1st September is always a special day at THAC.
It is a day that reminds and reconnects to the vision, laid down on 1st September, way back in 1989.
The very first brick placed was Food-Annam. That first brick was offered to make visible- fresh, natural, whole, untampered and tasty food, through a daily lunch service.
The hands that carried them then, and continue to do so, are THAC’s Kitchen Women.
The first woman who came in- Anu (Anusuya), was the mover-doer, assistant cook, cutter, server, repartee dish-er. Strong & dark brown, brisk & fast, she managed all. From kitchen politics to vegetable shopping, she took it all on.
Anu brought in her sister in law Jayshree, who brought in her family, and they their Worli-Koliwada family and friends. Within 2 years, Anu and her ilk, grew to 18 women.
Jayshree, Mammi, Nanda, Rajshree, Chhayya – these are the folks who have held the kitchen through these 30+ years. They are still here, keeping up the skills they learnt, doing it now silently and interdependently. Alongwith new entrants Vaishali & Sangeeta & the Cutters.
Anita Mandal, our current souschef par haughty excellence, came in a decade later. Her passion for cooking, her childlike thrill at inventing, her finesse at currying the right flavour, places her at the heart of THAC’ s cuisine culture.
As one of the very first activities, “The Centre” (THAC’s early name tag, annoited & stamped by these women), launched a “Luncheon service of living foods”.
By its mid-phase in the 1990’s, this got swiggy-fied into simply “The Dabba”, or “Vijaya’s Dabba”…the Dabba Service – thanks to the dabbawallas who ferried lunch boxes through the length and breadth of Bombay.
It did so by providing economical, nutritious and sustainable food for the sick and elderly, for those working in offices, for the old and disabled, pregnant women, hostel students, along with what was then, an exclusive handful of “the health conscious”.
It took off with 10 encouraging customers, ready to sign on for the entire month, @ Rs 5/ a meal…and grew to its ceiling of 250, in the years that followed…all cooking, in that squat white & brown building, called “Streehitavardhini”.
Since then the THAC Kitchen has changed premises, moving out of Strihitavardhini in 2009, relocating to 4 different places in the interim, to the new current one in June 2022. The services stayed uninterrupted, the kitchen women faithfully following. Learning and upgrading their skills, efficiently with the capacity to manage independently.
The pandemic and the lockdown of 2020, despite the forced closure, with the kitchen services shut, the women without their daily jobs, didn’t close down the idea of the THAC Kitchen though. It only enabled a reinventing- on all fronts. From global cuisines via a Dinner Box for 2 (which turned out to be a lockdown boon for many many), sustainable bio-degradable packaging, a younger team of logistics support for door-door delivery, and brand new menus which the women were happy to experiment with.
There are new hands of course…
Sonali Sarange who handles the Admin and logistics part of the services. The calls the delays the additions and cancellations and tracking payments.
Shiv Shankar Sharma – who packs the daily boxes and ferries food and products from manufacturing to selling end. It was interesting to note how the women gradually accepted him as their own!
In its current avatar, the Kitchen Women manage the 5 Day Salad & Snack Bar, the Weekly Lunch Package, THACs Resource Room Products & fresh items, apart from the special meals during classes/workshops or sessions. Or special Ladoo, Halwa or Modak Orders during festivals.
The THAC Kitchen’s story continues…with a new logo and a website @ thackitchen.com.
It’s core value hasn’t though.
THACs Food is still at the heart of it all.
Alongwith the women running the show at the THAC Kitchen.