Inside the BLPGA kitchen — air fryer, FSSAI, daily groceries

Our kitchen has three rules. Fresh that morning. Air fryer wherever possible. One cook who has done this for 18 years.

Fresh that morning

The cook walks to the BSS Road market at 6 AM with a fabric bag and an idea of what 23 students need today. She buys two days' worth of dry goods (dal, rice, oil), but vegetables only for that day. Pointed gourd that was on a vine yesterday is in your rice today. Rohu was in the river two evenings ago. The fridge in our kitchen is small on purpose — we don't store, we cook.

Air fryer wherever possible

We deep-fry exactly one thing: special-occasion luchis on Thursday. Everything else that looks fried is air-fried — pointed gourd, brinjal, fish for curry, even bhujia. Same crunch, a tenth the oil. Reasonable per-meal cost stays reasonable; your body thanks you in the long run.

One cook

Her name is on the door of the kitchen, and her display name in our app is "Cook 1" because she is the one who set the standard. Eighteen years of cooking in this neighbourhood; she knows what each student likes, who can't do spice, who's allergic to dairy. As we add a second kitchen we will add a second cook — but every kitchen has exactly one person responsible for the food, by name.

FSSAI, Trade Licence, MSME — why we display the numbers

Most home kitchens that "do tiffin" in India operate informally. That's fine for them; it's not fine for the parent in Burdwan who is wiring money for their child's food. So we registered everything and we put the numbers on the footer of every page of this site:

• FSSAI Registration No. 22825131000756
• Trade Licence / CE No. 0917P3084125375816
• MSME Registration No. UDYAM-WB-14-0087932

If anything ever goes wrong, you have something to point at. We hope you never have to.

Where the kitchen is

BLPGA, 43, Matangini Hazra Pally, Agarpara, Kolkata 700109. Open in Google Maps or punch in the Plus code M9JH+JX Kolkata.

Five minutes from NIT Agarpara's main gate. Eight from JIS. If you're a parent visiting your child for the first time, stop by — we'll put the kettle on.

• Stop cooking, start living — why we built Bhuk Foods
  A founder's note on India's first kitchen substitution service, the BLPGA kitchen at 43 Matangini Hazra Pally, and why we don't call ourselves a tiffin service.
• What is a kitchen substitution service?
  Not a tiffin service. Not a cloud kitchen. Not a meal-kit subscription. A kitchen substitution service replaces the entire act of cooking — and that changes the math.
• The 4 PM rule — how skip-a-day works without losing a rupee
  Cancel any meal day before 4 PM the previous day and you're not charged. The day extends to the end of your plan. Here's why the rule is exactly this strict, and exactly this generous.