2 days ago
How restaurants, cloud kitchens ensure vegetarian or Jain food stays separate from non-veg items
Separate chefs, dedicated pots and refrigerators, and colour-coded utensils are some of the measures adopted by restaurants in Mumbai to prevent the mixing of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food.
It's around 4 pm on a weekday, and in a compact kitchen tucked inside Bandra's bustling Pali Junction, a team of five is deep in the rhythm of food prep. On the right side, a cook is busy cleaning and cutting chunks of chicken on a red chopping board, while a helper kneads dough. On the left, two young cooks slice vegetables on a green board and prepare a batch of smoothies. One of them keeps turning back to stir a red sauce simmering on an induction stove on the opposite end.
We're at Health and Beyond Nutrigo, a cloud kitchen launched last year that specialises in wraps, salads, steaks, and smoothies—served in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options. Dressed in a white rida, co-founder Fatema Asif navigates the activity with quiet authority.
Following a recent consumer court ruling that dismissed a compensation plea over a mix-up involving chicken momos allegedly delivered instead of vegetarian ones, The Indian Express reached out to restaurateurs to understand what systems are in place to prevent such errors. Asif, who studied food and research at Melbourne University and comes from the Dawoodi Bohra community—which follows specific dietary restrictions like halal meat and strict abstinence from pork—said she empathises with vegetarians and Jains who require absolute clarity about what's on their plate.
To uphold this sensitivity, Asif has hardwired safeguards into her operations. 'We have separate chefs for vegetarian and non-vegetarian orders to avoid mix-ups, especially during rush hours,' she said. One refrigerator is exclusively used for vegetables, paneer, tofu, and soy products. On one pan, a 'V' on the handle can be seen scribbled with a black marker. 'For vegetarian prep only,' she explained.
There was, however, no visible marking on knives and other utensils, and we noticed staff moving from one counter to another without changing gloves.
At Food Matters Group—the parent company behind restaurants like The Table and Mag Street, and delivery kitchens such as Iktara and Mag St. Bread Co.—segregation takes a slightly different form. There is a dedicated butchery and pre-preparation area, but the main kitchen is divided by workflow: hot, cold, pasta, and dessert sections rather than by vegetarian and non-vegetarian zones.
'It's more about what you're cooking than whether it's veg or non-veg,' said co-founder Gauri Devidayal. 'Our teams are divided based on skill sets, not dietary categories.' Still, the kitchen follows strict hygiene protocols that align with international standards. 'For example, some of our pastas contain eggs and some don't. They're made at the same station, but after each dish, the pan or utensil goes into the dishwasher. Even if the same salad is being made back-to-back, the bowl is washed between uses,' she explained.
A rigorous labelling system further reduces the chance of mix-ups. Each container is marked with the item's name, preparation time, and expiry. Ingredients are stored in airtight containers or wrapped in cling film.
To ensure accuracy during service, a clear communication chain is followed: the server repeats the order for confirmation, it is entered into the system and sent to the kitchen, and once prepared, the dish undergoes a four-eye check—first by the chef, then a runner, and finally by the original server. 'This ensures the right dish reaches the right table,' she said.
Though all ingredients enter through the same walk-in and refrigerator, vegetarian and non-vegetarian items are always stored on separate racks. 'That's non-negotiable,' Devidayal added. 'Our central kitchen, which supplies to our outlets in Colaba, Lower Parel, Bandra, and Andheri—and to cloud kitchens in Byculla and Andheri—follows the same rule. For example, ham and cheese croissants are never packed alongside butter croissants, even during delivery. If one item is vegetarian and the other isn't, they go into separate boxes, regardless of whether our delivery box has space for both.'
At Iktara, their delivery kitchen in Colaba, known for kebabs, biryanis, and rolls, every dish is prepared in a dedicated pot.
Mrigank Singh, culinary director at All In Hospitality, the company behind HyLo and The Dimsum Room in Kala Ghoda, said, 'Anybody pushing out 200 plates a day runs the risk of making a mistake.'
While having separate kitchens isn't feasible in a city like Mumbai, Singh said they minimise errors through strict segregation protocols—separate utensils, refrigerators, knives, and colour-coded chopping boards. 'Green is for vegetables, red for meat, blue for seafood, and white for finished products. The red and blue boards are largely used in our separate butchery, so there's no mixing or cross-contamination.'
