nakul mahendro: it never made sense to me that, like, you walk into this restaurant, everything is super formal, and then you go and you sit down and you're, like, oh, i'll have the 10.99 buffet. okay. 10.9buffetyou know. so we were just like, you know, let's just scrap everything. let's start fresh. like, what do we want our restaurant to look like? arjun mahendro: we want to change the perction of indian culture in america. so how do we push this needle forward and how do we grow? nakul: we're going to serve, like, the most bomb traditional

indian food. we're also going to serve really, really, really thoughtful american food with indian flavor. and we're going to play notorious b.i.g. kunal nayyer: i loved the energy. it was vibrant, loud and colorful and real. it felt very authentic, you know? aarti sequelra: it made me feel proud. here are people who understand where i'm coming from. kunal: that's why i fell in love with it, because it actually felt like home. arjun: we're showing what indian food should be, and we're breaking out of every box you told us to be in. nakul: bollywood, butter chicken, and biggie smalls.

pawan mahendro: i grew up in amritsar, punjab in northwest india. my dad was always at work. we hardly saw him when we were growing up because he was always busy. my mom was in charge of cooking food for the whole large family, like 14 people, you know? so from cuisine point of view, i think she played a very important role in my life.

anu mahendro: pawan is very persistent, very focused, and he's very dedicated, you know? i knew this man would make himself, and i found that really--as a very strong characteristic in a man. [singing in hindi]

pawan: i was in bombay, and i think i met her and i gravitated towards her. she was full of life, intelligent, very bubbly, very attractive. anu: he could have been handed everything really easily. if a man can give up all that and make his own identity, that takes a lot of strength. arjun: he came from a very affluent family. you can call it what you want, but he wouldn't ask his fathe or anyone he knew for money. pawan: in 1982, i came to canada for training purposes. it is a big tower. and my wife arrived in canada i think six months after. anu: coming to toronto was because i loved a man

i couldn't do without, so i followed him. then nakul came and arjun came. pawan: both the children, they were very unique in their own ways. nakul was into books, doing puzzles, into drawings. arjun was like a gerbil. it was very hard for us to stop him. anu: my mother was grooming me to be a housewife. make it work. whatever situation you are in, you figure out a way. don't complain don't come back to me. those teachings have been the backbone of my journey. you just make it work. peter jennings: president bush picked an appropriately symbolic setting today to sign the north american free trade agreement between the u.s., mexico, and canada. pawan: nafta really kicked in, and canadian citizens were allowed to travel frely to th u.s. and own businesses without

getting any special visas. the first opportunity which came by, i just seized it, and that's how i ended up having a restaurant in new york state. and i moved to new york. my wife never wanted to move without a proper green card. and i applied for a green card, going back in 1995. and i would travel back to toronto every second weekend or third weekend, depending on what was happening in the restaurant. anu: so he had to stay away for quite a bit. nakul: i remember him coming home at, like, 1 a.m. and i would wake up and i could hear them and i could see the light from the kitchen. pawan: why do you have to go away? why is it not you can find something to do here in toronto? why do you have to go so far? anu: it was very, very tough

emotionally. i was always unsure if i was doing the right thing with the boys because they were boys. nakul: our movie will be starting shortly. arjun: i want to tell my secret now. nakul: okay, go ahead. what's your secret? arjun: i see shadows. anu: it made me aware of who really i am. i am strong person, i can handle it, and i can make it work. nakul: she was working, trying to provivide for us, trying to give us the best. arjun: she worked three jobs and then she would have to come home and then deal with me an nakul. you talking to me? if i think about it sometimes, i, like, cry at, like, how amazing my mom was. nakul: we were skating. we were in art classes. we were playing volleyball. we were doing everything that brown kids didn't do.

