The Solar Kitchen Solar Kitchen seating analysis With the capacity to cook 2,000 meals per day, with half its energy drawn from a giant mirrored solar dish embedded in the roof, the Solar Kitchen lives up to its name. Even at 50 per cent capacity, producing around 900 meals a day, the 'Kitchen' has reshaped the way Aurovilians gather and eat, and is an immensely popular place. 400 meals in the Kitchen Almost every weekday, the Kitchen sees on average 300 Aurovilians and guests queue up to eat a cosmopolitan buffet. The exact pronunciation lying somewhere in between, the word refers generally to a family of seasoned flavoursome vegetable sauces found throughout south Indian cuisine.
Drinks range from plain filtered water to hot hibiscus tea.
130 meals in outlying communities Besides the 300 or so who come to eat in it, the Kitchen also feeds around 130 people in outlying communities. These remote diners supply the Kitchen with a 'tiffin', a collection of interlocking cylindrical stainless steel containers designed to carry many different dishes simultaneously, which they collect and take home filled with food. The kitchen delivers a further 475 meals to Auroville's various schools and service centres, including the main grocery and domestic 'shop' Pour Tous. After 50 Solar Kitchen staff have also eaten, the average number of meals served daily by the Kitchen rises to roughly 900. The Kitchen asks anyone intending to eat there to book in advance.