India's Next Gen Chef: Rohan D'Souza

Goan chef, Rohan D’Souza has earned the sobriquet ‘conductor of gourmet symphonies’. Maria Louis meets the chef for the first in our series on India’s underrated culinary masters.

- Maria Louis 

Swaying palms gently stir the balmy tropical air as the waves play hide-and-seek with the bare feet of beach lovers in the distance. The tableau of human life can be entertaining when you visit the Juhu sea-facing eatery Estella before sundown, but as the drama unfolds in cinemascope, there can be nothing more riveting than the setting sun. No wonder food takes centrestage only after dusk has settled in.

Seated under a starlit canopy, it dawns on me why the fine dining restaurant is named Estella— derived from the old French form of the Latin Stella, meaning star. As a seafood enthusiast, modern Australian cuisine appeals to my taste buds and I am prepared to be amazed. After all, what could be more appropriate than feasting on seafood when you have the salty sea breeze in attendance? I was a tad dissatisfied that night, but the blame rests squarely on the dry John Dory.

Having recently holidayed in Melbourne, that haven of global cuisine where fresh seafood is swimmingly easy to source, I hoped for a procession of crustaceans and snappers of varied hue courtesy Chef Rohan D’Souza, better known as a conductor of gourmet symphonies. Sadly, the choice was limited and disappointing—though the vegetarian fare was delicious and the meaty bites both hearty and arty.