Sreyasi Mukherjee
Project Lead
Sreyasi is a social anthropologist with a background in Geography and Political Science. She specialises in documenting the everyday lives of ordinary people living in marginalized geographies. As a decolonial feminist, her work at The Millet Revival Project is an exercise in participatory praxis through which she aims to amplify ways of mindful, sustainable living practised by indigenous communities across South Asia. Her favourite idea of fieldwork is through long conversations, best done over a shared meal.
Varnika Gangavalli
Climate & Policy Lab Lead
Varnika heads the Climate & Policy Lab at the Millet Revival Project. She is fascinated by nature, and is interested in ecological and agricultural research.
Fardeen Imdad Borah
Cooking Lab Lead
Fardeen heads the Cooking Lab at the Millet Revival Project. He is a talented writer and cook with a profound love for regional Indian cuisines. Obsessed with the stories and memories created around the dinner table, Fardeen spends his days immersed in learning about food, discussing it, or indulging in its preparation and consumption. He harbours dreams of exploring all corners of the world, meeting diverse people, and savouring every cuisine—within the realistic bounds of a lifetime. When not engrossed in gastronomic daydreams, Fardeen can be found playing the guitar and singing beneath a tree in a serene park.
Mukta Patil
Editorial Lead
Mukta heads the Editorial Lab at the Millet Revival Project. She is a writer and editor who works on stories that spotlight the intricacies of our food systems, and how they interact with the climate emergency, the environment, and people.
Raj Mishra
Resource Lab Lead
Raj heads the Resource Lab at the Millet Revival Project. Raj is a seasoned actor and theater director with over half a decade of experience in the arts. With his versatile acting skills, he has showcased his talent in three different languages and has graced stages with performances in plays like “Julius Caesar” at the Royal Opera House Mumbai, “12 Angry Men”, and most recently, as Larry in “Closer” penned by English playwright Patrick Marber. When not directing or delving deep into his characters, Raj is often on the move, seeking inspiration from various corners of the world. He views the world through the prism of food, culture, and societal attitudes, always striving for a richer understanding.
Ayesha Sayed
Research Volunteer
Ayesha is a development sector professional who is skilled in social impact consulting and enthusiastic about exploration of sustainable lifestyles. She is the co-founder of Bombay Fromagerie, an organic cheese curation and catering company. She is also a Senior Consultant at Sattva Consulting, and has been a Gandhi Fellow. She is a silver jubilee scholarship winner from Sophia College, Mumbai. Ayesha is currently based in Mumbai.
Rida Fatima
Research Volunteer
Rida is a final year student studying Culinary Arts at Symbiosis University, Pune. She has always had a keen interest towards regional, indigenous Indian cuisine. Her experience as a kitchen intern in the restaurant industry has mainly been in places that showcase diverse eating habits and locally grown, seasonal ingredients of India. Besides her work in the kitchen, she has also worked as a research assistant to her college professor, for his PhD, which revolves around making traditional Indian sweets with alternative sugars. She has also assisted with research papers, recipe and product development, and market research.
Hrithika Goswami
Research Volunteer
Hrithika has a background in Environment and Development (Master’s) and Geography (Bachelor’s). She is interested in working towards issues of livelihood and food security, and finding gaps in policy research. She currently resides in Delhi.
Harshika Baid
Research Volunteer
Harshika is determined to impact the world positively by using her voice for climate advocacy, and using her expertise to help consumers and businesses adopt sustainable practices with ease.
Palak Agarwal
Research Volunteer
Palak is a service designer. She has been working in different domains over the last few years but working towards sustainability and social impact has been the one that stuck with her. She is an innovative thinker and experimenter. She likes design research and solutioning, and creating interfaces and products.
Shubhangi Krishnan
Research Volunteer
Shubhangi is a data scientist with a keen interest in applying technology to social problems and engaging with public policy. She currently works in insurtech and software development to build economic resilience for farmers in the face of changing climate concerns.
Jyoti Vishnani
Chef Volunteer
Jyoti left her corporate career behind to pursue her passion in the culinary industry. She has worked with renowned chefs across the globe, and currently works as the Culinary Innovation lead for the Compass group. She was also leading the Cooking Lab for the Millet Revival Project in the first phase.
Ankita Jain
Chef Volunteer
Ankita runs a small kitchen based on millets called the Bicycle Kitchen focusing on breads and baked goods. She has also been a chocolatier for 15 years now.
