Thomas Zacharias

I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a book for a while now. And of late, the thought has been getting a lot louder in my head. If I ever did write one, what would YOU want to read about? The complicated road to becoming a chef? What professional kitchens really teach you? Life inside Michelin-starred restaurants? Travelling across India in search of food stories? The chaos and beauty of running restaurant kitchens? Walking away from it all at the peak of my career? Building The Locavore without any real reference points? Or something else entirely? Curious to know.

Have you ever wanted to be a better consumer? Or wondered how you can support your local food producers in simple ways? At @TheLocavore.in , we work alongside farmers, fishers, millers, foragers, and small food businesses across India. Over the years, one thing has become abundantly clear: When you know who grows your food, you treat it differently—you waste less, cook more thoughtfully, plan meals better, and value where your food comes from. And these daily choices directly support people’s livelihoods. You don’t need big gestures; small, steady habits are enough. If you need a starting point, you can turn to our latest guide! Find 'A Simple Guide to Buying Better: How You Can Support Local Food Producers' by @ChefTZac on @TheLocavore.in website—link in bio. Illustrations by Anugraha Mahesh (@anugraha_3012 )

For the Woman Farmer Project—in partnership with @TheDocSociety Climate Story Unit—we are collaborating with organisations that have worked across our three focus regions on intersectional issues of food security and sovereignty, livelihoods, ecology, and climate: ⛰️ Meghalaya: The North East Society for Agroecology Support (@NESFAS ) A Shillong-based platform dedicated to revitalising, safeguarding, and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems. 🌱 Madhya Pradesh: The Network for Conserving Central India (@conserving_ci ) A collaborative platform working across the Central Indian Highlands to conserve biodiversity, strengthen livelihoods, and support sustainable development. 🌊 Tamil Nadu: Dakshin Foundation (@dakshin_seas ) A Bengaluru-based non-profit working to inform and catalyse conservation and natural resource management in India’s coastal and marine ecosystems. These incredible organisations will serve as our local Knowledge Partners, and help shape priorities grounded in lived realities and local concerns, facilitate ethical access rooted in trust, support cultural mediation and contextual accuracy, and ensure stories return to the respective communities in meaningful ways. Learn more about the the Woman Farmer Project and our Knowledge Partners on The Locavore website—link in bio.

Have you contributed to our fundraiser for @VidyunOfficial yet? You can donate through the link in our bio! 🌻 We’ve now raised over ₹3.6 lakhs, and are working towards our goal of ₹6 lakhs to help sustain their Meals Programme, which will provide meals to 100 children for the academic year 2026–27. Every additional contribution will help strengthen and achieve this effort further, so please chip in and spread the word! Vidyun is a not-for-profit afterschool learning centre in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. They provide project-based education to children from the Rakhial neighbourhood, who attend the centre for free. It was founded in 2024 by Devki Gandhi and Vishnu Satish—two Teach for India alumni. Learning at the centre takes various forms: cooking new recipes, visiting museums, watching plays, organising open mics, group activities, and sharing circles. Read more about Vidyun’s work in our story ‘Making Well-rounded Nutrition Exciting at an Afterschool Centre in Ahmedabad’ by @YadhviShah on @TheLocavore.in website—link in bio. Illustrations by @Anugraha_3012

