Millet Meetup, Bhopal Edition
On a lovely Saturday afternoon in Bhopal, forty culinary aficionados came together for a celebration of millets, alongside themes of local sourcing, agricultural practices, and as always, some delicious eating! Our partner for the event, Cafe Amado, is a local gem nestled in the heart of the city. Founded by Chef Meenal Shejwar, this warm and inviting space was the perfect backdrop to host our first-ever Millet Meetup in the Central region.
The Millet Mixer, a collaboration between The Locavore and the Rainmatter Foundation, was hosted at the picturesque Cafe Amado in Bhopal. Photos by Pulkit Gandher.
This event, part of our broader Millet Revival Project in collaboration with the Rainmatter Foundation, showcases our commitment to promoting sustainable practices and celebrating local food cultures. We host these weekend events in a different city across India every three months, allowing us to engage with fellow locavores directly, enabling personal interactions, and creating long-lasting impact.
This meetup also included our staple Locavore Shuffle, a documentary film screening, and a potluck that showcased the incredible diversity of cooking with millets. It was helmed by ChefTZac, Cafe Amado’s Meenal Shejwar, and members of Samaj Pragati Sahayog’s Community Media Wing, one of India’s largest grassroots initiative that works in the central Indian Adivasi belt, and its founders Shobhit Jain and Pinky Brahma Choudhury.
As guests filtered in and registered, they walked past our millet profiles display, which allowed them to get a sense of the differences in the textures and tastes surrounding these hardy grains.
Then, to kick things off on a fun note, guests got to know each other over a round of The Locavore Shuffle, an interactive game we play at our events, that goes beyond run-of-the-mill introductions and dives deep into themes like food, memories, sustainability, cultural history, and what we love about cooking with millets.
The Millet Mixer, a collaboration between The Locavore and the Rainmatter Foundation, was hosted at the picturesque Cafe Amado in Bhopal. Photos by Pulkit Gandher.
After the Shuffle, we screened Chidiya, Pujara aur Solah Rala Chor (The Bird, the Priest and the Sixteen Millet Thieves). Directed by Milind Chhabra and produced by Samaj Pragati Sahayog’s (SPS) Community Media Wing, the film tells the story of rala (foxtail millet) and its disappearance from both the agricultural and cultural landscape of rural Madhya Pradesh.
Attendees watching Chidiya, Pujara aur Solah Rala Chor (The Bird, the Priest and the Sixteen Millet Thieves) by SPS Community Media Wing. Photo By Pulkit Gandher.
Farmers from Dewas district in Madhya Pradesh who joined us for the film screening, including Laxminarayan Devda, Seema bai Devda, Narangi bai Mandaloi, Prakash Mandaloi, Ganga bai Mehta, Jamna bai Bawnniya, and Chayan Singh Bawriya. Photos By Pulkit Gandher and Team Locavore.
Having farmers, and some protagonists from the film join us for the screening and the discussion made it all the more incredible for us! It’s not often that we get to bridge the gap between rural and urban, and find space to have conversations between consumers and growers directly.
Shobhit Jain, who translated for us from Nimadi and Hindi, spoke of how difficult it has become for farmers to continue growing millets because of several reasons—the loss of indigenous millet seeds, more lucrative crops taking precedence, and a loss of knowledge, especially about the nutritional and cultural value of millets. The film also illustrated some of these themes with the utmost care, patience, and beauty.
And then, it was time for food!
A Delightful Line-up Of Potluck Dishes Had Guests Going FOr Seconds. Photos by Team Locavore.
Our DIY Salad Bar, featuring foxtail, kodo, little millet, and barnyard millet, allowed guests to mix, match, and explore the many possibilities of millets. Photos by Team Locavore
The long table at Cafe Amado was laden with the most delightful potluck dishes, and a DIY salad bar cooked up by ChefTZac and Sayani Sengupta, the Cooking Lab Lead at our Millet Revival Project. There were four different types of millets that participants were able to try—foxtail, kodo, little millet, and barnyard millet. Along with these there were also distinct salad dressings—chimichurri, garlic yogurt, and a honey vinaigrette. The mix and match possibilities were simply endless.
We also sampled some delicious potluck offerings brought by an enthusiastic group of Bhopal Locavores, which included foxtail and sweet potato cutlets, jowar millet laddoos, kutki kheer, kodo pulao, ragi dhoklas, and barnyard aubergine. To top things off, Cafe Amado also curated some special millet snacks, including the peri peri foxtail millet lavash and sesame foxtail millet lavash, that were served with a chaulai dip and a bathua amla dip. We also got to taste their ragi and jaggery cookies with our tea and coffee!
After the event, several attendees came up to chat with us, and an overwhelming number of them said how incredible it was to have an event like this curated for Bhopal. The potluck, as it always is, was a huge hit. When asked what her favourite dish was, Archana Saraf, one of the attendees, said, “That’s a difficult one, because it was a tough competition. I just loved the breadth of it!”
For all of us at The Locavore, and for our partner, the Rainmatter Foundation, having conversations around the climate and engaging more people in climate action means infusing fun, conversation, and community into our events—and our programming with the Millet Mixer was designed to reflect just that.
Our intention is always for people to leave more enthusiastic about millets than they were when they arrived, and make these grains a part of their pantries—and this event, hopefully, was a start to that. Photo By Team Locavore.
At The Locavore, we love planning and executing events that highlight India’s diverse local foods, celebrating community, sustainability, and cultural heritage. Our events feature engaging workshops, discussions, immersive experiences and other formats that connect you to India’s rich food culture. Interested in collaborating or having us organise an event? Reach out at connect@thelocavore.in.
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