Iran war-linked LPG shortage hits Mumbai kitchens; restaurants rethink menus, slow-cooked dishes at risk

At Gypsy, whose fans include political leaders like Raj Thackeray, actor Nana Patekar and the late musical legend Lata Mangeshkar who celebrated her 75th birthday at the restaurant, the Limaye family is thinking of shortening the menu.

“We may take off items that demand prolonged use of gas, like roast chicken which needs to be cooked overnight or Peking duck. Or specialty items like Shingara sheera which needs 1.5-2 hours of cooking. For 40 years, our schezwan sauce has been made in-house but if the problem persists, we might figure out an alternative — maybe bottled schezwan sauce. My father (Rahul Limaye) is very worried about it,” said Aditi Limaye Kamat, adding that despite their decades-old relationship with the gas agency, supplies have not come.

Omaish Siddique, owner of New Edward Bakery, outside his shop, at Fort in Mumbai. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)

Some restaurateurs are trying to stretch existing cylinders and reorganise kitchen operations.

At the Prabhadevi-based Malvani joint Chaitanya Assal Malwani!, Mitra Walke — who also runs Nav Chaitanya in Andheri and Coast & Bloom at Kohinoor Square in Dadar — said his Prabhadevi outlet relies entirely on cylinders.

The restaurant typically uses about three cylinders daily, going up to four on busy days. But when Walke called his vendor on Saturday asking for four cylinders for Sunday considering it was Women’s Day, he was told he would get only two.

In Matunga, the iconic Sharda Bhavan has already trimmed its menu. The restaurant has stopped serving rava dosa and uttapams because “they take long to cook and consume more gas”.

Owner Ravi Rao said, “We currently operate from 7 am to 1 pm and then again 4 pm to 8 pm. We might shorten it if we don’t get cylinders tomorrow.”

Sharda Bhavan

The shortage is also affecting bakeries, many of which only recently shifted to LPG ovens following environmental directives.

“We shifted from wood-fired ovens to LPG ovens in December because of new guidelines against coal usage,” said Tara Raj, the third-generation custodian of Vienna, a 66-year-old bakery in Vakola known for its puffs, pattices and plum cakes.

Raj said the bakery typically needs three cylinders over two days. “On Friday, we placed our order… Our vendor told us that the cylinders will come today (Monday) but we are yet to receive them.” For now, she has shifted production to electric oven and started turning down small bulk orders.

Melwyn Dsa, who runs the century-old Bandra bakery J Hearsch & Co., said he was expecting cylinder delivery on Monday. “When we called the vendor, we learnt that they have been told to cut down on commercial cylinders,” he said and added that he needs at least three cylinders daily for the oven, fryer and cooking. “It was the government who told us bakers to move to gas,” he said.

Restaurants connected to piped gas have not yet been affected, but Kamat said many older establishments in traditional buildings rely entirely on cylinders and added that slow-cooked dishes like dal makhani could be among the first casualties.

She also warned that tandoor-based dishes could be affected. “Restaurants were also asked to switch from coal-based tandoors to gas tandoors. If the shortage persists, there won’t be tandoori roti with butter chicken.”

At Dadar’s Anand Bhavan, Preetesh Nayak said the restaurant has been trying to get cylinders for two days. “We have already switched a few items to electricity, like the idli steamer and bain-marie… We have been assured that the situation will improve by Tuesday or Wednesday. But if we don’t get cylinders by Wednesday, we will have to reduce the number of items or hours,” he said.

“The shortage came to light on Friday, and it is becoming challenging day by day. The future is very bleak,” said Vijay Shetty, president of AHAR, adding that the dealers have already increased the price. “The price of a 19-kg cylinder has gone up by Rs 120, which is an 8 per cent hike.”

He said that he has already written to Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, expressing the problems of the industry. “I am yet to hear from them,” he said, adding that he would also meet Chhagan Bhujbal, State Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection. “I am also trying to get an urgent appointment with BPCL and HPCL’s topmost officials,” he said.

In his letter to Puri, Shetty wrote: “We are writing to express our deep concern regarding ‘Clause No.3 of your direction which states All Public Sector OMCs shall ensure that LPG so procured is supplied/marketed solely to consumers of domestic LPG only’. While we understand that current situation is beyond control due to global geopolitical factors, any stoppage of PNG supply will have a severe and immediate impact on the entire hospitality industry.”

He further stressed that restaurants were considered essential services even during Covid, and yet their supply has been cut suddenly. “A cut of up to 20 per cent is okay but beyond that it is difficult for every restaurant. We, as an industry, give direct employment to 40 lakh people, and the indirect employment is to the tune of a crore… The city will come to a standstill if it persists,” he said, adding that every restaurant stocks cylinders depending on their size and capacity, but it is also risky to stock a lot of them.

The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), which represents the interests of over 5 lakh restaurants across India, also wrote to Puri on Saturday. It stated that any disruption of commercial LPG supply “will lead to a catastrophic closure of majority of restaurants”.

“This is severely impacting the restaurant industry and in turn supply of food as an essential service for citizens. We request urgent clarification / intervention,” the body tweeted on Monday evening.