Every day in Mumbai 5,000 dabbawalas (literally translated as "those who
carry boxes") distribute a staggering 200,000 home-cooked lunchboxes to
the city's workers and students. Giving employment and status to
thousands of largely illiterate villagers from Mumbai's hinterland, this
co-operative has been in operation since the late nineteenth century.
It provides one of the most efficient delivery networks in the world:
only one lunch in six million goes astray.
Feeding the City is an ethnographic study of the fascinating inner
workings of Mumbai's dabbawalas. Cultural anthropologist Sara Roncaglia
explains how they cater to the various dietary requirements of a diverse
and increasingly global city, where the preparation and consumption of
food is pervaded with religious and cultural significance. Developing
the idea of "gastrosemantics" - a language with which to discuss the
broader implications of cooking and eating - Roncaglia's study helps us
to rethink our relationship to food at a local and global level.