Owning one restaurant, let alone two with a vision for even more was not part of the plan when Kabir Singh came to Australia for a month-long stay from New Delhi in 2020. Now Singh, as his regulars call him, is a Fitzroy local with a huge heart for the neighbourhood, for hospitality and for his beloved Mukka, the restaurant he bought as Melbourne went into lockdown. I have always loved Mukka. I sat down with the original owners Prateek and Aditya Dhawan and their mother Rekha when they first opened the restaurant back in 2016 and they had a loyal following, especially for their butter chicken. Singh saw the potential in the restaurant after one visit and as well as respecting the original passion (and butter chicken) has taken it to whole new heights. Singh opened Mukka 2.0 in St Kilda and last year took the OG Mukka across Brunswick Street to a much larger venue that had previously been home to Vamos Spanish Tapas bar. It is now filled with gorgeous colours, the most inventive and beautiful use of fairy lights I have ever seen, and a soft aroma of the spices Singh grinds daily. As well as putting up delicious dishes, Singh is about the whole experience, and he loves community involvement and fun. To this end, popular Indian pastime: Bingo, also known as Housie and Tambola, is getting its own night on Wednesdays from next week and there's also $25 Curry night on Tuesdays as well as Thursday Local's Night, where, if youre a local, you get 20% off your bill. Singh and I talked spices and produce and Australia's enduring love for Butter Chicken particularly on a Sunday, but for a really in-depth exploration of many of the dishes on the menu, jump on Mukka's Instagram for the Tangy Talks video series Singh does with the lovely Pallavi from Pallavi Social. You cannot watch these videos without wanting to rush out to Mukka and eat ALL the food. Both locations are open seven days, so off you go!
Hi Kabir, how are you? It's nice to be back at Mukka. I spoke to the brothers and their mum not long after they opened Mukka.
When was that?
A long time ago.
You've been doing this for a long time now?
I have. I started in Conversation with a chef in 2016.
The same time they started Mukka.
Yes. How did you get into Mukka?
Firstly, I know you love chai. I did a bit of homework and thought, let me search about this lady. I know you've been to India, you've been to Rajasthan, my mum's from Rajasthan. From a very small town calledSawai Madhopur. Its near Jaipur, let's say the countryside, and my dad's from Calcutta. Which is the east part of India. We are Sikh. He puts on a turban, but now I lost I lost my hair a long time back. So, it's a bit a mix. I'll tell you the story, but then I'll get chai for you.
So, what is the story? I hear you were a big fan and then you took it over?
Well, there's a lot more to it. I'd say God's been really kind. I only flew into Australia for 30 days as a visitor. That was just before Covid. I only arrived on the 27th of February. And the first lockdown was March 19th.So that was the time when I actually first visited Mukka. I only had one visit as a customer. I never used to crave Indian much, even back home. I never used to enjoy curries because I was into health and just liked my clean, simple diet. But when I got here, I thought, this is a vibe. Brunswick Street itself, Fitzroy and I saw it with a new set of eyes and saw something. It wasn't the plan even to buy Mukka or anything. At that point in time, I was just as a customer. But then Covid hit and everything changed. I have a business back home. I manufacture bicycles. That's my background. So, from engineering to hospitality. There has always been a passion though for food and the industry. I gave it a go years back. It never worked. There's a history to that as well. I studied the New Zealand back in the day. At Auckland Uni. I started a Hell Pizza franchise there, if you know it. You're from New Zealand. You can connect.
I had friends who made one of the ads for it; the zombie apocalypse ad.
You know the story. They were pretty edgy when it comes to marketing and stuff. I ran a Hell pizza franchise and I was running a Paper Plus franchise too in Browns Bay. They realised that I could be an asset to the company and I got master rights for India. I took Hell Pizza to India. I opened up a flagship store, which never worked because it was too soon for that kind of gourmet industry. Back then pizza was only Domino's or Pizza Hut. It still is now. In India, you'd see probably more Domino's than healthcare clinics. They guarantee 30 minutes delivery and an ambulance or paramedic won reach you in 30 minutes for sure. But the pizza will be there. That's my country. But I love my country. But Hell Pizza never worked. And I gave up. I started on manufacturing bicycles, which went well. I have been running that for about 12, 13 years now. And before I left home, I got my mum involved. She's taking care of my unit now. It's a big manufacturing unit. I've got about 300 people working there. Covid hit and I thought, God has given me another chance to reevaluate what I want to do. Now that I've lived best of both the worlds, Ive lived in New Zealand, I've lived in India, it did not work. Where did I want to stay? So I started all over again. I did a bit of research. I came across a bar that I was keen on. Because hospitality, serving guests, family coming over for dinner, conversations, this is me. But apart from that, I do not really love to socialise or anything or anything. So I thought I might as well just give it a try, what's there to lose? Especially as a migrant, and I'd say I'm blessed, I come from a family of means that I could even afford to get into business. I've got no loans, no mortgages. There was a bar in Richmond that I really liked and I still like that bar. It's a cosy wine bar. I'm not a wine drinker. But I like the vibe of it, I felty connected to it and, I thought, this is what I want to own. Sometimes you go to a place you feel that this place can be so much more. It's just the energy, the positivity. I think the owners might have lost the enthusiasm over a period of time. But then if you put some energy into it, it can still revive and you could do wonders. That's what happened with Mukka. I felt the potential that there could be so much more. But then even before I bought that, I bought Mukka 2.0 in St. Kilda. It was a cafe that was going duringCovid times and got shut. I love the locationIf you know St. Kilda well, it happens to be on Fitzroy Street.