Karan Gurbuxani
Chef Volunteer
Karan, 20, is pursuing his hotel management degree, and is currently in his third year. He loves to explore and understand food.
Padma Kumar
Chef Volunteer
Padma is a mum, early-years education entrepreneur, and a food blogger. A passionate cook, she can cook her way through any mood!
Rajat Mendhi
Chef Volunteer
Rajat Mendhi, aka @TheIncurableCook, ditched the corporate grind in 2018 for a life in the kitchen. As the chef & owner of Bombay Picnics, he brings ’90s nostalgia to life through curated picnics and weekend deliveries. Having hosted pop-ups at Baro, The Gratestate Dive, and Leaping Windows, Rajat also lends his expertise as a menu consultant to spots like Leaping Windows, Maka Zai, and Sunday Kitchen. A Le Cordon Bleu, London alum, he seamlessly blends his culinary skills with a touch of nostalgia.
Sharada Dhevi S
Chef Volunteer
Like the famous Julia Child, Sharada prefers to call herself a ‘home cook’ rather than a ‘Chef’ because of her love for spontaneity in cooking. A food enthusiast since birth, Sharada started cooking when she was 14 and there was no looking back! Her culinary passion lies in reviving traditional recipes with a contemporary twist, and she delights in incorporating seasonal, locally-sourced produce in innovative and imaginative ways. She proudly shares her cooking experiments on Instagram @adupangarai_aroma.
Sayani Sengupta
Chef Volunteer
Sayani is a home chef and caterer based out of Kolkata. She is passionate about food, learning and creating new recipes, and experimenting with food. Her work and recipes have been published multiple times on various digital and print media platforms.
Tejaswi Rathod
Chef Volunteer
Tejaswi is a driven sociology graduate who, along with her mother, co-founded a brand called Relic Treat using millets as its backbone. Their business is focused on producing wholesome millet flours, nourishing dry snacks, and delectable fresh millet-based meals with the goal of promoting both sustainable agriculture and good eating.
Jaspal Singh
Research Volunteer
Jaspal hails from a farming background. He has experience working with women-owned Farmer Producer Organizations in Kalahandi, Odisha, and has established a seed business for them. Currently, he is the driving force behind Gramya Ventures, a startup dedicated to optimizing the millet supply chain through collaboration with various stakeholders across the value chain.
Shivanghi Aggarwal
Research Volunteer
Shivanghi is a Service Designer based out of London.
Aditi Misra
Research Volunteer
Aditi is a young researcher looking to expand her skills in the field of environmental issues that incorporates viewpoints from social and natural disciplines. She recently completed her Master’s in Environment and Development, and is currently volunteering at the Millet Revival Project where she is an active member of the Resource Lab.
Hanish Srinivsan
Research Volunteer
Hanish is a shifty writer who has many interests and a few passions. Languages, dance, old and forgotten dishes, and the connection between food-language-identity-history tend to keep their mind busy. Unusually attached to walking, they often rely on daily promenades to develop ideas and pen them to paper. Eventually, Hanish would like to be a professor (of sorts) who creates curricula catering to experiential learning. Perpetually suspicious of the idea of work, Hanish hopes to author a life that involves less work but more creative labour—for themself and their loved ones.
Asha Rachel Varghese
Research Volunteer
Asha is a sales and marketing professional with a keen interest in a sustainable lifestyle, who would like to contribute to the causes she considers important.
Anjali Nair
Research Volunteer
Anjali works as a communications consultant in the public health space. She is a PhD scholar in linguistics, and has worked with indigenous communities to document lesser-known languages. She is also a member of an ecological collective that engages in studying climate resilient practices prevalent among indigenous communities in India. She is a part-time storyteller, full-time dreamer, and lover of all things that come from her grandmother’s kitchen.
Thomas Zacharias
Chef & Founder
Thomas is a chef with nearly 15 years of professional cooking experience, and arguably a lot more if you count the early start he got in his grandmother’s kitchen in Kerala. The first phase of his career was centered around European cuisine, starting out as a line cook at Le Bernardin, New York City’s famed three Michelin star eatery in 2009. But in 2014, a culinary expedition across India made him rethink his entire approach to food. He went on to helm the kitchen at The Bombay Canteen as Chef Partner, finding inventive ways to showcase indigenous ingredients through contemporary regional Indian cuisine. In 2022, Thomas decided to bring together some of his passions—storytelling, working with local produce, and nurturing connections between people within the Indian food system—and founded The Locavore to do good through what he knows best: food.
