Ice Cream Sandwiches & Tikka Naan: Chef's Night Out with the Badmaash Brothers

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Yo, that's fucked up.
You didn't even hit me back, man.
>> I hit you up, you're really like,
I'm in the Valley.
>> I- >> I'm not gonna
fucking text you after that.
>> Why not? Yeah, I had to go to
the Valley.
>> Chinatown is the Valley for us.
[LAUGH] It's too far.
>> Chinatown is two blocks from your spot.
[LAUGH] That's fucked up. >> Chinatown is
two blocks away.
[MUSIC]
>> I'm Nakul Mahendro.
>> I'm Arjun Mahendro.
>> And, we own Badmaash in downtown LA.
[MUSIC]
So, we're both born and raised in Toronto.
At a very early age, we were exposed to
our father being an amazing chef and
doing all these great things with food.
And then also, just the mix and match of
cultures in Toronto is absolutely amazing.
It really allowed us to
have a very wide ranging palette, and
understanding of different cultures of
foods, and flavors from all over the world.
>> Our father is a trained French and
Italian chef.
About 15 years ago,
he opened up an Indian restaurant in Toronto.
When he got rid of that,
we moved to Los Angeles and
we thought, let's open up something that's cool,
approachable, but still stuck to it's roots.
So, we said we'll take care of the restaurant,
you just help us out with the food.
[MUSIC]
>> Badmaash means, pretty much bad ass in Hindi.
We've just wanted to create a really great
restaurant that served really good Indian food.
And, we felt like LA was really lacking that.
We try to bring flavors from all over Indians and
celebrate them.
We are Punjabi, so
there's more of a Punjabi influence on our menu.
>> Punjabi food is more fun, let's be honest.
>> [LAUGH]
>> Come on, buttered chicken.
>> Chicken tikka masala.
>> [FOREIGN] like chicken masala, [FOREIGN].
You want Punjabi food.
I'm, I'm really sorry.
>> Samosas.
The best part about being in the kitchen is
mixing all of this together.
We also bring a little bit of
our French culinary background.
A little bit of our Canadian in there.
Our Chicken Tikka Poutine is the best mash up.
It's a celebration of our Indian and
our Canadian background on one plate.
>> And, we wanted to have fun, as well.
Like, when we first started,
we had a dish called Holy Cow Keema Pow.
And, it was just like for the one's who eat beef,
why can't we have amazing dishes?
And, everyone says, what Indian people eat beef?
>> And then they'd go, what you're Indian?
>> [LAUGH]. >> And,
you'd be like yeah, but your not [SOUND].
>> I'm now doing the butter chicken.
We start off with a little bit of
sauce in here.
There is definitely, a special twist to it.
>> Butter chicken is considered like,
oh, yes, it's just buttered chicken and
rice, you know, the usual.
But, that chicken marinades for
48 hours, we cook it in the tandoor, we char it,
we let it rest.
Essentially, it takes two days to get to the table.
>> Yummy!
>> Working together as family has its
ups and downs.
>> I think it's pretty cool though,
we all know our position.
There's no dad or brother at work.
>> Yeah. >> It's like you
gotta get your piece of the pie done.
>> As a chef, our dad is extremely strict.
>> Right. >> And, unforgiving.
If it's not perfect, why are you even here?
>> Okay. Enough? >> He's telling me
it's more than enough.
>> [COUGH] >> I don't think so.
>> It looks amazing now.
>> Order up.
>> And that's it.
>> [LAUGH].
>> It's the best.
I wouldn't have had it any other way.
>> He's the number one chef.
He's our father.
>> [LAUGH] Oh, my God.
>> [LAUGH].
>> Anything else?
>> You gonna come out with and party, or what?
>> [LAUGH].
>> [LAUGH].
>> We decided to hook up with Lele from Sugarfish.
>> We've been the biggest fans of
Sugarfish ever since the grand opening of
their Downtown location.
We went the first day.
And then, one day there's some guy some
you never expect there's a some Italian guy with
a thick Italian accent and a baseball cap on.
He was introduced to us after his meal,
as the owner of Sugarfish, and
we're like, what?
>> What? [LAUGH].
>> We also had Alvin Cailan of Eggslut.
>> Yeah, he's wild man.
>> He's wild.
We, we met Alvin I guess when he was building
out his location here at Grand Central Market
in Downtown.
He would eat at Badmaash few, few nights a week
and that's kinda how we got to know each other.
>> And then, we also brought Ryan with us,
who works in the kitchen, cool dude, solid guy,
hard worker.
>> Are you guys ready to get the hell out of here?
>> Yeah. >> All right, let's
do this. Let's do dinner.