arjun: nakul, you want this? nakul: yep. arjun: beautiful champagne. pawan: come on, arjun. [pounds table] i returned to toronto. i was absent from 1992 to '96 actually. i started working in so restrants here and there, ut, you know, th bug, the restaurant bug never leaves you. it's in your blood, it gets into your body, and it just doesn't leave you. nakul: what's your new year's resolution? pawan: my new year's resolution? i shold be in my own business within the next 60 days, god willing. nakul: uh-huh. pawan: and i need to be very busy, do a lot of work, and i think that's what the resolution is. arjun: dad, could i eat something? pawan: what do you want to eat? arjun: what do you have? pawan: you can eat whatever you want that's on the menu. arjun: okay, well... pawan: nakul? nakul? nakul: what will you have? arjun: mashed potatoes and gravy. pawan: i always wanted my sons

to be what they want to be, with one exception. nobody's going to be in hospitality in my family. anu: when he was younger, he would pretend to be, you know, his father and he would enact how his dad behaves. nakul: dad's in new york and mom's working three jobs, so we'd play, like, restaurant. arjun: we had aged white cheddar mac and cheese, and it came in this black b. and we're, like, damn, that's, like, the ... nakul: take whatever green i could get from the fridge just to put a garnish on something. and then i'd toast the bread and cut them into triangles the way dad would do it when dad was around. arjun: he'd use, like, the wooden spoon and he would, like, serve it on the plate and, like, on the nice plates my mom had. she wasn't home. and, you know, he says until today, like, he never wanted us to be in this industry. pawan: you know, i said no. you're not going to be in this business. this is not for you. i'm never home.

i always come late. nakul: he has been able to provide for us. i mean, he's gone to war for us every single day. arjun: he went to bombay catering college. he worked with the dodge group. he worked in a royal thai restaurant. he worked in continental places, italian places, french places, so... nakul: he has an extremely strong palette and understanding of flavor, and he knows how to cook. within arjun and i, there's, like, this drive to have him pat our back and say, "you're doing a good job." but more importantly, i think we're pushing ourselves to be exactly like him. a lot of years went by,

and then, boom, it hits us in the mail: green cards. and so mom and dad devised a plan. after touring the south of the u.s., they were going to decide where they wanted to move. pawan: los angeles gave me that feeling as if i was back in bombay. also what i noticed was the opportunity that we'll have here in restaurants. nakul: and arjun and i were, like, ... l.a. like, it's snobby, snooty. arjun's staying in toronto. i'm moving to new york. my father's in l.a., and he's saying to me, why are you going to go move to new york and build someone else's dream? come to l.a. and let's build our own. i mean, that was it for me. i knew i was moving to l.a. this restaurant is now a lot busierhan it useto be.

would everyone agree with that? yeah. that's something to celebrate. i think, you guys being able to, you know, hold on, power through it, keep up with all oft, that's definitely something... there's a problem in america. our culture, our lineage is of kings and queens, but our food is considered just slop in a bucket? i've seen my father cook. that's what planted the seed. pawan: for nakul and arjun, i think it is their dream which i had to capture as a chef and bring that on a plate. aarti: in indian culture, your parents are always right. and so i love that their father is so open minded that he's willing to see their ideas as worthy of being on the same menu as his ideas. i just love that, and that's rare. arn: without him, like, none of this would be possible. and looking back on it,

for someone to give you so much free space, he trusted us a lot. nakul: he'll always be chef. he'll always be, you know, my chef. he'll always be arjun's chef. when we moved to l.a., we'd go out drinking. the only ing to eat at 2:00, 3:00 in the morning are tacos, and we were, like, i don't want a .... taco. i want a poutine. and so when we first started writing the menu, poutine was on the menu and it had stayed on that menu for, i don't know, a year and a half, two years. chef was one day, like, what's up with this poutine? why is this poutine here? we're lik oh, well, man, we just want to have a poutine. like, it'll be so cool. but let's figure out a way to, like, indian-ify it just so we can get away with it.

it was actually chef. he was kind of just, like, let's toss the fries in a little paprika masala. let's add a little indian oomph to the gravy and let's top it with tandoori chicken, with chicken tikka. we can, like, ma it on our menu. ha ha! and then we finally had it and we were, like, holy ... this is really tasty. i like this better than the classic fries, cheese and gravy. kunal: you know, i've always been trying to find the quintessential indian restaurant. many take the restaurant very seriously. white tablecloths, some bespoke indian sitar playing, you know? [imitates sitar] and you're sitting there and you're, like, just, you know, kill me. like, i can't do this. and because it doesn't feel real. it feels almost like a 1970s version of what-- that's what happens. people left in the seventies and they created these restaurants that was very-- they're very formal, you know? there's no fun.

