SINGAPORE, January 25, 2015 (by Melody Zaccheus, NewsAsia): Hunched over trays in the kitchen of a Hindu temple, a platoon of 12 volunteers and four cooks would spend two back-breaking hours on Fridays and Sundays peeling pungent onions. But they will no longer shed tears, as a new machine in the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple’s kitchen has cut the time taken to peel 30kg worth of onions to just two minutes. It will also eliminate the need for volunteers for the task. The automated peeler is one of six new pieces of equipment in the 120-year-old temple’s new, state-of-the-art $500,000 kitchen.
The others include an automated vegetable cutter, an automated rice washer, and a combi-oven steamer that can produce 250 pieces of idli (steamed cakes) in 10 minutes. Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple’s president, Dr R. Theyvendran, said the new kitchen will help speed up cooking operations to serve some 1,200 devotees, including foreign workers, who swing by on weekends for free vegetarian lunches and dinners.Its vice-chairman, Mr Prama Ganeshan, added: “We can now cook more elaborate meals for the elderly and the needy.”
The machines were imported from places such as Germany and Taiwan, and a consultant from Gayatri Restaurant here was brought in for the project. The modernized kitchen is believed to be the first such facility in a temple here. The kitchen upgrade is part of a $4.5 million renovation throughout the temple’s Ceylon Road premises that started last August. All Hindu temples undergo renovations and repairs every 12 years to re-energize their Deities.