At The Dimsum Room, where the variety of dumplings is vast, Singh said extra steps are necessary to prevent confusion across the chain. 'We use stickers on the baskets that carry dimsums—white for chicken, green for vegetarian, and orange for pork. These stay on from the steamer to the table,' he said. Since many of the dimsum wrappers look identical, they also vary the pleats to help staff identify them visually.
When dishes look similar, subtle tweaks help. 'We have two kinds of buns—one with pork, the other with cheese and corn. They look the same from the outside, so we use a standard glaze for the vegetarian bun and a reddish one for the pork bun.'
A similar approach is applied to thukpa, a Tibetan noodle soup. 'If there are four orders and only one is non-vegetarian, we garnish the vegetarian bowls with coriander to distinguish them,' Singh explained.
This is a practice followed by most restaurants, including Davidal's The Table, where similar-looking dishes like different kinds of pasta or dimsums use distinguishing markers, like shape or garnish, for easy identification. 'For example, our Shiitake and shrimp dumplings look alike, so we garnish them differently,' she said.
Currently, The Dimsum Room operates with a 250 sq ft kitchen and HyLo with 450 sq ft. Singh shared that they plan to set up a central kitchen as they expand. 'With more space, we could create separate zones for different types of prep, which would help us raise the bar on hygiene and efficiency.'
When asked if a vegetarian or Jain guest has ever been mistakenly served a non-vegetarian dish, Singh answered with honesty: 'It has happened. Sometimes in the rush, either the kitchen or a server makes an error. It shouldn't—but it can.' In such cases, he said he or the restaurant manager goes to the table to personally apologise, waive the bill, and invite the guest back. 'Afterwards, we try to locate the black spot in the system and fix it.'
Restaurateur Anjan Chatterjee, founder of multiple restaurant chains including Mainland China, Asia Kitchen by Mainland China, Oh! Calcutta, and the delivery brand Haka, shared that he has strict SOPs in place and the company makes sure they are followed to the letter.
'What we did right from the beginning was put protocols in place and invest heavily in training. We even have an in-house training centre in Kolkata,' he said, adding that every restaurant operates with two teams—the front of house and the backend. 'While customers interact with the front, they trust us with what happens at the back. That trust is our responsibility.'
At his restaurants, the kitchen layout, he emphasised, has 'clearly defined zones for vegetarian and non-vegetarian preparation, and a small NONG (no onion, no garlic) section for Jain customers, since we usually have 8–10 Jain items on the menu.' Each zone, he maintained, is equipped with its own set of woks, fryers, utensils, and dedicated team members. Even the refrigerators are separate.
To reduce confusion further, his restaurants use simple visual cues. 'We use a carrot symbol on non-vegetarian platters and a broccoli symbol on vegetarian ones to help our servers distinguish at a glance,' he explained.
The challenge, he admitted, increases with deliveries. 'Delivery mein gadbad hoti hai jyada (mistakes mostly happen in delivery),' he said, highlighting the pressure created by food aggregators to dispatch orders at breakneck speed.
'That's because of the immense pressure to push out orders quickly.' In response, they've implemented a maker-checker system. 'Now, there are two teams—one to prepare the food and another to double-check it before it goes out. That's helped us bring down errors significantly.'
Sagar Daryani, CEO of Wow! Momo and president of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), said there are guidelines in place by the FSSAI and FDA, and that every established operator abides by them. 'There are also standard industry practices that food operators have adopted—not just segregation of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food, but also keeping in mind other dietary preferences and allergens, as well as using separate fryers, steamers, induction cookers, and utensils,' he said.
At Wow! Momo, he said, there are three central factories in Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata. At each of them, either vegetarian or non-vegetarian momos are prepared at different stations or during different shifts. 'Furthermore, different momos have different shapes and trays to minimise errors. We also have separate fryers and steamers, and our kitchens are visible to guests,' he noted.
'F&B is a very tough and hands-on operation. It's not that mistakes don't happen—they do. What's important is that we learn from them and ensure they aren't repeated. At the same time, numerous fake complaints and compensation claims are being made. We just won such a case in the Bombay Consumer Court, where six lakh rupees were being demanded from us. We fought it, submitted all the proof, including bills, and the court ruled in our favour,' he added.
