[music playing]
 This is your desk.
This is your office.
 Yes.
[music playing]
 This is like being a painter.
[music playing]
So the name of this
restaurant represents
a food truck or a street cart?
 DhaBa is a street-side
restaurant of India.
 And this is your
flagship restaurant?
 This is flagship restaurant.
 You have three
restaurants on this block.
But each restaurant is doing
a different style of cooking.
Why all these different styles?
 We want mainstream people
to know about Indian food.
[music playing]
 You said it created the
street scene around here?
 Yeah.
Curry Hill is named because of a
lot of Indian restaurants here.
[music playing]
 So what are we making, chef?
 Cauliflower potato samosas.
[music playing]
 I call the samosa, like, an
Indian form of an empanada.
 Correct.
 A little pocket
of deliciousness.
 Yeah.
 How does mine look?
OK?
- Yeah.
- OK.
Cool.
Because you have a
Michelin star and stuff.
I want to make sure I--
I get this right.
[music playing]
 If I made these, I would fry
one for the customer and one
for me.
[music playing]
What are the main flavors
of Indian cooking?
 Main flavors are
ginger, saffron--
 Sure.
 --turmeric, cumin,
and a little red chili.
For saag paneer,
we have spinach.
And we have paneer cheese.
 Paneer, a cow's milk cheese--
 Yeah
 --is like a cheese curd.
 Yes, correct.
 It's like mozzarella
crashed into a touch
of feta and cream cheese.
This is so good.
[music playing]
 When I was 17,
I started cooking.
When I was 22, I
was a private chef.
 You became a private chef
to a billionaire in Mexico.
Did he have a tandoor?
 Yeah.
[music playing]
 He had a tandoor, or
you put the tandoor?
 I brought tandoor from
his private chartered plane.
 You brought a tandoor
oven on his private plane?
 Yeah.
 That is awesome.
This is 900 degrees right now.
I'm getting a tan.
I can feel my hair
singeing as we speak.
[music playing]
I love the flavor that that
hot oven gives the food.
[music playing]
This is beautiful.
[music playing]
The naan can absorb
all these flavors.
 Yeah.
[music playing]
 It's delicious.
 Thank you.
 I could just dive
right in there.
I'm taking all this with me.
 Please.
 And maybe you.
[music playing]
 Talk about a pioneer.
Chef Mathur basically created
the Curry Hill food scene,
and got a Michelin
star along the way.
Click the links to learn
more about inspiring chefs.
Don't forget to subscribe.
