What does it take to prepare food for thousands of people every day? Is it state-of-the-art machinery? A lot of manpower? An endless supply of groceries or is it just pure hard work and dedication? Well, the answer is, all that and more. Here’s a sneak peak and some facts about some Indian mega kitchens that will give you some perspective he next time you struggle to cook instant noodles for 5 of your friends.

2. The Indian Railways caters to nearly 6 lakh people every day through their on-board pantry cars, base kitchens and vendors. A kitchen that stands out from the others is the Mumbai Central Base Kitchen of the Western Railway, which has won an award for excellence. It provides timely meals to approximately 2200 passengers daily. In the clean kitchen, everybody dons plastic hand gloves and caps and most of the tedious jobs are mechanized. There are machines that churn out 1,500 parathas every hour.