Bottoms up.
We're going for dinner.
We're going to Alma, our friend Ari Tamer's spot.
He's doing an amazing thing for Downtown, and
LA, and you know,
he, I think he represents a young guy, who knows
what he's doing, and he's really striving for it.
And, I'm, I'm starving.
You guys are hungry?
>> Yeah. >> Hell, yeah.
>> Yeah, okay, perfect.
[MUSIC]
>> [LAUGH].
>> My name's Ari Taymor.
I'm the chef and one of the owners at Alma,
and we do Californian food, everything's from
the markets, and we do a tasting menu every night.
Downtown LA is it's really busy.
It's really vibrant, really diverse.
There's tons of different types of cuisine, and
it's, it's a lot of fun to be down here.
[MUSIC]
>> These are Shigoku Oysters.
>> Oh, my god.
>> I love this on top.
It was just like, it blew our socks off.
Really, like, such small, tiny little bites, and
such amplified flavors.
>> I'm gonna ignore you now.
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH]
>> The Wagyu
Ribeye Tartare, honestly, it didn't need
anything else.
>> Lele was like what is this?
I need to know everything.
>> What is in this?
>> He called the server over.
He goes, find out where you get this meat from.
>> Yeah. >> It's grass fed
beef garnished with sunchoke chips,
a little bit of dill.
This is a sauce made from oyster and
a little more dill.
We like to use meat kind of, as a seasoning, and
so it's really just early in the menu,
not very heavy.
It's perfect.
>> So, I think what chef Ari really wanted to do
there was show his diners what really good meat is.
So, he's like, here's the best meat possible.
You're welcome.
>> It's good with the wine.
>> It's good.
>> That tartar dish was, it's like neck in
neck for first, with the next course.
>> This is a slow cooked egg yolk.
They're really nice farm eggs from the market.
Finished it with some puffed amaranth and
these are chives.
It's a really fun play on textures.
The yolk kind of has the,
like the mouth feel of a fudge.
It's this really rich flavored soup that
almost has no dairy in it.
And it's, sunchokes are one of
my favorite vegetable so.
>> I feel like everybody fucks up soup man,
but they fucking nail it.
>> Almost kind of our place to go,
when we have a nice evening to kinda relax,
when we're not in a rush is kinda to enjoy a great
meal, great service.
So, that's kind of our like, our zen place.
>> I mean, this chicken was really good.
>> The carrots were better.
>> The carrots were great, but
in my opinion the egg in the tartar, number one.
>> Yeah. >> The vinia, number two.
Then, the rest, but everything good.
>> I actually got like inspiration from that.
That's how you know, you're, you're fucking
with a real good chef, is when you are inspired to
go back in your kitchen and do something amazing.
>> [LAUGH] [CROSSTALK].
>> [LAUGH] I love you.
>> I love you too.
>> All right, let's bounce man,
lets go to Horse Thief.
>> Well, we're headed to Horse Thief.
It's like on the back end of Grand Central Market.
It is a really good barbecue joint.
>> Texas barbecue.
>> They're from Texas.
They do Texas barbecue the real way.
They use all free-range, organic meats.
And we love it.
>> That center cut brisket is
like meat butter.
Honestly, I'm gonna put this out there.
It's the best patio in downtown LA.
Whenever we go to Grand Central Market,
we're always bound to bump into someone we
know, especially since we know, like, a lot of
the chefs and purveyors and vendors there.
>> Cheers. >> Cheers gentlemen.
>> Cheers guys.
>> Thank you for having us.
>> Bang, bang.
>> Bang.
[MUSIC]
You got barbecue, you got beer, and then you have-
>> You're staring- >> This.
You're staring at this right over here.
This is what it's about, this brisket.
The center cut, you see all the fat.
You see that smoke ring?
>> This is Texas barbecue and
this is what it's about.
>> They focus on
what they're suppose to focus on.
Everything is top shelf, top quality.
I can eat that brisket every single day for
every single meal, it's awesome.
>> And, how long do you smoke this for?
Brisket?
>> About an hour and a half per pound.
>> Oh, yeah?
>> So, 15 plus.
[MUSIC]
>> You know, don't put your fingers all over it.
Come on!
Yeah, you're getting the best piece.
What are you doing?
>> You're too late.
You guys complain and now you don't get nothing.
>> Hey, you guys, get the fuck out of here!
Yeah. >> I am so good and
let's just go home to bed and Arjun was like,
we're going to Wolf and Crane.
And so, I was like, you know what?
Fuck it. We're going to Wolf and
Crane [LAUGH].
Growing up, so we had this what was it?
1982. >> Chrysler.