Which is quite hilarious, seeing as the first one was in Fitzroy.
There's a coincidence. What could be the odds? So that happens to be on the corner of Fitzroy Street and Park Street. You've got two tram stations, so you can't actually miss it if you happen to be there. I bought that location first and I knew for a fact that cafe wouldn't work. It needed a change. That's when I thought, you know, Mukka is going to be the one. And that can be an extension, because I could always see the queue here. People were always waiting. So I thought maybe it was time to stretch myself and see how it goes. That was the plan. So that's when I got into Mukka. Initially it was very tough. Even when I bought the restaurant, the chef left because he was sponsored and he had to go because he was attached to the company and it was illegal for him to work for me, which I wasn't aware of.
I come from New Delhi, which is the capital of India. I think I’m fortunate that I lived in that part of India, or I was born in that part of India because you get world cuisine there. Even the suburb where I live. Hospitality has been very close to me and it depends how exposed you are to it. So when I say authentic, it is because I’ve tried each and every dish several places, several times. And I realise what the difference is? What is he doing right? What is he doing wrong? So I’ve been exposed, or my palette has been exposed to the cuisines well enough to understand the literal meaning of it. ~ Kabir Singh, Mukka
Could you keep the recipes?
No. It's like I said, it's a story. The restaurant was shut for 15 days. And I said to myself now, what will I do? I had the money, Id invested in it. But nobody knew me either. I thought, you can just let it be, just go back home, or take up the challenge. I got myself into the kitchen. That's where my engineering background came into the picture. I wrote each and everything I did. I made up the recipes, I read about the spices. I taught myself everything for the next 15 days.
How did you do that?
Google? YouTube. Mum. Everything. Over the phone I had about 20 chefs guiding me from home. The recipe creation was all authentic part from the butter chicken. Just the way it's done back home. And now I have a Bible here, which is my book or recipes or what you may call it. Also, I started studying cookery here while I was doing that, so as to get myself involved and know exactly how it works. So everything just went great. I was in the kitchen for nine months before I got myself out and someone else joined in and now she's like a sister to me. She's like my right hand. She started with nothing. She had never stepped into the kitchen but she wanted to be a part of Mukka. I needed someone like her. We taught each other all along the way. And now she takes care of the kitchen. Now I'm doing what I'm doing in terms of expansion, menu creation, PR, marketing, rostering, staff, hiring, everything. So that's the story for Mukka. It has been four years now. We came across the street here.We opened 2.0, we are opening another one in Carnegie. I have a great vision for Mukka. I love what I do here. I love my menu. I love my food. It's just the sincerity and the menu and the authenticity that I'm proud of.
We often talk about authenticity when we talk about cultural food, or food that's a different culture to here. And people do talk about the importance of authenticity. What does that mean for you?
Great. I come from New Delhi, which is the capital of India. I think I'm fortunate that I lived in that part of India, or I was born in that part of India because you get world cuisine there. Even the suburb where I live. Hospitality has been very close to me and it depends how exposed you are to it. So when I say authentic, it is because I've tried each and every dish several places, several times. And I realise what the difference is? What is he doing right? What is he doing wrong? So I've been exposed, or my palette has been exposed to the cuisines well enough to understand the literal meaning of it: making everything from scratch, grinding your own spices. We import our spices in bulk. I've got a spice room at the back where I grind my spices, where I do my spice mixes in proportion, like I said, engineering. Nobody knows how I do it, what I do, what proportions I use. My own chef only knows, okay, you've got a butter chicken spice mix, all you have to do is take a teaspoon full of it and add to the curry. Now they don't know that I've got nine spices mixed already in a certain proportion. That is so we can maintain that consistency every time at every store.
How fresh do those spices have to be?
Absolutely. When you grind them, you can smell the aroma. If I was to grind coriander seed, now you could even smell it here, which I'm going to do this evening. The customers can even tell, oh, it smells pf spices in here. There's something about it which you'd never find in the pre-pack spice mix that you get. You can only use them say for 10 days, I'd say at the most. And we only create batches that we need for say, over the next fortnight or a month at the most. But then that's that. Every time you have to be consistent and the proportions have to be,
So you're importing the spices, but then in terms of produce and other ingredients, is it easy to get similar things to home?