i have a friend o lived downtown who said this great new indian restaurant has opened, so we got to go. and i remember i walked in and said, "this is it. i found it." i hadn't even tasted the food. fit of all, my favorite movie, "mr. india," was playing in black and white on the wall, and i'm like this is amazing. like, i felt like i was at a restaurant in new delhi. small things, like they use dark meat for their chicken tikka, which you don't do in america. everyone uses white meat, but you don't get the flavor. aarti: the first time that i went there, i ordered off, like, both sides of the menu, like, all the multiple personalities that are on that menu, where you got the traditional butter chicken, because i wanted to double check. like, can you make your classic indian restaurant fare, or are you just kind of phoning it in and then trying to distract me with this, like, cool chicken tikka poutine? and they nailed both ends. arjun: when we came to l.a., we were trying to find a butter

chicken anywhere. nobody would serve butter chicken or murgh makhani or whatever you want to call it. but they would always serve chicken tikka masala. chicken tikka masala is a british dish. it's the britisher's riff on butter chicken. they added serranos, they added peppers and onions to make it heartier and spicier so they could drink their ipas with. but the chicken tikka masala they serve is butter chicken. it doesn't have the serranos or the chilies or the peppers or the onions. we would always ask them in hindi, like, why are you serving this as tikka masala and not butter chicken? and they would say, oh... [speaking hindi]. which means, like, you know, white people only understand this dish. i mean, that's crazy, man. but that's why we're here. pawan: the traditional items are being done exactly the way they should be done. if they are not done the right way, we do not want them to be

on our menu. nakul: samosas are one of my favorite things here. samosas here! particularly because we do them the way that my father remembers them ne back in punjab. arjun: we make the short dough pastry. it's mixed with spices imported from india that have been roasted in house. put them through the roller, because we finally were able to afford a roller after year one. before it was by the hand. i mean, there's no mickey mouse job here. everything is done the exact same way. we fill it up with either diced potatoes, peas, the butter chicken samosa slow cooked in a clay oven, cooled down, diced up. we use mustard oilo do the sealings, not water. nakul: i think it's very important for us to know where we come from. but a lot of people confuse tradition with authenticity.

arjun: thanks, guys. nakul: tradition is just like the way things have been done, and we do them that way over and over and over again. and authenticity is, like, we do this because it's honest. we do this because it's real. it's real to me. kunal: they're trying to keep it innovative and smart, but they're not doing it for the sake of being innovative. there's a difference. they're actually making incredibly good food. aarti: what's authentic for one indian is not always authentic for another indian, and that's based on how old they are, where they're from, and where they're livingow, and honestly what they like. nakul: our spiced lamb burger, for instance, that is the most non-traditional burger you'll have, but it's hyper authentic. growing up just outside of toronto, my parents would throw barbecues and everyone

would come to our backyard. we'd have all of the kebabs and tandoori chicken. and i was nine years old, arjun was six, and it was, like, we're not eating indian food. we want a burger. being the indian family and the good hosts that we were, we weren't eating en everyone else was eating. we were serving. and so by the time arjun and i got to actually sit down and eat, all the burgers were gone. there were buns left, and i remember, like, our parents kind of just saying, like, don't worry, it's okay. here, just stick a lamb kebab in it. mustard, ketchup, lamb kebab. it's a burger. it's a burger. and then that started to become a thing, and so that spiced lamb burger i've been eating since i was, like, seven years old. when you see it as a guest, you're, like, ah, this is a fusion, and for me, it's, like, i've been eating this for decades. anu: i wonder when the payback is going to be.

