
to cook in the tandoor, and Nakul
and my dad came up with the lamb burger idea,
so we're kinda doin' what we want.
Some people are like, oh, is your food like this,
or is it like that, it's like, nah, it's like,
just the way it's supposed to be, like,
the way you would eat it at my house or your house.
We grew up in the streets of Toronto, like,
partying, and 2:00, 3:00 am when you're drunk,
I mean, the only thing you wanna eat is a poutine.
We, like, threw that on the menu.
And we threw a little bit of our Indian bread on it
with the Chicken Tikka Poutine.
Little dash of Indian. (chuckles)
- Yeah. - Just a dash. (chuckles)
So, the French fries are extra crispy,
we add a little fry spice mix we make in-house.
Real cheese curds, not no fake stuff we see around here.
Hot, piping brown gravy, beef brown gravy.
Then we put some of our Chicken Tikka on top,
and garnish it with cilantro, and that's it.
And it's been a home run ever since.
I'm getting a poutine tattoo tonight.
- I'm getting a poutine tattoo tonight.
- 100% I'm getting a poutine tattoo.
- I wanna get poutine teardrops.
- Nah. - Gravy teardrops.
- See, now you're lying.
Poutine, for life.
Nakuls' birthday is on April 9th,
I'm on April 6th, and we'd always say,
Dad, you gotta cook us dinner, you know, it's our birthday,
and one year he made mussels when we were kids,
and it just came to a point where Dad was makin'
a bigger, bigger, bigger pot of mussels.
- Two things that every birthday of ours would have
Were street hockey, and then the Coconut Curry Mussels.
- Oh yeah. - Yeah.
We start with black Carlsbad mussels,
a little onion, masala, and then we deglaze with white wine,
and steam up the mussels from there.
Finish with a coconut milk, and a little bit
of salt and lime, to just bring the flavors
together and give it a little pop.
And it plates up real beautiful, real nice,
and although the mussels are plump and juicy,
and have that beautiful flavor,
it's really that broth that, you know,
you wanna lift the bowl and just drink.
With the Papri Chaat, classic street food from India.
- It's something we would eat as soon as we got
to India, like, still now, we crave it.
- [Nakul] It's really the bite that has everything in it,
and it just gives you that boost of energy.
- Yeah, so it's a chip, and they basically put
chickpeas and potatoes on top of it.
And then they're gonna put some mint, cilantro, chutney,
which is a green chutney, some sweet yogurt,
some tamarind chutney, probably put
some roasted cumin on it, a little love on it.
Some cilantro, and sometimes they put some sage as well.
It's a wild bite.
I think the point of being Badmaash,
or Bod-mosh, or Bad-mash, is that you say it
however the you wanna say it.
It definitely translates to, like, rascal, or troublemaker.
We translate it as badass, that's us.
- In a food sense, we're definitely first movers.
Not doing fusion, or not doing whatever genres
of Indian cuisine that have been coming out
in the last 10 years, but we've literally done
Badmaash as an Indian restaurant from our perspective.
Not from the older generation's perspective,
that grew up in India, but for the generation
of South Asians that grew up listening to Biggie and Tupac,
watching Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,
and then getting yelled at because, you know,
they're not good Indian boys and girls,
and they've gotta do their math homework,
and eat dinner and bow and roti, and make sure
they know their anar, all that stuff.
[Chuckles]