For the Régis Marcon trophy, each Michelin-starred chef was paired with a chef from the Constance Hotel portfolio via random lots, drawn at a celebratory welcome dinner. Rob was partnered with chef Rohit Niranjan from the Constance Lemuria Seychelles, and they worked as a team to develop two dishes, which Rohit alone would ultimately cook during the final competition. For each dish, there were certain local ingredients which had to be incorporated; the first course would include wild shrimps from Madagascar, taro leaves and tamarind, while the second would be focused around sea bass, aubergine and a spice blend made using a traditional roche cari (Mauritius’ answer to a pestle and mortar, which uses a cylindrical stone roller to crush the spices).

The requirement to use these specific Mauritian ingredients and techniques made for a fascinating dynamic within each of the chef teams. Whilst the Michelin-starred chefs like Rob were all of course experts on the likes of flavour combinations, plating and time management, they needed to lean on the knowledge of their fellow team members when it came to understanding the local produce and flavours they were less familiar with. ‘I honestly think that one of the most interesting things about being a chef,’ Rob explains to me, ‘is that you can learn from anyone, whatever their age or experience. And there were a few things that Rohit showed me that I didn’t even know existed and hadn’t tasted anything like before.’ This element of collaboration was perhaps at its clearest as we followed the teams around Flacq market, where they had the chance to buy some of their produce for the competition. Careful discussions were had amongst the various teams whilst leaning over stalls spilling with herbs; taro leaves were pointed out by the local chefs, and varieties of aubergine were differentiated between, before the bags of produce were packed onto buses back to the kitchens.

Then began two full days spent in the kitchen, as the teams meticulously developed their dishes, experimenting with different ideas and getting to grips with the produce. One of the trickiest customers for all of the chefs proved to be the Mauritian speciality of taro leaves, which need to be cooked carefully and for a long of time before they're edible – when undercooked they can cause a slight burning sensation in the throat! ‘Rohit initially had this idea of making a roulade using the taro leaves,’ explains Rob, who during these two days was also having to prepare for The Deutz Trophy, a solo Champagne pairing competition that the Michelin-starred chefs were also taking part in. ‘We tried it out and realised that the taro leaves on the inside of the roulade weren’t cooking properly, so we had to scrap the idea and start again. That’s just part of the process though.’

Before the chefs knew it, the day of the competition was upon them and after a few final words of wisdom from Rob and his fellow chefs – he tells me that he was very specific on how Rohit should manage the pass when plating up his eight portions – it was all down to Rohit and his competitors to prepare their dishes within a four-hour time window. Once the judging panel, which included Régis Marcon himself and last year’s winner Romuald Fassenet, were in place, the dishes began to arrive alongside a cacophony of banging drums, claps and celebratory squeals. It was immediately striking how much variety there was on show despite the core ingredients being the same in each dish; shrimps were served both raw and cooked, taro leaves puréed and infused into sauces and sea bass grilled and cooked sous-vide. Rob and Rohit’s final menu consisted of confit shrimp with spiced chickpeas, taro leaves, tamarind sauce and curry leaves, followed by BBQ-spiced coconut sea bass, Begun Bhaji, provencal vegetables and salted capers (see images below).

After much tasting and deliberation, the team of Swedish chef Thomas Sjogren and Constance Prince Maurice’s Niraj Bisnauthsing were declared the winners of the competition thanks to a clever prawn tartare with tamarind crisps and Mauritian-style taro, and an elegant plate of grilled sea bass with fish bone sauce and a braised aubergine curry. For Rohit and Rob, meanwhile, who placed a commendable third, it sounds like the festival might not even mark the end of Rob’s role as a mentor. ‘I’ve said to him that if he’s ever in London, the door is always open for a trial shift at Luca,’ he smiles.

This was just one of many competitions running throughout the week, with events stretching across two hotels (Constance Belle Mare Plage and Constance Prince Maurice) and the multiple restaurants within them. The Pierre Hermé trophy followed a similar format but with six international pastry chefs pairing up with Constance pastry chefs to conjure up sweet creations including their take on a rum baba. The international pastry chefs were also tasked with creating an ‘Island Egg’ chocolate centrepiece, with Hong Kong’s Lok Him Yam ultimately taking home the prize for his exquisitely detailed, dodo-inspired creation. The Constance Café Gourmand trophy saw deftly crafted petit fours paired with Nespresso coffees, whilst the Jars Arts of the Table Trophy shifted the focus onto service and tablescaping. The wide-ranging talent on show throughout these competitions served as a refreshing reminder of the importance of every individual element of a high-end restaurant experience and the amount of work that goes into honing each of these very different crafts.

Game faces may have been on during the daytimes, but evenings at the festival saw the chefs collaborate in a different way altogether, as they donned their whites to cook a series of multi-hand dinners for guests and festival attendees. The most poignant of these was a tribute dinner hosted in memory of former festival participant and Bocuse d’Or winner Serge Vieira, where a pigeon main course was prepared by Régis Marcon himself (one of Vieira’s early mentors) and Pierre Hermé offered a truly remarkable take on a baba for dessert, served alongside Mauritius’ own vanilla rum. Nordic flare was then out in force the following night at another dinner, this time prepared by Ørjan Johannessen (Bocuse d’Or 2015), Michelin-starred Christopher Haatuft, and Sebastian Gibrand (Bocuse d’Argent 2019), as the likes of veal fillet and scallops were given discrete tropical spins.

The climax of the dinners however, came on the Friday night of the festival, when the six one-Michelin-starred chefs and six international pastry chefs were split into two groups to create two epic twelve-hand dinners. Having competed against each other earlier in the week, they now had to work together to serve up six courses to over a hundred covers. ‘That felt like the easy bit,’ laughs Rob, who took charge of the fish course at his dinner, serving up a bream dish topped with a beautiful sauce made from Rogn caviar. ‘Cooking food for that many people is what we all do day in and day out at our restaurants, so even if there was any competitiveness left over from earlier in the week, we were still all focused on working together to create a great meal.’ And a great meal it was too, as different styles from across the world came together to form a dinner that summarised the celebratory ethos of the whole week in a nutshell.

As the 2024 festival drew to a close, although prizes were of course handed out to winners and Champagne corks were popped, the resounding feeling was that the week had been a celebration of the entire industry, rather than of individuals. And it’s this spirit in which Constance Culinaire is held that makes it stand apart from so many other food competitions and festivals.