Someone rightly said, “Nothing brings people together like good sustainable food.”
We connect to a place through its cuisine. The most authentic way of slipping into the heart of a region is via its age-old legacy of food traditions, the fables behind the flavours, and most importantly the people who have made it available to you. More specifically sustainable food.
At Pugdundee Safaris, over the last decade and more; we have strived to keep regional authentic recipes alive. These are the recipes of the regions and communities we co-exist with, across our lodges.
Food is an integral part of travel. We believe that food isn’t just meant to satiate your appetite, but it’s one of the best tools to understand the true identity of a place. Food gives you unique insights into the culture that is distinctive to a place or region.
Our guests get to savour gastronomic experiences in a very different light – each platter from a Pugdundee kitchen is seasoned with freshness, authenticity, love, and sustainability. We believe a culinary experience is a serious business, and it can change people’s perspectives around food. Thereby, we set examples of incorporating sustainable value in our food menus.
We delight our guests with a variety of regional platters such as Baiga, Gond, Varhadhi, and Bhopali at our seven intimate jungle lodges. Panch Gaon Andar menu has been prepared, to keep the essence of local flavours alive. The idea behind serving regional cuisines to our guests is to persuade them into exploring the local, regional flavours of our country and the remarkable diversity that comes through these varied flavours.
Picture Courtesy: Chef Michael Swamy
Waste management in Pugdundee kitchens
Each staff member is trained to practice waste management from day one. We segregate our waste carefully to make it more useful for waste buyers. Our green waste goes to our in-house composting pits that churn out good-quality manure, which is used liberally in our kitchen garden.
Fresh and Sustainable
All our lodges’ guest areas are single-use plastic-free. We have done away with bottled water, tetra pack, small sachets, plastic straws, and a lot more. We ensure that the food you eat doesn’t come from tinned and processed items. We make our fresh tomato purees, and fresh juices, bake our bread, make ice tea from scratch using loose tea leaves, and grind coffee beans ourselves to ensure our guests are served clean, healthy, and fresh food options.
Many a time our kitchens will forego popular items as they do not adhere to our food philosophy. Canned mushrooms, fruit cocktails, imported fruits, and many other items are prohibited in our kitchen.
Our Organic Kitchen Garden
All our lodges have their own organic vegetable garden and an array of fruit-bearing trees. We grow herbs like wild mint, basil, and dill along with vegetables like tomatoes, pumpkins, carrots, radish, cauliflower, zucchini, and eggplant (brinjal); to name just a few.
A lot of leaves are also grown in-house like Iceberg lettuce, Swiss chard, spinach, Bok choy, and red Spinach/Chaulai. We also grow a lot of locally popular items like Lemongrass and Amari (Roselle). Our lemongrass not just adds flavour to the food you savour at the lodges, but also keeps the mosquitos at bay.
The beauty of fresh foods is that one can create and re-create recipes without losing touch with the source and origin of the food.
From breakfast dishes lovingly prepared from freshly plucked papaya from our garden to roasted and stuffed green heirloom tomatoes, pumpkin soups, or desserts using the vegetables and fruits harvested from our gardens; such is a regular day in the Pugdundee kitchens. None of these dishes are complicated. They are simple and draw inspiration from our rich food heritage and freshly sourced produce. These can be made easily in any kitchen if one were to simply heed the cooking process.
Meaningful culinary experiences
The culinary world does not stop at what you eat, but it includes how the food is served, including various presentation elements that speak volumes about the ideas and values behind it. We make food experiential for you in many ways—we don’t just limit it to taste and variety, but we create an atmosphere that lingers in your memories forever. At most of our lodges, you will be served food in handmade crockery, custom-made with motifs, traditional Kansa thalis, or earthen pottery.
Picture Courtesy: Chef Michael Swamy
In our distinguished Chef Michael Swamy’s words:
“Locavore, the concept and art of sustainability through food, the consumption of ingredients grown within a 100 km radius, was created by a couple in Scotland. Lately, using local ingredients to create regional cuisines and international dishes is evolving into a new range of culinary experiences. The slow food movement has seen chefs delving into recreating local dishes ensuring the guest’s new experiences.”
