Gurgaon: At the kitchen of her Sushant Lok-1 house, 38-year-old Loveleena Goel now plans every meal around how much gas is left in the cylinder. The home chef, who has run a small catering service for neighbourhood families and gatherings for five years, is among many small food entrepreneurs in the city struggling to keep their kitchens running. The disruption has forced her to cut the number of orders she accepts.“I have already booked LPG cylinders a couple of days ago, but they have not been delivered yet. At the moment, I am managing with a backup cylinder. Once that finishes, I don’t know how I will manage. There is no clarity when the next refill will arrive,” she said. She recently declined a party gathering of 25 people and has limited the services to a few long -time customers.”I have cut down the orders to almost half. I need to ensure there is enough gas left for my household as well,” she said.Home chefs say the crisis has created anxiety among small operators who depend on LPG to run their kitchens. It has made planning daily operations difficult.Maneka Anand (48), who runs a home-based kitchen service in Ardee City for the last eight years, said the irregular supply made accepting new orders tough.“Cooking in my kitchen entirely depends on LPG. If cylinders are not available on time, it becomes very difficult to plan meals. I have stopped taking new orders except for emergency ones. Normally, a cylinder would last for 15–20 days. But now, everything depends on when the next refill will arrive,” she said.With gas cylinders becoming harder to secure, some have even started experimenting with alternative cooking methods to keep the kitchen functional. Vandana Marwah, who runs a home-based kitchen in Sushant Lok-2, said, “I tried switching to other modes of cooking such as induction, microwave and air frying to manage the situation, but traditional cooking on gas cannot really be replaced. I won’t shut my kitchen because many people depend on me for their daily meals. Even if I have to buy a cylinder at a higher price, I will manage somehow to keep the kitchen running.”
