ALIMENTO - THE TABLE
Alimento - The Table is the Cocuzè way of designing for everyday nourishment - where food, hosting, and nature meet at the table
Why It Began
Food shouldn't be a chemistry project. We were seeing "beautiful" plates that didn't taste alive. A lot of food was grown with heavy chemical inputs - pesticides and synthetic fertilisers - so crops were rushed and flavour thinned. Produce was picked unripe, stored and shipped for days; by the time it reached the kitchen, it had lost scent and bite. Out-of-season food was forced to grow, then over-handled to look perfect. The result was tired food that can tire the body too: full plates, little joy. We wanted food to taste like itself again - fresh, seasonal, and minimally handled.
How it started
We went backwards. Permaculture showed us that a good meal starts long before a flame: where the sun travels, how wind moves, what a wall breathes, the patience of soil. When a home works with nature as a quiet partner, food stops performing. It arrives honest. It needs less. It tastes like itself.
The Purpose
Alimento - The Table is about everyday nourishment. Fewer steps, better ingredients, shared meals. Real food, cooked simply, enjoyed often.
How it fits our home design
In Cocuzè homes, nourishment - and the table - are part of the plan. We use permaculture principles to make room for growing and good cooking: kitchens with daylight, airflow, and space for planters; storage for real ingredients, not clutter. The table sits at the heart of the home, with warm light and easy seating. The room supports conversation, not noise.
How you can join
Come be part of this. Share your wisdom. Collaborate. Teach. Learn. Help build an ecosystem of growers, makers, and mentors. Host a workshop, or join one. Add a recipe to Alimento - The Table. Show how you grow your food.
What lives on this page (and why you may linger)
We are going to educate on growing your food, to begin with Herbs, Vegetables & Fruits. You'll also see Hero Edible of the Month Feature - starting with learning to grow it, learn its moods, brew it, cook with it, place it where the sun makes the leaves glow, learn what not to do. Short, honest conversations. No jargon, only practice.
Be Featured: your dish, your table, your garden
Alimento is a shared table. We want to show how you cook, host, grow, and make space for nourishment at home - not just styled studio plates. in your voice.
The story
A short paragraph on the why - maybe it's your Nani's dal, a monsoon evening, friends over on a Thursday, or a salad you made from your balcony garden.
The recipe
Ingredients, clear steps, and how many it serves. Drinks are welcome too - your Nimbu Pani with a twist, a spiced coffee, a slow-brew.
The table you set
When we say "table," we don't just mean a dining table. An Indian low floor-sitting with thalis, a tray on a divan - all of that is a table to us. Send a photo of how you laid it out - vessels, linen, lamps, mats - and why you chose them.
From soil to table
If you've grown even one thing - mint on the sill, basil in a pot, tomatoes in a bucket - tell us in few steps how you did it. Imperfect is fine.
Photos
One hero photo (JPG/JPEG) of the finished dish or drink in natural light. If you have it, a wider shot of the whole setting with minimal editing.
We'll credit you when we feature it.
Begin where you are
You don't need a farm to live this way. Start with one change:
Open a window while you cook. Swap one vessel to clay, brass, cast iron and notice how heat and flavour behave. Place a small plant where your hand reaches often - and write down how you're growing it so you can share it here. Turn down the ceiling glare and eat by a warm lamp. Play on a Vinyl record, or any song that slows a room. Watch what happens to conversation. Watch what happens to you.
When a home learns to co-design with nature, food remembers how to be itself. And when food remembers, so do we.
Come grow, cook, set, and learn with us.
Join a small workshop if you like - on herbs & table rituals, on lime that breathes, on kitchens that move at human speed.
The door is open - Alimento awaits.
BASIL — Hero Harvest of the Month
Pot & mix. Use a 8 – 10 inch terracotta pot with a large drain hole. Fill with a light mix: Soil + coco coir + compost + a little sand.
Sun. Give 6–8 hours of direct light at a south/east window or a bright balcony. Rotate the pot twice a week for even growth.
Water. Water only when the top 2–3 cm of soil is dry. Soak thoroughly, let it drain.
Feed. Go light: compost tea or seaweed once a month is enough.
Winter made easy (Delhi-NCR & similar)
Bring basil indoors when nights dip below around 15 °C. Keep it by the brightest window, preferably a little away from cold glass. Water less - and only in the mornings. Use a small LED grow light for 12 - 14 hours. Before peak cold, root 2 - 3 cuttings as your backup plants.
