The small, neat kitchen bustles with activity as apron-clad cooks with plastic caps on scurry about. Vegetables and spices are stored in steel utensils covered with plastic sheets to preserve their taste and flavour. Hands are washed with liquid soap. At the counter outside, two servers ladle vegetables or meat in a thick, oil-free gravy onto plates, while the fresh, hot chapattis pile up on dishes behind them. In the eating area, four men with gloves on wheel trolleys down the aisles between tables, clearing leftovers.
If the description evokes a swanky eatery, think again; this is the Mumbai Police’s new canteen in the recently inaugurated new headquarters building of the Mumbai Police that is currently breaking stereotypes.
Mumbai Commissioner of Police D.D. Padsalgikar says, “The idea was to provide healthy food for personnel working on the headquarters compound and nearby establishments, and any personnel posted on duty nearby or visiting the compound. A large number of our personnel suffer due to unhealthy food, and many of them don’t have a lot of options. We are starting with this canteen and are planning to implement the same model in other police canteens.”
Senior Police Inspector Dilip Shinde, under whose supervision the canteen operates, adds, “We have hundreds of police personnel coming in every day for breakfast, lunch and snacks in the evening , and the food is a runaway hit. With minor changes to our methods, we have ensured tasty yet healthy food.”
The canteen is managed by a 10-strong team of police personnel who oversee procurement and preparation, hygiene and day-to-day work. “Instead of using readymade flour, we buy wheat in bulk and get it ground at flour mills near the headquarters. Vegetables and meat for the day are personally selected and bought every morning, instead of contracting a supplier and leaving quality to them,” Head Constable Sanjay Patil said.
The kitchen staff comprise relatives of policemen and contract workers from the catering industry, all trained by Rajendra Mahadik, a sous chef with the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Colaba.
Mr. Mahadik says, “The first thing I did was to take the canteen staff to our hotel’s kitchen to show them our methods. For the next six days, I taught them how to cut down on the two chief ingredients that lead to health problems if taken in excess: oil and salt. I taught the cooks little tricks like adding lesser amounts of salt to plain rice, as it is going to be consumed with dal or gravy.”
The staff are also instructed to clean the exhaust grills regularly to avoid fires due to a build-up of oil residue, and using different amounts of ingredients like onion, tomatoes and coconut for the same dishes to lend a different taste to the gravy. Wives of the police top brass, including those of Mr. Padsalgikar and Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Deven Bharti, visited the canteen and instructed the staff on the importance of hygienic and healthy food.
“The evening menu included samosas and onion pakoras. We dropped the samosas and replaced them with grilled vegetable sandwiches. The canteen makes it so well that a lot of us, including myself, order them regularly in the evening,” Mr Bharti said.
The response has been tremendous, especially during lunch among policemen, particularly constables. “I have been conscious of the hygiene of the place I am eating in, and the new canteen ensures cleanliness,” said Constable Shashikant Gangawane, posted at the headquarters.