Behind every @LocalFoodClub.in gathering and event are people quietly making it all happen—our Super Locavores! 💛 They are our generous stewards behind the LFC community that keep it together with care, intention, and a whole lot of behind-the-scenes effort. From coordinating the smallest details, to making everyone feel at ease, they bring each LFC endeavour to life, and root them in collective action. Swipe to meet them, and get to know them a little better: — Punilrajsinh Solanki (@artpunilrajsinh ), LFC Ahmedabad — Nithin Samuel (@samuelspicks ), LFC Kochi — Vaishnavi Prasad (@thedeadlyidli ), LFC New Delhi — Omkar Narvekar (@thebombayinmumbai ), LFC Mumbai — Arpitha Bhat (@curdricechapters ), LFC Bangalore — Madhumita Pyne (@insomniaccook ), LFC Goa — Madhusmita Rawooth (@must.heard.lehsuns ), LFC Hyderabad — Rachit Keertiman (@chef_rachit ), LFC Bhubaneswar — Ayushi Sinha (@ayushi__sinha ), LFC Lucknow — Jayshree Rathi (@joey_shree ), LFC Kolkata — Arahant Jain (@chefarahant ), LFC Jaipur — Priyaranjan Singh (@sauteedstory ), LFC Pune — Adithya Krishnamoorthy (@synergyspeaks.in ), LFC Chennai Want to learn more? Check out the ‘Become a Super Locavore’ page on the LFC website—link in bio. Come, join us in Doing Good Through Food, Together! 🌱

Labour is everywhere within our local food systems, and the relationship between the two is far from simplistic. At The Locavore, we’ve tried to engage with this intersection in many ways: between what we eat, the work it demands, and who is left out in this process. The stories that have emerged along the way—which we’ve compiled for you in this reading list—are attempts to understand what this connection looks like across different contexts. They ask what it means to be fed within unequal systems and a rapidly changing climate, the implications this has on people and communities, and what we can learn from their stories and contestations Read our favourite stories on food and labour on The Locavore website—link in bio. Through the @LocalFoodClub.in ’s theme for this quarter, we’re taking a closer look at The Labour Behind Food—at home, in local communities, and the invisible spaces where this work often goes unseen.

Panel Discussion | Rethinking Diets: From Policy Decisions to Everyday Plates How does policy affect our diet? This panel discussion will bring together young minds, experts, and practitioners to explore how policies, food systems, and broader structural factors influence dietary patterns in India and beyond. 📆 2 May 2026, Saturday ⏰ 4pm-6pm 📍 Science Gallery Bengaluru For details and free registration, please visit the Programmes link in our bio. @JahnaviPhalkey

Balanced nutrition is a cornerstone of development, and a lack of a well-rounded diet affects concentration and learning capacity in those who are food-insecure. “Malnourishment is a big challenge in our community,” says Devki Gandhi, one of the co-founders of @VidyunOfficial , an afterschool learning centre in Ahmedabad. “When we see our kids, who are in the seventh grade, and compare them with others from different communities in the same grade, there’s a huge difference in their height or how they’re growing. All of this comes back to the food that they’re getting.” We see this trend across India: ultra-processed and packaged foods—typically high in fat, sugar, and salt—are increasingly replacing fruits, vegetables, and traditional diets. While there are government schemes in place to address this issue, many children are still rarely exposed to different kinds of food, and do not necessarily have a sense of what is considered healthy. @VidyunOfficial is hoping to change that with their robust Meals Programme. At present, they provide nutritious Gujarati snacks to around 40 children from the local Rakhial community. Here, food becomes a gateway to learning as well. Read more about how children are learning about nutrition, science, and food history along with their evening snacks in ‘Making Well-rounded Nutrition Exciting at an Afterschool Centre in Ahmedabad’ by @YadhviShah on The Locavore website—link in bio. You can help Vidyun sustain this programme for the academic year 2026–27—and extend their support to 100 children—by donating to our fundraiser through the link in our bio. Illustrations by @Anugraha_3012 Photos by @VidyunOfficial