kunal: yeah, i wonder. nakul: there's a lot of work for you now? anu: no, i don't want to do office stuff. arjun: so tchen stuff then. anu: yeah, i'll be in the kitchen. nakul: you want to run the commissary? anu: i want to host it. arjun: aaah! that's how this wine tastes. nakul: oh, let me taste it. arjun: what are the notes on this? aaah! [all laugh] pawan: you know, last evening when i saw their menu, he said, "this is our bar menu." okay. and then he turned it over, and he goes, "wine list." aha! so on the wine list... anu: i think he really enjoys being with the boys, you know? because as they were growing up, thereere times that he wasn't around and, you know, he was trying to build something for them and, you know, make-- you know, every father wants to do something for their child. but i think this is the time where he's kind of recapturing those moments with his children. pawan: this is going to take the longest time. anu: so i took nakul and arjun to sesame-hood, and he used to watch "sesame street" all the time.

pawan: when we were in new york. anu: and it was like so first ernie comes out, ernie and bert. and nakul goes, "ernie! ernie!" and he goes--little nakul, he can't even get his arms around ernie. and he's, like, holding one leg and he's crying. pawan: he's crying, "ernie, i love you." anu: "ernie, i love you." pawan: "ernie, i love you." anu: and i was, like, oh, my god. what's wrong with my son? he's creating such a scene. but i think-- nakul: by the way, guys, i was really young. i was only 17 years old at the time. pawan: i think i lost a very valuable time with both my sons when they were growing up. that is when they needed me the most. and spending time together at badmaash all in the same business today does give me

a lot of satisfaction. that is definitely like a payback. anu: i look at l.a. as a place that has given my family a relationship, a beautiful relationship that maybe if we were in toronto we would not have. not to say that the boys would not love his father and not love me or not-- but this beauty i see in the relationship between the three of them, teasing their dad, playing around with their dad. or when their dad is upset and he's giving them a lecture, you know, that relationship, that has come because they are all working together. nakul was doing so beautifully well in his career. arjun: so we did that event. i think you were out of town, and i couldn't feel my back for, like, two days. anu: so is arjun. like,

he's such a business minded person, you know? arjun: ju me. pawan: no, it was you and matt. arjun: me and matt paraso. anu: so they would have gone intheir own careers. i know that. pawan: he was in a banana suit with a megaphone like an .... you know? he was blaring-- nakul: that's his thing. pawan: yeah, but he learned it from me. and whenever we would see him, he would take the megaphone down. chef? [all laugh] anu: but here they're together and we are together and it's a beautif feeling to be togethe you know? pawan: this is our community boardroom. arjun: are we cooking anything for the 15th? nakul: yeah, we have to do, like, 200 tasting portions. arjun: of? nakul: anything. arjun: so just do the papri chaat parfait? or if you want it fun and interactive, we could do puffs and feed people. nakul: straight into their mouth? arun: straight into their mouths? pawan: no, they'll put it in their mth. we just tell them. [all laugh]

arjun: that's what we were doing. it was basically they pick up a cocktail napkin, we'd put it in, and... but some people, i was literally feeding them. 200 of those? it'll be fun. i did 1,200 of them. nakul: i never thought i'd be able to work with my dad as chef. so this restaurant, for me at least, it means a lot more. kunal: they're unwavering in their desire to be authentic, whatever that authenticity is to them.

arjun: w're .... indian restaurant, and we're not doing anything we're supposed to do. we're doing what we want to do. aarti: they have paid homage to their roots, but also recognize that change is good. nakul: all of the technique, all of the method, everything's still the same, so we're inovating rough tradition. aarti: and creating new dishes with those same flavors is such a cool way to say, "it's 2017 and this is what indian food looks like at my house." kunal: everything is alive in there, and you feel those vibrations when yogo in. the walls are alive. everything has thought behind it. everything has a story behind it. nakul: it's an indian restaurant, but from our perspective as indians who have been born and raised in this part of the world. aarti: i mean, at its core, badmaash is still a family-run restaurant. arjun: i think, like, food brought us togetr, man. we've never been the family to eat separately.

we all eat together. anu: it's a team effort, you know? they're kind of being playful with the food. there's a word "badmashi." "badmashi" means being naughty. so they're actually being naughty in a creative way with food. but they're still very true to their roots, you know? [laughs] what did i say? [indistinct chatter] 73ú3ú+ú+ú+ú+ú+úññññkkkkkkkkc (u)

real l(beep) rht her it d't get a more westoast thathis. (cama lens stter) what'sp, roy?