Bengaluru: As several eateries across Bengaluru struggle with the ongoing shortage of commercial LPG, some community kitchens have remained largely unaffected, thanks to sustainability decisions taken years ago.
From fossil fuels to biomass fuel
Sustainability choices helped Adamya Chetana, a community kitchen that prepares midday meals for thousands of schoolchildren. A gradual shift away from fossil fuels over the past 16 years has helped operations continue without disruption here.
Today, the kitchen uses briquettes made from agricultural and biomass waste to generate steam for cooking. The model reduces dependence on petroleum fuels and uses locally available waste as energy.
Currently, Adamya Chetana is serving around 40,000 students in Bengaluru under the midday meal scheme. It also carries out annadaanam (free food supply) at 10 locations in the city. The Bengaluru facility prepares nearly five tonnes of food daily.
Tejaswini Ananth, head of Adamya Chetana, said, "Back then, we were not thinking about war or fuel shortage. Our focus was on renewable energy and showing children that a kitchen can run without fossil fuels. Now, in a situation like this, it is helping us continue cooking without disruption."
No gas, no burner, all AI
A commercial kitchen on Brigade Road is operating entirely on electric and AI-controlled cooking machines without using a single gas burner. It has automated everything — from vegetable chopping and marination to the final cooking of complicated dishes such as biryani.
Restaurateur Ananth Narayan, who developed this technology-driven kitchen for his bar-restaurant Just BLR, said: "Once the recipe is fed into the machine, it handles the entire process."
This setup has almost 30 specialised machines. Ingredients are first cleaned and chopped through automated systems before being transferred to programmable cooking machines that follow pre-fed recipes, controlling temperature, timing, and stirring with precision. The eatery uses a central kitchen model where dishes are cooked up to about 70% in bulk and then vacuum sealed and frozen to -18 degrees Celsius.
Once a food item is ordered, the chefs just add the required items into the machines and start them based on the recipe SOP that is pre-fed. "It takes less than 4-5 minutes to cook any dish, and all the 100+ items on our menu are pre-fed in our AI-controlled machines. Our bar is also completely automated, where one needs to just tap on the drink shown on the machine screen, and the drink is automatically mixed and given directly," he said.
This system, he said, ensures consistency, reduces waste, and eliminates dependence on LPG.
Powered by renewable energy
All major kitchen operations — from restaurants and banquets to the staff cafeteria — at The Oterra Hotel in Electronics City use electric cooking systems. Its electricity comes from third-party wind and solar power suppliers connected to the state grid. The hotel's general manager, Srinivas Adiga, said: "All our cooking equipment runs on electricity, so the LPG crisis has not affected us at all."
This sustainability initiative was started nearly a decade ago. "Our aim was to reduce carbon emissions and move towards net zero. We didn't anticipate a situation like this, but the transition ensured that our operations continued without disruption," he said.
Akshaya Patra keeps running
Every morning, thousands of meals are cooked in the kitchens of Akshaya Patra Foundation across Bengaluru to feed about 1.5 lakh schoolchildren under the midday meal programme. These kitchens are continuing to operate smoothly, largely because two-thirds of them do not depend on LPG for cooking.
Of the six Akshaya Patra kitchens in Bengaluru, three run on biomass briquettes. These kitchens, located along Kanakapura Road and near Kempegowda International Airport, use compressed biomass fuel made of agricultural waste to power their large-scale cooking operations.
"About 90–95% of our cooking in Bengaluru does not rely on commercial LPG," said Naveena Neerada Dasa, executive director, strategy and international relations, Akshaya Patra Foundation, World Food Movement. "One has a direct gas pipeline connection. Only two smaller kitchens depend on LPG."
According to him, the shift to alternative fuel sources was a conscious long-term strategy. "Our leadership anticipated possible fuel challenges years ago and encouraged us to adopt sustainable fuel sources. Because of that, even if LPG supply is disrupted, our kitchens can continue running," he said.