What has working with women farmers taught you? And what do you hope for them in the future? 🌱 We asked this to the inspiring women behind some of our #TLpartner producers: Shikha (@itsashiklife ) from @OOOFarms , Fiona (@fionaarakal ) from @IshkaFarms , Arshiya (@arshiya_bose ) from @BlackBazaCoffee , Nina (@nina.k.patil ) from @UmraniFarms , Radhika from @Kuninda.in , and Senjuti (@sen_jhuti ) from @Earth_Story_Farms 💛 With the Woman Farmer Project—our new multimedia storytelling initiative—we are working on documenting and amplifying the lived experiences, knowledge systems, and everyday labour of women farmers. Particularly across three of India’s food landscapes: the hilly terrains of Meghalaya, the coastline of Tamil Nadu, and the drylands of Madhya Pradesh. Stay tuned for the stories that will emerge from the fields! Through collaborations between storytellers, grassroots organisations, and community distribution networks, the project explores new ways of telling impactful climate stories grounded in lived realities. The Woman Farmer Project is stewarded by @TheLocavore.in in collaboration with @TheDocSociety Climate Story Unit. Learn more about it on our website—link in bio.

The burden of cooking, meal prep, planning, and cleaning rests largely on the shoulders of women. In most homes, it is only women who have to navigate the daily chaos of the kitchen to prepare three meals a day to the satisfaction of every family member, usually the menfolk of the household. Our upcoming #BeyondThePlate session will be unpacking ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’, directed by Jeo Baby, and how it lays bare the patriarchal structures prevalent in an oppressor caste home in Kerala. It has brought to the screen the grinding labour that women perform in order to feed their families. Join Jeo Baby (@jeobabymusic ), Vijeta Kumar (@rumlolarum ), and Shubhra Chatterji (@historywali ) as they diver deeper into some of the themes of The Great Indian Kitchen. Swipe to learn more about them, and mark the date: 📅 Thursday, 30 April 2026 🕓 5:30 – 6:30 PM 📍 Online (Google Meet) 🎟️ Book your free spot—link in bio From its representation of the subservience expected of women towards the tastes and preferences of their husbands, to deftly handing the disgust around women’s menstruation—especially menstruating women being forbidden to cook—the film calls on us to realise that these nuances are not as hidden or invisible as they seem to be. This panel discussion is anchored in the @LocalFoodClub.in ’s current quarterly theme: The Labour Behind Food.

In Setting The Table: Stories From India's Food Cultures The Locavore (India) shares and celebrates the depth, nuance and living traditions of contemporary regional Indian food cultures. In the second story, discover the origins of Bengal's zero-waste cooking: where curdled milk becomes sandesh and fish is savoured from scale to tail. Words by @suman_quazi . Then, bring the practice to your own kitchen with Daata Chorchori, a stir-fry that transforms leftover vegetables into a delicious dish, perfect for Autumn. Recipe by @smokeandlime . Find more at 🔗 in bio. Images by @moulipaul

Our next @LocalFoodClub.in meetup is on Sunday, 26 April 2026, across 9 cities in India, and RSVPs are now open! April has marked the beginning of our new quarterly theme, The Labour Behind Food. This month, we are turning our attention to the labour closest to everyday life, across homes, kitchens, and the spaces we eat in. Together, we’ll look at food not just as something grown or bought, but as labour that is often invisible, repetitive, and deeply skilled—shaped by unequal systems. We’ll reflect on how these realities influence our choices, and how we might respond with greater care, awareness, and responsibility. On Sunday, 26 April, we are hosting LFC meetups in: — Bengaluru at @PureandSure.cafe (Jayanagar) — Bhubaneswar at @ODYSSACoffee (Patia) — Hyderabad at @fsm.italian (Jubilee Hills) — Kochi at @FrenchToastIndia (Kacheripady) — Kolkata at @Spiegel_Kolkata (Salt Lake) — Lucknow at @NaimatKhaneKaKhana (Qaiserbagh) — Mumbai at @UrestWomen (Mahim) — New Delhi at @FortCityBrewing (Hauz Khas) — Thiruvananthapuram at @LemonTree_tvm (Thycaud) Swipe to see the full list with more details, and join us in reflecting, questioning, learning, and Doing Good Through Food, Together. Sign up as a @LocalFoodClub.in member for free through the link in our bio