Chaitanya — Assal Malvani Bhojangruh began the way most lasting things do: out of necessity with no margin for failure. It was a love marriage, opposite castes. The families cut them off. Surekha and Nitin Walke had one small space in Malvan, and each other. Nitin loved how Surekha cooked. He kept saying: “How good would it be if other people could eat like this”. A friend pointed out an empty space. They collected broken furniture, hung a sign, and called it Chaitanya — after Nitin’s younger brother. The name also means happiness. “Chaitanya is found after food,” Surekha, 65, told us when we met her at the newly launched Thane outpost, designed like a home.That was 35 years ago, in 1992. Back then, she says, nobody was precisely naming the cuisine. Nitin added the tagline himself: Assal Malvani Bhojangruh. They started with three thalis — chicken, fish, veg — priced at Rs 30, Rs 50, and Rs 15. From the first day, fish curry, sol kadhi, and rice were unlimited. “This is what Malvani people eat,” Surekha said. “Rice, curry, sol kadhi. That’s it.”She also wanted to serve tikhala, a rustic, thick fish preparation with coconut and tirphal (Sichuan pepper), in thali format, which nobody was doing. “Many people don’t like it because it has a very different flavour. But if you are a true fishtarian, you will love it.”Business was slow but steady. Four or five people some days, nobody other days. Then in 1993, the state government organised a teachers’ seminar in Ratnagiri. Teachers from across Maharashtra came, and many made their way toward Malvan and Goa. Malvan barely had a place to eat. For eight days straight, Surekha — nine months pregnant with her son Mitra — cooked from 6 in the morning until 2 at night. Five hundred to six hundred people a day. No gas stove, coal. Her elder daughter Sayee, then barely eight years old, washed utensils. Two workers made chapatis. Nitin handled the front. She ran the kitchen.“Malvan tourism started from that time,” her son Mitra shared, adding that prior to that, Malvan was known for its port and rice market. Chaitanya was at the centre of Malvan when it happened. Tisrya bhujane, a clam preparation in onion, chillies and coriander topped with coconut and kokum; A fish thali at Chaitanya. (Photo: Special Arrangement)Mumbai happened in 2010. A well-known Malvani figure, Jyotirbhaskar Jayantrao Salgaonkar of Kalnirnay, had been urging her for years. She found herself a 300 sq ft space in Dadar, opposite Shivaji Park, and started with home delivery and a parcel counter. She knew the kitchen; she didn’t know the front. She learned licensing and vendor management from scratch, eventually did a business literacy course, wrote SOPs, parted ways with a partner, and turned the space into a 13-cover restaurant. It took four years to stabilise.When she moved to Mumbai, she brought fish and coconut from Malvan. The food still didn’t taste right. Then she remembered: her father used to bring water from the hills to cook chicken. She started bringing water from Malvan — 10 litres a day, every day, for two years — just for the fish curry and sol kadhi. Eventually she studied the difference. Malvan has hard water, high in minerals. She figured out how to compensate — sea salt, adjusted mineral content — and replicated the taste. “Now, when villagers come here, they say: you don’t get such good food even in Malvan.”Story continues below this adTwo decisions changed the business. In 2014, she listed on Zomato when it was still a discovery platform, not a delivery app. The same year, on her son Mitra’s suggestion, she hired an accountant. “I told myself: I will eat rice and dal and spend the rest on him. But I will keep him.” Once the accountant came in, she could see monthly breakdowns — food cost, fish cost, vegetable cost, expenses. She could see where to focus. Queues started forming. Media coverage followed. She moved to a bigger space near Siddhivinayak, now seating 38. Chaitanya – Assal Malvani Bhojangruh was started by Surekha Walke in 1992. She brought the brand to Mumbai in 2010 and her son Mitra Walke joined her in 2017. (Photo: Special Arrangement)In 2017, Mitra, a hotel management graduate, joined the business. He brought systems, software, and a specific philosophy about staff: 8.5-hour shifts, proper weekly off, good salary, insurance. Today, 350 people across Chaitanya have PF, accidental and health insurance, 50 paid leaves, and one annual trip. In 2019, Navachaitanya opened in Andheri. Last month, Chaitanya opened in Thane — 1,600 sq ft, 85 covers, Wednesday to Monday.Across all three locations, Chaitanya now serves about 1,200 thalis a day. Dadar is the highest-volume: 400 on weekdays, 450-500 on weekends. Roughly 14,000 coconuts arrive from Malvan every month. Their suppliers have been constant. Surekha’s rule: the vendors who extended credit when she had nothing don’t get dropped no matter how big the operation gets. What Surekha has also done is build a community of women — she taught one lady in Dadar how to make modaks, and desserts for Chaitanya are prepared by her now. She put together a community kitchen in Malvan where spices are prepared and roasted coconut processed.On the day we visited — a Monday, when most Maharashtrians abstain from meat — the restaurant was full. Surekha moved from table to table, asking how the food was, showing a guest how to eat crab. Leave the fork and knife, use your hands, she said. For tisrya bhujane (a clam preparation in onion, chillies and coriander topped with coconut and kokum), she would ask you to take it near your lips and scoop it out with your tongue. We obliged, it was delicious.Story continues below this adMeal for two: Rs 1,200Where: Centrum Business Square, Wagle Estate, ThaneWhen: Wednesday to Monday