A Burger Love Story: Why Burgers Became the Heart & Song of Gostana

It’s been a while since I posted here, but things have been busy behind the scenes.

Recently, I had some free time and decided to use it to make burgers for a few friends who had been asking.

For the past month or so, I’ve been making salads for myself 3-4 times a week. So, naturally, salads were on my mind. But my friends had burgers on theirs.

Gostana’s memories came back, and so did the burger requests. Looks like my friends haven’t forgotten that part of my cooking. I’m not complaining, though. Burgers it is.

First up were the chicken burgers – the reason Gostana was born. These were a priority because the request came from someone special, someone who also happened to help us get back to civilization after a concert adventure (Hi Diljit).

This time, the burgers were headed to two homes, part of the same family, and for a blessed Iftar meal.

The burgers were made with a bit of a twist. Since they were made at home, there was, of course, a tweak or two. Naturally, that led to some feedback, which I’ll share later in this post.

That said, both the burgers and the salads got rave reviews. And that sparked some recurring thoughts… again. More on that later.

Chicken Burgers

Roast chicken and veggies salad with blueberry and lemon vinaigrette

Next up was another pending request, one that had been on hold for a long time. This time, it came from a vegetarian friend – and not for just any veggie burger, but for Gostana’s famous soy burger.

Done. One happy Mo, and a happy family of vegetarians too.

Soy burgers

How did the burgers become Gostana? Or rather, how did Gostana become all about the burgers?

Gostana actually began as a tiny seafood outlet in Powai. Back in 2008, we also served multiple cuisines since there weren’t many multicuisine places around at the time.

The burgers? That was my input. I was still hung up on my love for Oporto’s burgers from my time in Australia. While I didn’t copy their sauce exactly, I created something that felt closest to my heart, using local ingredients that were easy to source all year round.

Oporto’s being a purely chicken shop meant that my initial burgers were all about chicken, with different variations around it. These quickly became the highest-selling items on the menu and, eventually, the star product Gostana was known for.

Over time, the production of burgers naturally overshadowed the rest of the menu. That’s when we made the shift – we let go of everything else and kept it focused on burgers and what worked well with them.

Then came another significant move. In 2009, we moved to Bandra. Till we shut shop in 2018.

Being in India, we had to consider vegetarian options too. That’s when I turned to Indian cuisine, which wasn’t new territory for me, and took inspiration from there. The spinach and cottage cheese burger, the seven-pulse burger, and the soy burger recipes came straight from the Gvalani household.

All these recipes were then given a commercial twist, with natural binding ingredients and portions perfected for a quick-service burger setup – all while staying true to our healthy food ethics.

What also set us apart was something unique, something that hadn’t been done before. We gave the burgers a healthy twist. The breads were whole-wheat or multigrain, and the fillings weren’t fried. Special techniques were developed for these recipes – and no, those don’t come free.

That’s the kind of thing Acoustic Flavours consultancy now helps with.

(had to plug-in current work)

About Those Home-Made Burgers…

Let’s talk about them! Everything was prepared just the way I would do it commercially – except for two things: the breads and some of the sauces.

The breads? Well, that’s because it takes quite a bit of effort to size them properly, especially with the limited capacity of a home oven. As for the sauces, I skipped making them in my usual heavy-duty blenders. It just makes more sense to bring out the big guns when you’re prepping larger volumes.

But the rest? All good. Thankfully!

Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of messages asking me to start a café again. Never say never, but for now, I’m not ready for that kind of commitment.

The past few months have been exciting, though – consulting for places with recipes, contributing to cultural collaborations, and sharing my knowledge through years of experience. This is my happy space right now.

Creating recipes and testing them with people around me (my guinea pigs!) has been a fun high. I’m just taking things as they come.

And yes, I’m still open to cooking up something for friends – as long as there’s a good playlist in the background.

A little teaser for my next post: I recently contributed a Sindhi dish recipe to a small collaboration and will be cooking it this week for friends. More on that soon!

Till then, ciao!