Zainab Kapadia
Head of Strategy & Operations
Based in Mumbai, Zainab has over ten years of integrated marketing communications experience. From startups to established companies, she has been an integral part of building brands, helping them grow exponentially, shaping their narratives, and telling their stories; because what is anything if it doesn’t have a story! To recalibrate her own story, she decided to shift her focus to two of her passions in life: food and travel. Being conscious and concerned about the issues within our food system, channeling her experience to push for positive change through The Locavore was a no-brainer to help shape the next chapter of her story.
Yamini Vijayan
Editor-in-Chief
Yamini is a writer and editor based in Bangalore. In the past, she has worked with The Deccan Herald, Pratham Books, and spent years in between helping set up children’s libraries across the country, and promoting reading for pleasure. She is the author of children’s books Stage Fright and Your Body is Yours. In her free time, she likes to escape to green spaces, take photographs, and watch crime shows. While Yamini is an extraordinarily mediocre cook, there’s very little that excites her more than storytelling.
Oishika Roy
Assistant Editor
Having always loved eating and practices around eating, Oishika first developed an interest in the social and cultural life of food during her degree in Sociology and Anthropology. Her prior experience in academic and policy research has contributed to her knowledge on how public systems function, and how best to study them. Now aspiring to be a food anthropologist, she hopes to work on contributing to a food system that is sustainable, cognizant of diversity, and begets tasty food.
Throvnica Chandru
Storytelling Intern
Throvnica is a writer and editor based in Chennai. She believes that expressing problems in words is the first step to finding solutions, and that’s why stories are important to her. Although she is still exploring her familiarity with words, they are her first refuge when the world seems vast and overwhelming. Currently working in the food space, she believes storytelling is the best way to bring forth the country’s ingenious ways of sustainable food and life. When she’s not on her laptop crafting stories, you will find her trying to better her chopping skills in the kitchen or attending dance classes.
Shreshtha Chhabra
Producer Partnerships Lead
Shreshtha is a researcher and writer with an inclination towards the food-art-community nexus. Her academic research on food and gendered associations, which aimed to trace the implicit divisions in the practice of food and cooking in the Indian setting, has undergone international publication. As a culinary chronicler, she has worked with Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal and been a part of the editorial team of the Godrej Food Trends Report 2022. She aims to learn about food from the intricate perspectives of policy, societal impact, and collective sustenance.
Mayuri Nigam
Marketing & Events Lead
Mayuri is a seasoned marketing professional and has played pivotal roles in shaping their digital presence and marketing strategies at renowned companies such as Condé Nast India and the DAMAC Group, UAE. Her deep-seated passion for food culminated in the establishment of O’Aido, a Goan-Portuguese eatery located in Anjuna, Goa. Now resettled in Mumbai, Mayuri has merged her twin loves of food and storytelling by becoming a part of The Locavore. During her downtime, she can often be found sharing affectionate moments with her 15-year-old striking feline, Sake
Ashish Sharma
Digital Media Lead
Ashish is a writer and digital marketer from Kolkata. His love for food, travel, and the culinary craft led him to hospitality school a few years ago. Since then, he has helmed marketing positions in spaces ranging from EdTech, an experiential travel startup, to a bookstore & café. Being at The Locavore is a means for him to align and pursue some of his dearest passions: food, storytelling, conscious living, and creating meaningful change through synergetic, purpose oriented communities. He runs an Instagram blog called Breaking Down Music which champions independent artists, and he also swears by going for long walks–there is barely anything they cannot fix.
Ishna Kharbanda
Digital Media & Events Intern
As a dedicated baker and entrepreneur, Ishna has been at the helm of her own pastry business, Merylishious, for the past 8 years. She is fueled by a passion for food and continuously seeks to explore new culinary horizons, both within her kitchen and in foreign lands. Creativity permeates every aspect of her life, from painting and dancing to innovative content creation. When she’s not whipping up delightful treats or curating content, Ishna is in the gym, keeping herself active and invigorated. Her ultimate dream is to traverse the globe and immersing herself in the beauty of diverse cultures. And let’s not forget her beloved dog, JD, whom she cherishes deeply!