It’s not difficult to find homes that cook up authentic Goan Saraswat or Goan Portuguese meals. But a Nepali, Iyer and Bengali ( to name a few) authentic lunch hosted at different homes in Goa? That’s exactly what Sugrann, a delicious concept by Laxmi Kunkolienkar is all about.
A total foodie herself, Kunkolienkar enjoyed sampling from different cuisines offered at hotels. But she was not satisfied. “That punch of traditional authencity was missing,” she says. It was then that she came up with the idea of giving Goan women a chance to display their cooking talent. “We always take for granted that mother will prepare food for us. We don’t recognise her work,” she says. Through Sugrann ( which in Sanskrit and Marathi means ‘Cooked with Love’) she aims to give these women the recognition they deserve.
“Sugrann is about local hosts offering authentic cuisine for food lovers. It is not just about sharing meals but also insights into each others lives and cultures,” says Kunkolienkar, who personally goes about searching for women who are good at cooking different traditional cuisines and discusses the idea of opening up the house to food lovers. “I discuss her specialties and formulate the menu accordingly. We also take into account how many people she is comfortable with hosting,” she says. Once this is done and a date agreed upon, the lady is paid. The event is then opened for registration. “We insist on id proof and only upon verification and fee payment are the details of the place and time shared with the guests,” states Kunkolienkar. Alcohol is a no-no and children below the age of 15-16 are not allowed.
“We always have a chef as a special invitee for each event. This way if he has a festival related to the same cuisine he can incorporate this in his menu. Also, he can invite the lady as a special guest to cook for the festival,” explains Kunkolienkar. And in fact there have been a couple of instances already when the woman who has hosted these meals have i nfact benefited financially. “One chef did call one of the ladies to cook for his festival. Another got a chance to display her culinary talents at the Serendipity Festival,” she says.
What especially warms her heart is the effort that these home cooks put in in preparing the meal. “For our Nepali meal, we had a lady who was a princess in Nepal who has now shifted to Goa as the home cook. She actually went back to Nepal to source the items for the meal!” says Kunkolienkar.
Apart from this, Sugrann also has a Request a Date option. “If you want to take your family out for an authentic meal, you can get in touch with me and I can discuss with the lady on a suitable date,” says Kunkolienkar, adding that a minimum of five members are necessary for this.
So far Sugrann which did it’s first meal in January 1, 2017, has done 9 different cuisines and Kunkolienkar, informs that there are 19 more already in the pipeline including a Banarasi and a Fisherfolks cuisine. And Kunkolienkar is open to men coming on board as cooks too. “In fact a Russian man did approach me for a Russian cuisine special but it didn’t work out,” she says.
While it is still early days, Kunkolienkar hopes to pitch this idea to to Goan Tourism Department as part of it’s tourism efforts sometime in the future.