[CROSSTALK] Chrysler, Chrysler Caravan.
It was like the first fucking caravan invented.
>> The Oswald shit. >> The worst car ever.
>> Yo, it was so old and rusty.
This one time, I got pissed off at Arjun.
He was sitting on back I, I close the door shut,
and the door slid, it went [SOUND] closed.
And then, it [SOUND].
>> And, it fell off.
>> And, it fell off of the fucking van.
[MUSIC]
Wolf and
Crane is a really cool Japanese-American bar.
The thing I really like is you
get an artisan cocktail, but they serve it fast.
>> Yeah. >> Oh.
>> Cheers, cheers,
cheers. >> Cheers, buddy.
>> Cheers, man.
>> I was like,
all right, enough of the kid stuff.
Let's get this party started.
By my fourth shot of whiskey,
it just kind of felt like I was shooting.
It was like tasty.
This was like a Cosmopolitan.
>> She did it.
>> I did not. >> She hit the table.
All right, it was my knee I think.
>> Yeah, we are driving to our
restaurant which is walking distance.
>> We never drive.
>> We never walk.
>> We never drive, we never walk.
We just take Uber.
>> We just go.
>> Somehow, we just levitate
to the restaurant.
>> We just go. >> Yeah.
We just end up there.
[MUSIC]
[APPLAUSE] So, we already had this beautiful meal,
then we had barbecue, then we had all these
drinks and we're kinda just like, drunk food!
[LAUGH] Got some drinks down,
Ryan let's cook something.
>> Every time we have a party here, our wine rep
knows because we just, we like champagne.
>> Everybody, cheers.
>> Come on.
>> And we're just gonna do
some lamb burgers right now.
But, we're not gonna do them the way that we
do them for the guests.
We're gonna do them the way that we need to do
them for right now, cuz we've had a few drinks.
This is why we go out and get drunk.
So, we're going straight up poutine,
Montreal style.
The ladle and
the pot, the double dragon, right here.
We're gonna start this family style.
This is actually like a play on our,
on our poutine.
You wanna do some butter chicken sauce on it?
Just fuck shit up?
I'm doing something that we said we
would never do.
Now, normally, you would have,
you would have chicken tikka,
if you were in Punjab you would have chicken tikka.
Like, after going out drinking, fuck it,
Johnny Walker Black and Scotch.
You go to a [FOREIGN],
which is like a roadside fucking cafe,
which is just a tandoor and
a few Indian guys, and you have Chicken Tikka.
In Toronto, where we were from, we'd go in and
we'd have a fucking poutine.
So, I got Toronto on the bottom and
I'm putting India on the top.
So, I got my chicken down.
I'm just getting my sauce going and
we're gonna do this.
It only happens for you guys.
>> [SOUND] You grab a fork and you go for it.
>> Whoo.
>> It was really tasty.
And, that cheese was all melty and the chicken was
so soft, and the fries were so crispy.
And, the flavor of butter chicken sauce and
it was awesome.
>> I am making a special dish.
>> It's a surprise.
>> It is a surprise.
>> Ryan, he decided to do some pizzas,
some naan pizzas.
And, this is something that, you know,
chef has done before.
Ryan's kind of seen him do it.
I mean, loaded it up with chicken tikka and
green peppers-
>> With the tomato chutney.
>> Red peppers, tomato chutney as a sauce,
all on naan dough.
And, it was beautifully soft in the middle and
super crisp on the outside.
It was perfect.
We had our friends from Grand Central Market,
followed us.
We met some people at Wolf and Crane.
They also came by.
We had Russell and Wade there from Horse Thief.
Parle-G is like the fucking cookie in India.
This is like,
if you are in India, you fuck with this cookie.
And, my brother and
I, we first fell in love with this cuz the girl on
the front, she's kinda just going like this.
And we were like, oh, what is she doing?
She's throwing up gang signs!
She's fucking, it's Bloods and
Cripps over here!
So, that's what we're
working with right now, and just to have some fun
we're gonna throw some ice cream.
We balled this up a little earlier.
We made little ice cream balls over here.
We're, we're just gonna do some,
Parle-G ice cream sandwiches.
[MUSIC]
You wanna do it like this, you wanna hold it,
and you wanna bite it fast, so it.
It's the crunch like this.
>> If we were supposed to have an amazing time and
be with amazing people then last night
was an awesome success.
We really had a lot of fun.
We don't normally get to go out and
have a good time.
We're normally the ones throwing the party which
is a good time for us but it was really great to
go and have some drinks and have some bites.
>> Fuck, yes.
Everything is awesome.
Now, get the fuck out!
[LAUGH] [NOISE]