The “Panch Goan andar” menu inspired by the 50-mile menu concept is being created by Chef Pankaj at Pench Tree House. The local Maharashtrian cuisine from Nagpur is being served in the Vardha thali at Tadoba and beautifully presented by Chef Neerpal.”
“A similar concept is also undertaken by us with the Cooking Wild series, a movement initiated by me at lodges across India and abroad.
With global cuisines and people venturing out more, the concept of eating local is growing in leaps and bounds and pushing chefs to be creative and experimental, all at the same time.“
At Pugdundee, we have our experiential al fresco dining, which you continue to enjoy at all our lodges. Our very famous ‘bush dinner’ signifies coming together with nature, the perks of mysterious forest experiences and regional, authentic flavours cooked and served with a touch of culinary grace.
Our ‘farmhouse dinner’ transports you to a rustic realm – floors smeared with cow dung, mud walls with frescoes of wild animals and plant motifs, and corncobs or rice sheaves hanging from the ceiling during the harvest. The menu at the farmhouse dinner is the local cuisine, which is cooked using earthenware pots in a tandoor and an open Chulha. Two distinct flavours waft through the air – one from the earthen pots, the other is from the kind of wood used in the firing up of the tandoor. Village cooking is simple and uses basic spices and spice blends, which we serve lovingly onto your plate.
Picture Courtesy: Chef Michael Swamy
Picture Courtesy; Chef Michael Swamy
Food has the power to influence people. The more synthetic, packaged, or exotic it is, the more poorly it will be consumed, and the poorer impact it will have on the ecosystem and on its consumers. Travellers usually don’t connect to places where they are served what is usually expected, or what is known to them. The real journey is in the curiosity and exploration of cuisines—the quest for local flavours. What makes it worthwhile is the local, modest, and beautifully retained and food traditions that are carried forward.
When you are in awe of the food that you eat, you want to know the story behind it. From the moment food ingredients are grown or procured to the moment when they are served, there are values and ideologies entwined in the process.
Our very talented Executive Chef, Pankaj Fulera, Pench Tree Lodge says:
“I realised very early, the power food has with regards to evoking memories, in bringing people together, to transport one to other places. I count myself blessed to be part of these experiences as a Chef.”
“When I cook different recipes, I don’t just engage in the process of cooking a meal. For me preparing a meal translates to the process of making memories and is an emotional journey of joy and love. The deliciousness of the recipes; especially the old, regional ones, their aromas, flavours, and taste, together summon an unforgettable experience, irrespective of where I go.”
We delight in offering our guests a taste of local, and regional flavours and the food eaten by the village folks. Therefore, one of our menus is aptly named Paanch Gaon Andar sourced from the 5 surrounding villages around our lodges. Inspired by the 50-mile menu this menu, helps us cut back on our carbon footprint drastically while supporting the local farmers. What’s more, it offers our guests a taste of the locally gathered, fresh regional produce, while offering a taste of everyday rural village fare, that the locals like eating.
Read more in our upcoming blog post here.
This menu is lovingly prepared for our guests at least once during the course of their stay.
What Food Translates to at Pugdundee
- Fresh, sustainable, and locally sourced. We skip exotic, imported items and use what is locally and freshly available.
- We believe in reviving and retaining the timeless legacy of regional flavours.
- Our aim is to impact the environment and consumers positively; by staying local, sustainable, and unique, yet modest.
- Our traditional and exclusive food experiences include Bush and Farm dinners, the Paanch Gaon Andar menu (sourced from a 50-mile radius) offering a farm-to-table experience for our valuable guests.
- We take waste management, staying single-use plastic-free, processed food free; seriously, while keeping our carbon footprint to a bare minimum.
When your travel experiences are woven into local food stories, the aftertaste is usually more evocative. It brings you back to the same adventure and experiences.
The local connection with food makes you a more conscious and driven traveller. It helps you redefine your own travel choices. At Pugdundee we attempt to make this experience, unique and one-of-kind.
With global cuisines and people venturing out more, the concept of eating local is growing in leaps and bounds and pushing chefs to be creative and experimental, all at the same time.” – Chef Michael Swamy
Contact us for bespoke safari and enthralling food experiences.
Email: [email protected]
Call: +91-11-4013 6332.
Written by : Natasha Sinha
5 Gaon Andar | Sustainable Food | 50 Mile Menu