Even better. Your produce is fantastic. Look at the tomatoes here. We don't use canned or purees or tomato paste or anything.
That is interesting because I spoke to an Italian chef who thought that the produce wasn't so good in Australia compared to Italy. But you are saying what we have here works really well in the Indian dishes.
Absolutely it does. The freshness, the consistency, the quality, all we need. In Indian cooking, we are restricted to our staple vegetables: ginger, garlic, onion, tomatoes, spinach, it's all beautiful here. Eggplant, it's just fantastic here. We've got no complaints whatsoever. I think we only get the best here to be honest. So that only adds up to our flavours.
You come from New Delhi and your dad is from Calcutta and your mum is from Rajasthan, so there are some different flavours going on there. And I know that butter chicken comes from New Delhi and that's the one thing you said perhaps was a bit different on your menu because that's the butter chicken from the original Mukka?
Correct. I happen to know the family or the forefathers, well, not really know them, but I know for a fact that they are the forefathers who invented butter chicken because they're all restaurateurs back home originating in Old Delhi. The taste is actually incepted from Delhi and it's very authentic there. It's all about the tanginess of it, fresh tomatoes, the creaminess, the richness of the curry. Not spicy at all, it's just about the tanginess of the dish. However, when I reached Australia and I tried butter chicken at several places, but then I think Mukka struck gold in terms of the balance of that tanginess and then the sweetness that the local consumers or the community demands here, or they expect how butter chicken should be. think we have a perfect balance of both the worlds here in terms of butter chicken.
I think I’m going to open up pop-up windows here and there just selling butter chicken and rice. We say, God made cow, man made butter. God made chicken, Mukka made butter chicken. That’s my saying. It’s a God-sent meal on a Sunday for Australians: butter, chicken and rice. ~ Kabir Singh, Mukka
We were talking about how over your lifetime you've probably eaten a lot of butter chicken because it's a family favourite.
I'd say every single day, every week. 365 days a year. Butter chicken is, how can I explain it? If you go to Indian weddings as kids, and you wanted to excite a kid who doesn't want to go to or attend an Indian wedding, your mum would say, oh, you'll get butter chicken and Dal Makhani there. That was the only excitement. Butter chicken has been so close to us and we grew up eating butter chicken pretty much every day of my life,
And it's very popular in Australia as well. Australians love butter chicken.
God himself made butter chicken for the seventh day, I would say. Just for Australia. The amount of butter chicken we sell is unreal, especially on a Sunday. I believe, just like the UK where they say chicken tikka masala is the staple. I would say butter chicken is staple for Australians butter chicken, coconut rice, garlic naan.
I wonder why a Sunday.
I don't know why. I think I'm going to open up popup windows here and there just selling butter chicken and rice.We say, God made cow, man made butter. God made chicken, Mukka made butter chicken.That's my saying. It's a God sent meal on a Sunday for Australians: butter, chicken and rice.
You have big plans for Mukka. You opened Mukka 2.0 and that has a bit of a different personality as well in St. Kilda to here. But your dream or your vision is to take over Melbourne?
Oh, absolutely it is. We're going to take over Australia. It all started here. We are going just fine. The customers have been great. The feedback's been awesome. It only gives us the strength to even dream that big. We are definitely bringing forward our cuisine. It is much more accepted and it's going to be a go-to cuisine soon. We have people coming in for dates here. We've given them that vibe. Everything is smart, casual, and apart from our curries, nothing looks Indian. It's very chic. We are coming up with Mukka Express, taking over those shady joints where they just sell Indian for the name of it with unnecessary creams, spices, whatnot. Quality of food is everything. We are coming up with Good Pld Mukka as well in Carnegie soon. That's going to be a house of staples. It's just going to be about staples. And it's gonna be good. That's the plan.
You've talked a lot about how much you love hospitality. What is it about hospitality that you love?
It's the customers really. Just talking to them. I'm only new to the country, four years old, five, they're all, and I have to be honest, they're my family. I treat them like family. I feel like family with them when they talk to me. Even though we just talk about food, and that's all we have in common really when we talk, but then all of the regulars who know me, they call me Singh. I call them by their names. I know them. We talk over curries. We talk about things. Most of them actually try and take recipes off me. They give it a go back home. And how do I know that? Because they cook curries back home but they still come in for the naans and they'll say, oh, we are only here to buy the naans, we've made some curry back home. I'm like, okay, let's see how it goes. But then they come back. It's just customers really. Honestly. I think it's just the love and warmth of the people here. It's amazing.
366 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
Fitzroy Street, St. Kilda