It’s that time of the year! Feasting on traditional multi-course meals laid out on fresh banana leaves defines the Onam celebration for revellers. Salt goes down first, followed by banana chips and sharkara-varatti, a sweet Keralam snack made from thick chunks of raw Nendran banana plantains, and pickles of raw mango or puli inji, a sweet-sour-spicy condiment made with tamarind and ginger paste, follows. Then comes the pachadis, a sweet-sour yogurt-based side dish with coconut paste as base; and kichadis, savory, tangy, curd-based side dish.This is before the vegetable dishes gradually find their designated spot on the leaf — olan, a mild stew made out of ash gourd; erissery, a curry made out of yellow pumpkin; or koottukari, a thick curry made with vegetables, black chickpeas and roasted coconuts; avial, a mixed vegetable dish, and thoran, dry vegetable stir fry. Only then does rice arrive, first with lentil or parippu curry and ghee, eaten with crushed pappad, followed by sambar, then rasam. Finally, comes the dessert — payasam, sweet and thick against the tongue.Tradition on a platterOne of Delhi’s oldest Onam Sadhya caterers, Gopalakrishnan Nair, who is now 74, came to the city at the age of 19. His love for cooking and passion for serving Keralam’s tradition on a platter gradually turned him into a foodpreneur. For more than 20 years now, he has been serving Sadhya meals for weddings, and during Onam celebrations. What started as a small business in 2005 has now been shaped into Taamra Weddings, which Gopalakrishnan runs with his son Sajeev, a hotel management graduate, serving thousands of customers across Delhi-NCR.Every year, Gopalakrishnan serves Sadhya to thousands of people on Thiruvonam, the culmination of the 10-day Onam festival, at the Uttara Guruvayurappan Temple in East Delhi’s Mayur Vihar Phase-1.Sadhya for Onam demands its own rhythm, he says. “Onam is not just a festival… It’s an emotion. Anywhere in the world, even if just three Malayali families come together, it is celebrated with huge vigour,” says Gopalakrishnan. For him and his staff, the work to prepare the Sadhya meals for thousands begins on the eve of Thiruvonam. Around 4 pm, his team begins chopping vegetables and preparing the ingredients needed through the night.The ingredients come from different parts of the country. “The banana leaves come all the way from Tamil Nadu… the banana chips and sharkara varatti from Keralam, from Thrissur and Palakkad. Vegetables like ash gourd are sourced in bulk either from Azadpur, Ghazipur or Kalkaji markets in Delhi,” says Gopalakrishnan.At a large feast, guests are seated in batches, or panthi, with around 125 to 150 people eating at a time. Once one batch finishes, the team has about 20 to 25 minutes to reset before the next group arrives. All this while, the team has to be wary of showers as Onam falls during monsoon.Kitchen callingStory continues below this adGopalakrishnan says he has mastered logistical precision over decades — his journey into catering began when he came to the Capital in 1970. A resident of Athani, a small town in Angamaly, Keralam, he was the eldest of 10 siblings. He left home in search of work, in order to look after his family. “One of my seniors from school and a dear friend was working in Delhi. So, I wrote to him to find me a job. I was young and eager to do anything. I packed my bags and boarded a train to Delhi. I didn’t even know the local language back then,” he recalls.His friend, Parmeswaran Nair, helped him find a job as a cook at an eatery in Defence Colony. “Even though my father owned a small hotel back home, I did not know much about cooking. But I knew I had it in me to learn how to cook. In a span of a few days, I learnt how to cook Dosa, Vada and Sambar,” he recalls, adding that he was gradually hailed as “Dosa Master”, having perfected the recipe within a week.He adds, “There were no mixer grinder in those days. I had to grind the batter by hand on a stone. Before the shop opened at 7 am, everything had to be readied… sometimes my day would start at 4 am.”Eventually, Gopalakrishnan entered the corporate world. For many years, he worked as a salesman with a firm linked to a Japanese brand. But the kitchen kept calling him back.Story continues below this adIn 2005, he started his first business venture, Pooja Caterers, which then became Taamra Weddings. Initially, he managed his job with the business, before eventually choosing catering full-time.The orders grew from weddings and receptions to institutional kitchens. In 2010, he opened Kairali Restaurant in Mayur Vihar Phase 1, which became known for its biryanis and home delivery.It was his son Sajeev who suggested that they close the restaurant and concentrate entirely on large-scale catering. At present, the father-son duo work on events that can involve thousands of people.Gopalakrishnan relies greatly on his core team, including a head chef and helpers on most days. But for a gathering of 1,000-2,000, the number of people preparing orders may range from 15 or 20. He hires chefs, cleaners and helpers through a network of people he has worked with over the years.Story continues below this adFor him, the meaning of the Sadhya goes beyond the scale of the operation. He remembers the celebrations when he was a young boy from Atham, the first day of Onam, to Thiruvonam, and believes the real pleasure of Sadhya is still in sitting on the floor with family — with the children and grandchildren, coming together to eat from banana leaves.“The elders in the family would buy new clothes for the children. We would wake up on the morning of Onam and make pookalam (floral designs) on floor. The arrival of the month of Chingam after the difficult month of Karkidakam (final month in the traditional Malayalam calendar, usually falling between mid-July and mid-August during the peak of the monsoon) brought a sense of abundance and happiness.”Scene across Capital Delhi, meanwhile, has learnt to make room for the feast in its own way. As Onam approaches, restaurants and food businesses across the city offer Sadhya menus, bringing versions of the banana leaf meal to people who may not have the time, space or family network to cook all the dishes at home. At Cafe Lota in New Delhi, the training itself became the story.“Our five-chef team spent 15 days in Kerala,” says Chef Vinod Dani, explaining that two chefs stayed, “in Mararikulam village to learn authentic, home-style recipes directly from local women, while the other three studied bulk-cooking techniques in Ernakulam.” That two-pronged approach, he says, is what lets the kitchen serve thousands without losing the “home-style flavors” of a village kitchen.Story continues below this adAt Sana-di-ge in Chanakyapuri, Chef Sukesh Kanchan adds that his team also travels to Kerala each year to source ingredients and refresh technique. The Sadhya menu at the restaurant also includes dosa and poori alongside the traditional pappadam, his reasoning is simple, “We added some dishes in order to adjust it to the local taste palette,” he says.