Diner Sheshe

"As a child, I had the rare opportunity to experience two different cultures - my mother's from Hungary and my father's from Colombia. Growing up in Bogota, I would spend every Saturday at my maternal or paternal grandparent's house and that's heavily influenced who I am today. I would love the smell of different things cooking, I would hang back and ask how flavors combined and I guess it was somewhere around the age of 10 that I decided I would become a Chef.

I've always been a planner - I've planned every last detail from my education, to my back up options, to the apartments I've wanted, to the ideal job. I was studying in Paris in 2008 when I met Pooja, who was into dessert making, while I was inclined more towards the savory. College went by, but a few years later, I randomly bumped into Pooja again in Paris. She'd been hugely successful with Le15 in Bombay, and she said she had an exciting project for me as well- so 5 years back I came to Bombay for 3 weeks but the project was unsuccessful and I returned to France.

Last year, she called me again and said that she'd found a place and everything was set, but I had no intention of coming back to India. For months, I had no intention of ever coming back but I don't know what you'll call this but sometimes life just propels you in a certain direction and you have to act on it. Around the same time, my partner and I had a fall out and our restaurant business split up.

That's when I thought I would come to India for 2 months, help Pooja out with her new place and leave. But then life happened, and everything around me began to shift to the point where, I still don't know but I never ended up leaving. I fell in love with the place - the culture, the people, the city. I mean I have so much to learn, so much to discover about food, it's ridiculous. And it's the people who've made the most impact on me - they're beautiful, inside out. One of the boys who works with me in the kitchen watches English movies, just so that he can learn English and become a Chef - and he does it with a huge smile on his face…where else can you find that? (excerpt)